farewell to a nameless friend

i made a friend over the past couple of years while waiting for the bus to work. he used to take the same bus as me. but then my shift changed and i had to go in earlier. we didn't see each other as much after that, but he'd still go in to work early some days (or i'd be going in late) and we'd see each other again.

he was cool. it was cool to have this one friend within the confines of the whole waiting for the bus experience. that's all we had in common. but there's no other friend of mine who understands those 5-10 minutes everyday like he did... for those few choice minutes, we totally got each other... two dudes on the way to work via the wonders of public transportation.

i never knew his name. i feel sorta bad about that. he gave me his business card one day but i misplaced it and i could never ask him for his name again... i like the dude too much and it wouldn't feel right. in a way, it makes sense that i don't know his name. it's like outside of the vacuum that is waiting for the bus, we don't exist to each other. and yet, i'm probably cooler with him than i am with several facebook friends who i only seem to know by name. puts things in some kinda perspective... a reminder of what's really important in friendship.

anyways, i say farewell cuz i found out today that he's leaving his job in a week and going back home. home is the country, turkey. he's gonna travel a little first, then go back home. he was going in early today so chances are i won't ever see this dude again. he said he's been in america for 13 years and he's been in the restaurant business the whole time and the consumption of time has never changed. over all these years, no matter what he does or where he goes, his work shifts are 12-13 hours a day... sometimes with 1 or no days off each week. he's tired of it. so he's going back home to be around family he hasn't seen in all these years. he seemed psyched and full of hope and ambition about a fresh start. he didn't seem bitter about his time in america. there was no, 'fuck this place, i'm out,' mood going on. he just seemed like a dude who knew it was time to move on and change the direction of his path... and in so many ways, i respect the holy fuck out of that.

our friendship had an odd beginning. i blogged about it years ago.... won't dig it up now, think it's called, 'there's a line guy,' or something of that nature. but the story in brief goes as follows:

first time i met this dude, i went into a mcdonald's by my bus stop before going to work. it was busy and the line was chaos. this mcdonald's has two entrances so the line was unclear. i made my way in and awkwardly ended up in front of a dude who abruptly told me, 'hey, there's a line.' so i did the right thing and got behind him... even though it was still a confusing mess in front of me... but he had the right, he was there longer, he deserves to order before me.

so that was it. just that awkward run in and i never thought much more about it. but then when i went to get my bus, he was there getting on the same bus as me. i felt awkward cuz i figured he thought i was an asshole for trying to cut. i would think that if i thought some dude was trying to cut in front of me.

so we didn't talk. we waited for the same bus for weeks and never said a word to each other. and then one day our bus was late and he came up to talk to me about it. dude was super friendly, just your typical bus banter, "can you believe how late this bus is?"

and since then we were bus waiting buddies. farewell nameless friend. going to work sucks cuz the destination is work.... but having a bus waiting buddy makes shit a little cooler.