You know what yanks my Cord

…when I am taken advantage of by creepy people on the bus.
I am certainly not the only one who will venture into the world that is the Grand River Transit bus system with the hope of not having to deal with creepy people. Now, I really hope these people get help to turn their lives around, but in the meantime it would be nice if they didn’t touch me, or for that matter, spit when they are talking to me.

I do not mind having conversations with strangers — I think it’s interesting. However, this interest quickly degenerates into extremely uncomfortable situations when they decide to ask questions you do not want to answer, like where you live.

I had one such instance when I was making my way to the Fairview Mall. I got on a packed bus, so I was standing. I knew, however, that it was going to be a long bus ride so a seat would open up for me to take. When the opportunity arose I took it —worst decision I could have made.

I sat down beside a woman who had clearly just finished a long night of drinking and likely other activities and reeked as such. After a few minutes, I discovered that it was going to be very difficult to get over this smell, but I didn’t really have a choice.

After a few minutes, she finally said something to me, asking what the time was. That was certainly innocent enough I thought, so I proceeded to check the time only to realize that is was 4:20pm. This question was followed by rounds of more questions about me seemingly running on a loop because she could not remember the answer I had previously given. Did I mention that throughout this time she had been inching closer to me and intermittently put her hand on my leg? And that she would often spit on me when she was talking to me? Let’s just say that I was lucky it was the iXpress and not anything else.

I would like to thank my friends in this situation for doing absolutely nothing and enjoying every moment of my misery.

—Nick Gibson