August 27, 2010

Bus Ride Seatmate from Hell

Today was one of my worst bus rides ever. 

The middle aged man who sat beside me was intolerably smelly.  I don't want to seem to be too snooty about it, but I'm merely stating a fact.  He reeked of sweat and smoke mixed with "old man cologne."  I'm not too finicky about odors because I can tolerate the smell of a dead rat, but the guy had a really odd stench about him.

He then opened a big bag of chips and munched on it noisily like gravel being pureed in a blender, occasionally flicking the crumbs from his lap using the back of his hand unintentionally onto my left shoe.  Then, he wiped snot from his nose with the same hand he uses in getting the chips from the bag to his mouth, wiped it on his sleeve and continued eating without washing his hand or even using some sanitized wipes.  Yuck!  After he finished eating, he just threw the empty wrapper under our seat.  Oh my gulay, what an a-hole!  He just threw his trash inside the bus without even batting an eyelash.

I think because he was already full from the chips that he ate, he felt sleepy, so the guy dozed off with his mouth slightly open, saliva slowly trickling down the right side of his mouth.  His head was bobbing left to right hitting my shoulder occasionally.  He looked like the dog hood ornament with the bobbing head found on the dashboard of most pinoy taxi cabs.

When he woke up, he started singing with the video being shown on the bus' TV/DVD (a pirated video of Jovit Baldovino singing in the grand finals of Pilipinas Got Talent.)  He wasn't even conscious of the people around him. He just sang as if he was in some dingy videoke bar.  Unfortunately, my Ipod's sound was not strong enough the drown out this man's impromptu concert.

Never in my whole life have I encountered a fellow commuter that is like a troglodyte, consciously or unconsciously doing stuff that would irritate any person that has manners and knows how to properly behave in public.

I really had a horrendous commute this morning because of that guy's lack of common social sensibilities.  His odd stench was just the cherry on top of a very horrible tasting ice cream.

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