THE BITCH

There is this one lady that gets on/off at 18Th and Nicollet. I hate to say it but the truth is the truth...she's a bitch! A while back, she got very angry with me for asking for ID when she paid a mobility fare. When she showed it to me she was very mean and complained about me asking to see ID and said something about a bus driver was the one that "maimed" her in the first place. She seemed to walk and talk just fine, but I think she has anger issues. I may even have blogged about her.

Earlier this week, I ran into her again. I had one of those buses that kneel. You can let the air out and it lowers the front of the bus to make it easier to board. It is very handy in the snowbanks. Before I realized who I was about to pick up, I pulled into the bus stop and began to lower the bus. She starts yelling "Don't do that!! It makes it worse!" Immediately, I recognized her. Knowing she was naturally nasty, I just said "Sorry, most people appreciate when I do that for them."

She scanned her Go-to card and looked me in the eye. She seemed angry as ever. She demanded a transfer. I told her it was on her card. She repeated that she wanted a transfer. I explained that she would then have two transfers for one fare and that was not how it worked. Her transfer was on her card. She kept on, saying the other drivers give her transfers. Refusing to be bullied, I told her that they shouldn't and that her transfer was on her card and she wouldn't be getting a second one from me. I told her I remembered her from when she was hostile with me for asking for mobility ID. I knew she seemed to enjoy giving drivers a hard time, but that she wasn't going to ruin my day. She said "You're such a bitch!" and went and sat down.

As this was going on, I had pulled into a bus stop to allow another woman to exit. She had a bunch of bags and was older so I again lowered the bus. This lady gave the bitch an evil look and then looked at me smiling and gave me a very sincere "Thank you" for lowering the bus for her. I thought that was nice. She was obviously trying to give the bitch a clue and let her know that most people DO appreciate when the driver makes it easier for passengers to get on and off by lowering the bus.

I continued into downtown. Not letting the bitch spoil my mood, I did as I normally do and greeted people as they got on and thanked them as they got off. I checked the mirror occasionally to keep an eye on the troublemaker. She seemed to just be sifting through coupons and minding her own business. Normally, once someone calls me a name I kick them off the bus. With this person, I already knew she had some anger issues and chose to just feel sorry for her and ignore her rather than kick her off. Besides, she's an old lady. I wasn't too worried about her continuing her rant on the bus.

Many of the passengers were getting off on seventh street. I knew this was where she normally got off, too. As the people filed by, I thanked them and told them to have a nice day. The bitch was inching her way forward to take her turn exiting. I didn't want to treat her any differently, so I said "Have a nice day." She stepped off, turned around and gave me an evil glare and said "And you continue to make everyones day miserable!" After I closed the door and left the bus stop, the remaining passengers seemed offended. One lady came up and told me that the bitch had left a mess. I turned around in my seat to see a bunch of papers on the floor where she had been sitting. I told the people that the lady was always like that and I just look at it like...I'm glad not to be her. It would suck every day to get up and be angry all day. I wouldn't even WANT to get up! If there was a nice way to suggest she get some counseling or anger management, I would. I just can't think of a way to say it that she would actually consider doing so. I don't think "Sucks to be you!!" would be appropriate either, but it is tempting to say!