Conversation with a bus driver

I haven't updated this in quite a while but I just had the coolest chat with a bus driver that I really wanted to write about.

It was about 8:50pm at the bus stop on Q and Connecticut. I was sitting in the shelter/overhang area next to one of the bus drivers on her lunch break. She was a tall black woman probably in her early thirties and we just sorta started talking. I really like talking with strangers but I really need to be in the right mood to do it and I guess today was one of those days. She sorta made it easier cause these British tourists were asking her how to get to Georgetown and then what would be a good place to meet somebody. She turned and asked me, and being a person who's been to georgetown twice I had no idea so I said "iunno, wisonsin and M?" which is a relatively major intersection. She agreed and the brits were on there way.

Once you sort of have an opening with someone it's much easier to start a conversation so I noted that I never really go to Georgetown because i'd have to ride my bike there and I'm too lazy to do that. Then from there we had a conversation going and she explained to me how the DC bus system is run really well and that people who need to get their lunch break are dispatched relief drivers and that as a result no one ever misses their lunch. Then I was able to ask her about if buses were slower in the summer and she told me they definetely were because of all the toursits, either asking for directions, or even just the amount of jaywalking builds up. Not to mention the delays from the presidential/diplomatic convoys which freeze Connecticut Avenue regularly. She told me that when a bus passes you it's probably cause a bus behind them caught up and that when the buses run on time the schedule makes it so less standing crowds form.

I think by this point we were cool and she ended up telling me that she used to be a dean at a college and got laid off so she was driving buses. She'd majored in English as an undergrad and had two masters degrees in organizational management and some other business admin related field. She used to teach classes at her school in VA and was in the process of studying for her PhD in organizational management. She lamented that people treated bus drivers like they were dumb and lacked education without knowing the whole story.

I told her that her story was super indicative of 2010. Well educated folks, working to get even more well educated, stuck working random jobs to make ends meet and that she should really consider writing a book or something about her experiences. She got kind of excited and started saying how there were a lot of parralels with her education and her current work because "management is getting people to do what you want for your goals" and that as a bus driver she still has to do this with her passengers. I said something like "yeah you have to be, ok you have to get off the bus... cause it's the end of the line" and she found it hilarious and said now she really does want to start writing about it. I really hope she does and I'm gonna keep an eye out for it.

Woo talking to strangers!