The Bus Stop

I think i had another one of those "fate" moments again. I tried to leave work a little earlier than i normally would have. I was hoping to pick Olivia up early enough to get home, get stuff done early, and get her to bed early so i could just sit. Well, i was able to do all of the above even though i didn't get a chance to leave as early as i wanted. This is where the fate thing kicks in.

I headed down Hennepin, hit 2nd st. (?) and walked down a block to catch the bus. No one was around! It was kind of amazing! Well, at least on Hennepin no one was around. When i got to my stop, there were a few people standing there. The one guy was there that catches the bus the same time i do so i was assured that my bus hadn't arrived yet.

I'm standing there and i hear this voice behind me, "is this a line or somethin' for the bus?" I turned to face a woman with grayed hair but appeared to be no more than 50. I replied, "Nah, we're just waiting here." She responded, "okay good. I never can tell if i'm getting into a line or not." I agreed with her. Then she proceeded with, "these buses are crazy. this is my 4th bus transfer and i have two more to go. If i miss the connector i have to wait an hour for the next one." Me, "Geeze! No kiddin'? that's a lot!" She replies, "Yeah. I came from Abott Hospital. I been runnin' around trying to catch all these buses. I just got done with radiation and most people can just go home but man... Praise God i can still do this." and she laughs! I said, "well, you were just makin' sure that radiation was circulating through your body real well." She laughs. I said, "I keep waitin' for us to get a subway like in NY..." and she said, "nah that ain't ever goin' to happen." I said, "and people complain about the Light Rail and they don't want it in there neighborhood and i think, seriously? I would LOVE to have it in my area." She laughed and said, "I know! People don't be carin' about the environment is what it is." and she shakes her head. Then i said, "We were just talkin' about this at work. I said it's crazy that California is passing all of these laws about the environment and here they are driving on these 8 lane freeways with no mass transit!" She laughed again and said, "Yeah well, there are some real beautiful areas down there and the weather is so nice. But you know, they have them earthquakes and landslides etc. Once you go down there, you don't want to come back." I said, "That's probably why i haven't visited there yet." There was a minute or two of comfortable silence as we were both thinking our thoughts and then she says, "This is the second time i've been through this. Got my second surgery coming up on the 23rd." Then she says, "I got lung cancer." and then she was quick to say while shaking her head, "and i don't smoke." I said, "Aw i'm sorry to hear." She replies, "eh, well..." It was on the tip of my tongue to say well, you look really good, i would never have guessed, but then she started talking again. "I got these dark circles under my eyes. I developed them with all this running around, being tired, and the radiation." I said, "eh, you can hardly tell. You look real good." She said, "eh, well..." At this point my bus was pulling up and i said, "well, this is my bus. you have a good rest of the day." She replied, "yeah, thanks."

She looked very healthy to me. She wasn't frail. She had long hair and was dressed well (meaning it was obvious she wasn't a nutcase). It's weird how i ended up on that corner and she ended up there and we talked. Hopefully i made her feel a little better by talking with her. It seems to me that if she was bus hopping to get home, it was just her fighting this.