Wednesday, March 26, 2008

we interrupt this easy-going blog for a bit of reality...

last night i was on my way home from having dinner with a friend in the city. i had driven to the commuter rail parking in my town earlier that morning, but when it was time for me to come home, it made more sense to take the T and then transfer to the bus at the end of the line.

i got off the T and there was a bus right there waiting so i quickly ran to catch it. i had my headphones on and was listening to my ipod, but per usual, i had the volume down low enough so that i could hear what was going on around me.

there was a 30-something, stocky man in the aisle of the bus, talking to the bus driver when i boarded. i had to excuse myself to get around him so i must have caught his attention. shortly after i passed him, the bus driver indicated that he needed to take a seat so he followed me down the aisle of the bus.

the bus was full, but not crowded and i spotted a seat near the rear exit of the bus. not realizing the man was behind me, i moved over into the seat closest to the window because that is proper bus etiquette around here. annoyingly, the man decided to sit down next to me and then he started trying to have a conversation with me.

he was clearly inebriated so i took off my headphones to be as alert as possible. i didn't want to make him angry by flat out ignoring him so i answered his questions in one word answers, although i did make it a point to say that i was headed home to meet my husband and he was expecting me.

and then a small miracle happened.

the woman sitting in the seat in front of us, turned around quickly, pretended she recognized me, and pretty much demanded that the drunk man switch seats with her because we were old friends. he protested a bit, but eventually moved. and i spent the next 10 minutes chatting with a complete stranger about where i had just had dinner. i wanted to tell her my name and i was able to slip her my business card.

there are three stops in our little village and the second one was where my car was parked. the man actually left the bus at the first stop, but made a point to say goodbye to me. fortunately, the stops are about 3 blocks apart, so i knew that even if he had been walking in my direction, he wouldn't have made it to the parking lot.

anyway, when i got to my stop i basically ran out of the bus, up the stairs and got into my car, locked it and sped away to my house.

i only had a very brief moment to thank the kind stranger who was alert enough to recognise my needing help and to act upon it. had she not, i probably would have kept riding the bus until the man left, however long that might have been.

i did give the woman my card and she mentioned she would check out my site, so i am hoping maybe she has read this and knows how truly, truly thankful i am.

ok...now back to our regularly scheduled inspired design.

3 comments:

SRH said...

I am impressed with how aware she was of what was going on. I actually have "street training" and I wouldn't have noticed and I probably wouldn't have had the foresight that that woman had.

Angel said...

What a wonderful thing she did for you, not only for safety reasons, but to help you out of an awkward situation. It's nice to know there are still such awesome people out there.

Anonymous said...

How scary to be singled out by such a guy when you were out alone at night. That woman is an angel!