Standing Up

After work tonight, I was sitting at the bus stop, and I was suddenly bombarded with the familiar sounds of drunk university students. You know what I mean. So, my mind began to go into ignore-mode because most of the words they were saying weren't real words. I am so tired of the word "fuck". I wish that I never had to hear it again. Seriously.

Anyways, I started to block them out when I heard one of the guys ask, "Why don't you like Derek again? OH YEAH, HE'S GAY!" Then after one of the girls feebly denied it he said, "I hate gay people too. Just say it, it feels better when you say it." That's when I began listening.

Shortly after this, I heard a different guy say, "Gay guys are just ordinary guys." I was pleasantly surprised by this display of tolerance in front of his obviously bigoted comrades. The others ignored him and continued to bash gay people and this "Derek" character.

"Why are you guys hating on Derek? He's a nice guy! He seems to be a nice guy..." said the tolerant one before being interrupted by "BECAUSE HE'S A FAGGOT!" I had some serious problems with these people. I didn't want to listen anymore, but unfortunately, they were three feet away from me and being very loud. It actually makes me really uncomfortable when I listen to people being so crass and rude and prejudice. I just sometimes feel like I should go over to them and give them a good talking-to (or a good punch to the cranium).

Shortly after, they descended into yelling and laughing and pushing and swearing. I shut them out for a bit before I heard the nice guy seemingly still defending poor Derek.

"He's too shy to say sorry. That's just Derek. He probably really really wants to say sorry, but he's too shy." I smiled. This was a real, genuinely nice guy who unfortunately got stuck in a crowd full of dumb bigots. I felt like going over and saying to him, "You're nice. I like you. Why are you hanging out with these idiots? Let's be friends," but I didn't.

I didn't hear the reply because I was thinking about how nice that guy seemed to be. Not long after though, I heard them talking about how many times a day they use the washroom, so I went back to being in my own head.

It really surprises me sometimes to think of how intolerance is still very common, even among kids and teenagers. I know that these ideals are most likely taught to them by parents or role-models or whatever, but still. You would think that given all the terrible things that have been done in the name of intolerance, people wouldn't want to be grouped with that kind of attitude.

Personally, I think that for some people, it is an anthropological response that is ingrained into they're genetic makeup. It is a primordial survival thing. Those who are different may be dangerous, and so alienating them is the safest thing to do. This is also the case for people with insecurities, or who are going through identity crises. I am positive that some people bash homosexuals because they themselves might be having certain feelings that would not be acceptable in their social group or clique.

Anyways, I could go on for years talking about that, so I think I'm done for now.

A Man with a Plan

There once was a very large man,

who came up with a very good plan.

When I see her today,

I'll have Listerine spray.

'Cause in previous meetings, she ran.

So, the man, he made sure he was ready,

when he saw her, his hands they were steady.

For a moist towelette,

we are willing to bet,

was what he'd been using already.

**Notes: I was watching a very nervous-looking man on the bus who sprayed his mouth with Listerine spray about twenty times. Then, when he was finished, he fished around in his breast pocket, pulled out a moist towelette, and rubbed his hands with it for about ten minutes. I thought it was very poetic.

Thoughts on Intelligence

Tonight, as usual, I was sitting on the bus coming from Wilfred Laurier University where my boyfriend lives in residence. I wasn't really eavesdropping, but a few words from a conversation between two female university students caught my attention. I mean, they were talking unnecessarily loudly, so it was kind of hard not to hear them. Anyways.

Something that will always confuse me infinitely is the way some girls (and guys) talk to each other, especially university students. Obviously, they are rather intelligent beings, otherwise they wouldn't be in university, therefore they wouldn't be sitting next to me on the bus coming from the university. However, in complete contrast to this fact, some of these students always seem to dumb themselves down when interacting with each other.

