Becoming acquainted

I forgot my bike on the bus today. It felt good.

Not because I had left a (mostly just) sentimental transportation device on a public vehicle that would have been a hassle to recover, but because, as I was walking away empty-handed, the bus driver honked the horn and patiently waited for me to realize my error. This was the same bus driver I had chatted with my entire ride about South-By, traffic, the 30 route, and how more people should take public transportation... This was also the same driver who, when I got on the bus, greeted me with a welcoming smile and a reference to the conversation we'd had yesterday.

I love taking the bus. I feel proud to say that I haven't driven once to school this entire semester, and even though the experience isn't always the most pleasant (sometimes it might smell like an armpit and sometimes your bus might be 20 minutes late...and sometimes both of those things happen in the same day), I feel like I'm contributing to a better environment.

But what I really liked about my experience today was that it had become routine enough that the driver recognized me. I haven't had a lot of experiences like that, and I don't really know why. (It might be that growing up not drinking hot or alcoholic beverages prevented my establishing a favorite coffeshop or bar, or it might be that being a poor college student who didn't want to take out student loans precluded my frequenting of restaurants, but it just as likely could be something else.) Lately, though, I've been looking for some sort of consistency. I've been looking for a diner where I can walk in, say "the usual" and they'll know exactly what I mean. I've been looking for a barbershop where I can say, "same as last time," and they won't bat an eye.

So it was nice today when the bus driver remembered my face, remembered my stop, and even nicer that he noticed I had forgotten my bike.

A time-lapse video taken from the car (loser) in the official Austin Rush-Hour Race–another reason to take public transportation.