25 becomes 27

the bus from my new house has proved to be a very easy adjustment. mostly because i take the same bus i used to take, just pick it up a dozen blocks or so further south. and the walk to the bus stop is even better than my old one, since i no longer have to plunge down into a valley and then up the steep other side to get to my waiting place.

my bright idea to try another line, however, caused some unexpected difficulty.

after having a drink at the end of the day on thursday with some school friends, i found myself waiting at the bus stop in the u-district, catching up with a classmate i ran into there who had spent her summer on the other population leadership program internship in pakistan. we swapped summer stories and finally realized we were both waiting for the same bus -- my usual bus, the trusty 48. she mentioned that she had just seen it go by, so it would probably be awhile. well, soon enough the 25 pulled up. i knew about the 25 - i used to take the 27 from my old house to work, and once the 27 goes through downtown and starts heading towards the u-district, it becomes the 25. since my old house is pretty durn close to my new house, i was struck with the brilliant idea that maybe i could take this here bus number 25. to be sure, i asked the driver if the 25 becomes the 27 and if he goes down MLK. he seemed slightly confused but responded that he goes yesler to MLK. great, that was the answer i was hoping for. so i hopped on and settled in for a little through-downtown adventure.

things got interesting (you have to trust me on this) when we actually got to MLK. because the bus did not go down MLK, as anticipated, but rather crossed MLK. i just sat tight, thinking he must do some loopty loos through leschi before popping out on the south end of MLK to head back north, conveniently dropping me right by my house. we did plenty of loopty loos, and i was still waiting expectantly when i looked around to see i was the only person on the bus, and the driver pulled up to a stop and stopped. the end of the line! yay! he asked me if i was lost. i bitterly responded that i had been under the impression that this bus goes DOWN - not ACROSS - MLK. he said, oh no. i crossed MLK awhile back when we were on yesler. yes, i realize that, i said, but i thought maybe you would loop around back to MLK because i needed MLK but much further south. oh, i'm sorry, but no i don't go down MLK at all.

what's more is that the driver found it incomprehensible that i might walk from where we were. so i'm essentially being held hostage on a parked bus on the residential streets of leschi. i was sitting there, thinking the situation through when the driver offered me some of his chicken dinner. i thought that was nice. but i politely declined. it then occurred to me that in all likelihood, he would probably be going back using the exact route we just came on, which, as i have indicated, would not get me where i wanted to go. so i asked about this, and sure enough he would be exactly retracing his steps, but told me that i could get off at MLK and then take another line that goes down MLK. at this point - i forgot to mention that the pint of beer was making itself known and so a certain urgency was also in play - i didn't have the patience for such a complicated plan, so i assured the driver i could walk from where we were, that i was familiar with the neighborhood, blah blah blah. so i took a little walking tour of the area around I-90, walked through the I-90 tunnel, which is so much longer than it has ever seemed on a bike, and made it in the door just as my bladder was about to explode.

moral of the story: sudden brilliant ideas involving public transportation that seem too good to be true are indeed too good to be true. always.