a tale of a single serving friend

it would've never happened if i didn't decide to walk outside the office park tonight. but the bus stop that's 15 minutes away has a lot more buses passing by to take me home than that bus stop conveniently placed across the street from my office. it wasn't raining (yet) so walking i went.

when i got to the stop, it was starting to rain a slight bit. i went for cover under the stop where there was another dude waiting for a bus. most times when i run into a stranger at a bus stop, i try to keep to myself. it's the introverted part of me that doesn't wanna deal with other people and it's usually at its strongest after work.

(side note: i don't appreciate that side of me. i'd rather be the kinda dude who's always open and ready to meet new people. but every time i start to perfect that skill, something happens to discourage me... like just the other day i met some white douche who dropped an n-bomb on me... and that makes me hate people and assume that most of them suck and aren't worth getting to know.)

anyways....

this dude started to talk to me. he asked me if i knew if any buses were going to union city which is where i was going. so i told him eventually something would be coming, shouldn't be too long. he went on to tell me he usually drives to work but his car's in the shop and he'd just come from a bar where he had a few drinks with some friends. we chatted a bit back and forth, and then a bus came. we got on the bus and went our separate ways.

but we both had to get off at the same stop and we both coincidentally had to catch another bus (the 88 uptown). he told me all this as we were getting off the bus. i saw an 88 in the distance that we were probably gonna have to run to get. the rain had picked up a bit. we both looked at the 88 in the distance, looked at each other, and booked towards the closest bus stop.

we made it and we were both happy about that. he was happy enough to give me a high 5 about it. who was i to refuse this kind stranger a high 5? as the 88 approached he offered to pay my fare cuz i'd been so cool towards him. i'm glad i have a bus pass cuz that gave me a good reason not to take his money. it was a nice gesture, but i would've felt bad if we got into that awkward, 'i don't want your money,' 'just take the money, i want you to have it,' convo.

we got on to the 88 and sat next to each other. he told me he was on his way to go hang out with his mother for a while and then meet up with some other friends at a bar he used to hang out in when he was younger (he was probably about 40, i know this cuz we graduated from the same high school, he was class of 88). he lived in little ferry but he was gonna stay at his mom's for the night. my assumption is it made his commute easier since his car was in the shop. i found out his mom lived in the same building my grandma used to live in when i was a kid.

he got out around 51st street. we shook hands and off he went. seemed like a nice enough dude. i never got his name. i'm glad i opened myself up in this situation. it turned out well. single serving friends are cool. they're friends, if only for a few moments of the day, and they make those moments that much more interesting. i probably would've just checked facebook, read a book, or stared out the window if he wasn't there. the monotony of my day was broken up and i got to know one more fellow human in the rat race of life cuz of it.