murmurs and handouts

last week, a stylish white haired man murmured to me on the elevator, asking whether my bike's frame was steel or not. a young guy with a stroller, hoping to get on the elevator, got upset with bianchi and told me to move my bike sideways, but that would have smacked and then crushed a number of people, so i said i couldn't. the young man decried me. the elevator door closed. and the white haired man quietly defended me, and murmured that the young man could have asked nicer.

tonight, an old korean woman sat on a small latino child who only took up about half his seat. so she squished him over, and then patted him brusquely, thanking him in strained english. his mom looked beningly on, scootching the child closer to her and smiling calmly at me.* after the korean woman was settled in, she started passing out "where will you go?" and "there is a better way!" tracts and pamphlets to those sitting around her, including the very young child whose seat she was sharing. "no eng-erish?" she asked. the small child looked wide eyed back. it was an interesting interaction. then as i was getting ready to get off, she smushed her arm between me and the pole to hold on, too short to grab the hanging strap. personal space is clearly not a hangup of hers :).

the bus is weird when it rans, it gets so foggy and crowded and steamy, like a greenhouse. blech! but, better than biking in the rain, which equals water being sprayed directly into my pants. nice to be more connected to the weather though.



*i have to say, i have am extremely impressed with the calmness of a lot of the latina moms i see. grandmas sitting on your kids, filthy stinky people with huge bags bumping up against you, people who are out of their mind and shouting curses, old white grandpas curmudgeonly griping and shoving at everyone. all in stride.

seen and heard

on public transport last few days:

friday, a man from arizona, adrian, who used his income tax return to come visit his sister and party, asked me many questions about what i like to do in my spare time and if i go to school or have a boyfriend and if i got my clothes for free or paid for them and if i'm from la (because he has a second sense about these things) and wanted to become my best pal on the bus. i resisted because he was dry-shaving his head and face with a disposable rasor on the bus. interesting pickup technique, adrian. this is the second weirdest thing i've seen someone do; the first weirdest is the guy who was using a lighter to burn his hand.

on the subway home friday, i saw a white man asleep on four boxes of comic books, and a black man wearing a rumpled golden crown and draped in probably 20 yellow beaded necklaces, perched atop a lot of luggage bursting at the seems.

this morning on a very crowded wilshire rapid, a black drag queen with crimped hair was complaining to his protegé (who was wearing overalls with only one buckle done up, and a plaid top and pigtails) that he would never learn and thus the mentor would be stuck tutoring him forever. then he yelled "hey! hey! hey girl!" and, not being the only girl on the bus, i didn't respond until he yelled "hey girl in the green blouse!*". so i said "oh?" and then he complemented me (in much more dulcet tones) on my "very nice, really nice" (but actually super-crap) boombox that i was taking for work. well thanks!

then on my way home from the metro stop tonight i saw a woman wearing a showgirl outfit, with thigh highs, garters, a corset, and ruffled panties walking in the rain to her car. she needs a trench coat, methinks.

plus, yesterday we six going to the concert had such excellent public transport luck that we decided someone must have put out pudding for the mta gods. woohoo!


*whoah he said blouse! only my grandma says that.

and the kindness of strangers

yesterday i bit it again, under entirely the same circumstances as the last (and first) time i wiped out (see below for re-post from other blog as even was pre-this blog). i even re-scrubbed the same exact place on my elbow, like in "dead men don't wear plaid" when steve martin gets shot in the same hole in his shoulder three times. and this time i totally ravaged my knee and the blood streamed down my leg on the bus. i had a heinous sinus headache and was bleeding on the bus and i was sad and whimpered. but then this nice lady subtly stuffed a packet of kleenex into my mitt and saved the day, so i could blow my gross nose and wipe up my blood, sweat and tears. she called me sweetie when she got off at her stop, and even the bus driver asked if i was OK. a lovely opposite interaction with strangers as the weird ones i talked about yesterday.

after i peel off the fancy 3M bandage i will photograph the gore for ya. yes!


from feb. 7:
it was heading back to thai town from sanmo somewhere around 3:00 am that i bit it on the streets of beverly hills, craning my head to see if the bus was coming on some under-construction pavement where the street was much lower than the sidewalk. hence the gnarly flesh wound on my elbow. i would like to be tougher about the whole thing but holy smokes does this little critter throb. ouch!

strangers without candy

i find that the bike, while also a force of protection as i can bike quickly by people trying to talk to me, is sometimes a conversation piece for strangers when i'm waiting for transport. sometimes this is fun but often it's sorta weird, as kooky characters try to engage me and i don't know how to react besides being polite and then reading my harper's. once a tiny, old, impressively wild looking lady gave me a long talk about how i should get rid of some of my gears, saw off the top bar, and bike on the sidewalk because the street is too treacherous. yesterday a fellow told me it was the "best workout there is. i mean it. really." and this morning, a man with tenative english warned me that i should not "drive" my bike in the streets of macarthur park because people are crazy and don't know how to drive. of course a lady as pretty as bianchi would get lots of comments, but i'm shy and wish she could answer for herself.

S-s-s-s A-a-a-a F-f-f-f E-e-e-e T-t-t-t Y-y-y-y

"SAFETY RIDE!

We can ride if we want to, but don't leave your
friends behind...

Test your safety skills, rain or shine, this Friday
with Midnight Ridazz. Don't take any chances, we
expect you to be fully prepared with helmets, flashing
lights, reflective clothing, first aid kits, condoms,
hair nets, traffic cones, fireproof shields, stun
guns, your blankie, whatever makes you feel cozy and
secure. Reckless Ridazz get no gold star."

Because if friends don't ride, their no friends of mine. We can ride, we can ride, everyone look at your pants.

why thank you

yesterday i got on the elevator into the red line with my bici facing the wall. as we were about to go down a man lunged through the closing doors into the elevator, which was impressive given his size did not suggest a wicked indiana jones-type lunging ability. it was a bit impersonal of me to be standing with my face to the elevator wall but it would only be more awkward to arrange myself to face a stranger on purpose. the older man's voice boomed "you're a gorgeous chunk of girl" to the back of my head. "uh, thanks" i semi-curtsied in response, adjusting the hem of my shirt in an unexplainable tic. and that was it. he didn't have anything else he wanted to add, so it was kind of nice. just a random complement.

it makes me think about how personal a moment it can be to share an elevator with a stranger, and how that we ride in such small spaces with each other demonstrates a gut level of trust for our fellow elevator taker. like people who smoke outside and become friends, we who are too lazy or too impaired to take the escalator into the subway become bound in our reliance on the little glass box.

totally deep.

The RideArc ride for March

The RideArc ride for March
Originally uploaded by tigrejones.

if you're interested! they say "ride with us as we explore the sites, sounds, and smells of one of the largest Food Provision industries in the United States and it's woven fabric into life in Los Angeles."

this is a nice ride that waits for newbies. and they capitalize in interesting places.