This is what I am talking about:

The two girls were talking about where they were actually going as they sat in the bus. One of the girls mentioned the street name, and the other said, "How do you know these random street names? I can never remember them." The first girl replied, "Well, I took the bus for over a year, and you get so bored if you don't have music, you start to read the street signs." My first thought was, So this is why no one looks at their surroundings. They've got an iPod stuck to they're head. My second thought was, Wow, did you ever sound dumb just then.

As I was thinking this over in my head, the street sign-reading girl said something else that made me think, oh, brother and I hope you don't find me to be too judgmental for it. The girls had now moved on to scars that they had acquired over their extended period of existence. The sign-reading girl said something along the lines of, "Well, I don't bruise very easily because when I was little, I fought with my sister a lot and I got picked on in school, so my body just got used to it. That's why I don't really bruise. But I do have this one scar..." and that's where I stopped listening to marvel. The astonishing thing (one of many) is , I could pick up a note of conscious dumbing-down while she was speaking. Which just made me feel sort of sad for her.

It confounds me to think that the acknowledgement of all that hard work that these people put into being accepted into university is simply shoved aside when they are talking with their peers. Something that makes even less sense to me is that they all go to university. So why in the world would you pretend that you're stupid? Unless you truly are, of course. Then, by all means, ignore this post.

Two Brothers

A few days ago, I felt the need to travel on the bus for whatever reason. I can't remember exactly where I was going, but I do remember what happened while I was sitting at the bus stop.

I had gotten to the stop about a half an hour early because I mixed up the days, and the schedule wasn't what I thought it had been. It wasn't so bad, since it was a pretty beautiful day out. So, I sat in the bus shelter all by myself, which was nice. I hate it when you're in the bus shelter with someone else, and you feel like you have to share the space with them. You most certainly can't sit in the middle seat on the bench.

Anyway, I was sitting, just looking around, when I noticed that a lady was shoveling her driveway directly across the street from where I was sitting. She was holding her shovel at the very end of the handle and kind of pushing it back and forth across the width of her driveway. It wasn't really doing much, but she seemed content, so I wasn't complaining.

As she was just finishing her "shoveling", a very tall man with dark hair (we'll call him Dog Man) crossed the street towards the house beside her, walking a very small, fluffy white dog. It was kind of funny to see. Dog Man waved to Shoveling Woman, then went inside the house. A few minutes later, Shoveling Woman finished (sorta) and went inside. Not two minutes later, a taxi pulled up to Dog Man's house and another very tall man with dark hair (we'll call him Taxi Man) came out and knocked on the door. The garage opened, and Taxi Man went around to meet Dog Man in the garage. They stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before vigorously shaking hands, then kissing each other three times on the cheeks. Right, left, right.

Keep in mind that I'm watching all of this happen from across the street where I can't hear a word of what they're saying. I'm judging though, by the greeting and the dark hair, that the two men are from some country in Europe like Romania or something (I'm not up on my European greetings geographically). They seem to be brothers or cousins. Related somehow anyways. Maybe brothers-in-law.

Anyway, a few minutes after they had both gone inside, Dog Man came out and started shoveling his driveway, starting from the bottom. He was doing it so meticulously, I though that it would take him a century to finish it. Finally, after a few painful minutes of watching Dog Man shovel, Taxi Man came out with another shovel. Obviously, he noticed that it would take approximately a hundred years before he got to visit with his relative, so he decided to help speed things along. Taxi Man started from the top, and was doing not nearly as good a job as Dog Man, but was taking considerably less time to do it.

Dog Man noticed the shotty job that Taxi Man was doing, so he snuck up behind him and started shoveling what was left behind. I saw some hand gesturing and heard some mumbling that might have been instructions on how to properly shovel a driveway, but I'm not sure.

Anyways, after a few more minutes of shoveling, Dog Man said something to Taxi Man. Then I saw him go into the garage, put away his shovel, and leave poor Taxi Man to shovel the rest of the driveway. Thanks, bro.