The past few weeks had been filled with work, stress, bad roommates, more work, jerky people, acne breakouts, and bad roommates. Did I mention bad roommates? They were the type of weeks I’m thankful to be over with, and will suppress all memory of (snap! just ended a sentence with a preposition…the sky didn’t fall). In the midst of it all, I encountered two incidents on the bus that were suprisingly uplifting.
I actually went an entire night without sleep; I got up at 7:30am (re: Good Morning!), worked that entire day, that entire night, and the next entire day. In the university community “burning the midnight oil” may be the norm for some, but I am someone who requires 7 to 8 hours of sleep. My circadian rhythm was solid like Barack (take that, Sarah Palin!). Nevertheless, at some point I found myself taking the bus during the early commute when the bus was packed, and I had nowhere to sit. I was quite loopy from sleep deprivation, and I remember having difficulty keeping balanced. A skater guy (he was holding a skateboard, hence my labelling) who looked no older than 14 or 15, tapped me on the shoulder, and offered his seat to me. I was so startled/touched by his random act of kindness that I remember having the urge to ask him if he was a unicorn, and reaching out to touch him to see if he was real. With so many evil forces in the world (terrorists, cellphone companies, the Republican party), that young person reaffirmed my believe that there is still some good left.
The second incident happened a few days ago. A girl had her head leaning against the window on the bus and was doozing off to sleep. A guy to this girl’s right was getting up to pull the “stop request” cord that was next to that girl’s head. The bus jerked violently and caused the guy to loose his balance and accidently slap the girl on the face. Now, it was not a slight nudge or prod, it was an open palm, clean slap across the face. There was an audible gasp, and perhaps communal teeth clentching and toe curling amongst the passengers.
What happened next truly amazed me. The girl, reflexively, broke into laughter and for reasons beyond my comprehension, so did everyone else including me.
In my mind, being slapped across the face is perhaps the most insulting thing one could do to another. Such a denigrating insult is usually reserved for extreme situations such as on soap operas when adulterers are confronted. Hence, one must have committed a severe vice to warrant a slap on the face. The last place one expects to be slapped is by someone losing their balance on the bus, and perhaps, it is this unlikely occurence that we found funny. It was quite a Jackass momment.
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