My mother always remembers how to spell "assume" with the sentence "when you do this, you make an ass out of u and me." (Actually, my mother thinks "assume" is spelled "assyoume" because of this phrase, but that's beside the point.)
I had a ridiculous run in on the bus and decided to share it with you. It fits in with yesterday's discussion of the joys of poverty quite well. Medically, I probably could drive, though I couldn't due to seizures for a while, but mostly I take the bus because I simply cannot afford a car. I have a hard enough time with $2.50 a day, 5 days a week. If you've ridden the bus outside of NYC* you know that most people who ride the bus are quite poor. The bus is literally their only option aside from walking or not going someplace. Outside of NYC, bus routes and schedules tend to be inconvenient and poorly planned, and riding the bus involves a lot of hurry up and wait. (For example, I'm writing this at 8:15. I'm at work 45 minutes early because the next bus would get me here 15 minutes late.)
In other words, nobody in my neck of the woods is riding the bus for pleasure. We're all poor. (Or high school students. They are comatose on the way in, and I avoid the 3:00 bus as if it were dipped in ebola.)
Anyway, a wonderful friend of mine gave me her old Kindle recently, loaded with great books, (you are the best!) and I've been passing my time on the bus reading it. No regular on the bus has blinked an eye, in fact, two women I talk to asked if my birthday had just passed. (Poor people understand that rich items are often the result of birthdays.)
Until this morning, when a well dressed woman I have never seen before started bitching that they weren't raising the bus rates when clearly people who ride the bus can afford it, looking pointedly at my Kindle. (Raising the bus rates is always a contentious issue at election time where I live.)
Look, poor people often have wealthier friends or relatives. Wealthier friends and relatives who understand that a touch of luxury, whether it be a Kindle or an ipod or an expensive coat, is often more appreciated than a paid bill. Luxury is a lovely thing when one is grinding away in poverty, wearing a winter coat indoors instead of turning on the heat, and skipping lunch so the electric bill gets paid. Hey, life sucks, but this Kindle is awesome!
And I don't have to explain to anyone where my Kindle came from. I did, in the most contemptuous tone of voice I can manage** and it didn't do a lick of good. She segued straight into welfare queens, of course. On a bus. Filled with actual welfare recipients and their children.
Good morning to me!
*Public transportation is a whole 'nother thing in NYC.
**I sound like a 6-year-old with a cold. It makes both sexy and contemptuous rather difficult to convey.
