The Bus.

Working at InTouch over the past year means that every Tuesday and Friday I've taken a 10-minute bus ride from the GW Bridge to the office, and then back again in the evening. Well. 5pm being the "evening," I guess. And "morning" being "11:30am." Cough. Every morning from Day 1 has been the same driver, a genial guy with whom I've worked up enough of a relationship that besides the "howyadoing" greeting we give each other and the "thank you" for that split-second-that-seems-like-hours-if-you-don't-throw-some-chatter-out-there-as-you-stand-there-waiting-for-the-bus-to-stop moment as I'm leaving the bus, I started saying "have a good weekend!" Friday mornings when disembarking, as there was always a different driver in the evening.

But then starting a few weeks ago, every once in a while my morning guy started popping up in the evening too. I don't know if they realigned shifts or something, but every once in a while this happened. BUT only on a Tuesday, never a Friday. So I could still use my "have a good weekend!" for the small-talk moment on Friday mornings.

But then outta nowhere this evening the bus comes rolling up, and there he was...in the evening...on a Friday!!!! Fuck - I had already used my "have a good weekend!" sendoff this morning; if I did it again, I'd look like a complete fucking idiot. "What a fucking jackass," he'd say, shaking his head at me "he JUST said that same shit 5 1/2 hours ago. Assshole."

So the bus stops and we're filing off, and luckily I had thought to sit in the back so I'd have time to come up with something, since the smoke coming outta my ears during the 10-minute drive had produced nothing. I mean, where do you go after "have a good weekend!", right? I can't go BACK to "thanks," right? It's gotta be something casual, something in between. It can't be TOO much; I can't be awkwardly passing Sistatime!'s digits to him or something, we ain't that close. I don't know if he's a Yankee fan or not, so I can't drop in something clever about the game. I'm shufflin' closer, shufflin closer, closer, shufflin' closer, then it hits me, of COURSE, it's right there, the little brother of "have a good weekend!", the small-talk sign-off of small-talk sign-offs: "have a good one!" Rrrrrrrrright? Light, casual, acknowledges I'm aware I've already used weekend, but still a LIIIIIITLE better than the standard "thanks."

The relief is fucking palpable; I am not lying when I tell you there was sweat involved throughout this whole goddam thing. People are peeling off the bus one by one in front of me, and in my most-casual of casually affected way, that I'm-not-just-any-of-these-passengers-I'm-one-of-your-favorite-regulars kinda way I look at him, give him the 'ol half-wink with a nod and say

"Have a good weekend!"

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!