As I type this Friday evening, I still can’t feel my feet.
See, I’m a very cynical person. I wasn’t always. Once, I had an outlook on life that could be best described as “cheery”, likely heavily influenced by those Chicken Soup books that show you the horrors of life but reassure you the whole way that life is awesome and people really care.
Newsflash: absolutely nobody gives a shit about you.
To put my cynicism in a nutshell, here is my theory on life:
- Everyone is stupid.
- Everyone thinks they’re the only one who isn’t stupid.
- Everyone thinks everyone else is stupid.
Thursday, I’m heading home after school. I don’t drive, due in equal parts to the ridiculous cost and my own personal debilitating terror of driving. Instead, I relegate my transportation needs to those who are professional drivers, namely public transit.
Now, where I live, there’s a bus at every bus stop every half hour. I have to transfer buses partway home. The bus I transfer to is always already at the bus stop waiting for transfers from the bus I’m currently on.
Thursday evening, I pull the cord as usual, but the bus driver does not stop at the transfer point. Instead, he drives merrily by, stopping at the next stop. Naturally, I hurriedly ask the driver of my current bus to ask the other bus to stop. I kinda have to transfer to it, or I don’t go home. He does so, at least being moderately useful despite skipping my originally requested stop in the first place.
I get off the bus, and see the bus I need is now four blocks away. Stopped, however, waiting. So I start running in order to get to it.
I run for two city blocks, and then it pulls away and leaves.
That’s right. It waits for me to run full tilt for two blocks in minus ten degree weather, and then drives away.
So I wait half an hour in that very same minus ten degree weather for the next one.
Friday evening, a blizzard hits this town. Naturally the bus schedule is all messed up, due to massive traffic jams and horrible road conditions.
Anyway, because of this, I get on the first boss, and ask if my second bus is going to be there.
The second bus only runs at peak times, meaning 6am to 9am, then 3pm to 5:30pm. It services the industrial section of the town, hence the strict hours. Happily my schedule has, so far, coincided with that buses schedule so it works out alright.
To get home, I have to get from university to “downtown” (where most of the bus routes meet up every half hour) to transfer to the bus that takes me to the bus that takes me home. I leave the university quarter after four, and it takes 45 minutes to get downtown due to the weather.
Now it’s 5 o’clock. The bus I get on arrives at the transfer point in roughly 10-15 minutes, and the bus I transfer to typically leaves about 5:15, but it always waits for my bus to get there before leaving. This is important, because after 5pm, it’s the very last run of that route, and is thus the only way I can get home.
So I ask my driver if it’s still going to be there, if it is going to wait. He doesn’t know. I ask if he can call ahead and make it wait. He says he doesn’t know if it will, because of the weather, and everyone’s behind on their scheduling, and blah blah blah.
Great. So instead of actually fucking finding out, he just tries his best to ignore me.
Anyway.
Ride out there, sure enough there’s no bus.
I ask again. Is it gone? Is it coming? Where is it? Am I stranded out here? He gives me the exact same response he gave me in the first place. He doesn’t know. I ask if anyone on the bus has a cell phone they can loan me.
So I wait. And wait.
Remember the part where it’s a fucking blizzard outside? It’s only minus 8 degrees outside, but with severe wind.
I wait thirty minutes to no avail. No buses in sight. Another bus arrives from “downtown”, it isn’t the bus that takes me home, it’s the bus route that gets me out here in the first place. Different bus, different driver, same route. So I ask him if the bus that does take me home is finished or not.
He doesn’t know, but he immediately asks over the inter-bus intercomm thingermajig they have if there’s another one. You know, being helpful and all. Sadly, my bus is done. Gone. So I ask if anyone has a cellphone. The driver doesn’t have one (this is a lie, all bus drivers have cellphones in case of emergency, apparently me being stranded in the middle of fucking nowhere doesn’t count). I ask the passengers, and my plea is met with dead silence.
Major props to the asian lady talking on her cellhpone, the two young men texting on theirs. Nobody has a cellphone, apparently.
So I start looking for help. I have to wait anyway for a bus to take me back “downtown”. This is right on the outskirt of a major residential area before it transitions into an industrial area, so I figure someone will let me use their phone.
Well, let me tell you, I could never be a salesman, because getting doors slammed in your face gets really fucking old really fucking fast. Major props to the seven people I begged for help, who then decided to let me wander around in a fucking blizzard instead of loaning me a phone for thirty seconds.
Anyway, I catch another bus back “downtown” (once again my plea for a cellphone is met with dead silence) having spent a wopping 80 minutes either standing or walking around in this blizzard.
I walk into the first business that’s still open I find, and ask to use their phone. “Sorry, we don’t have a phone”. Uh huh, I can see it on the fucking wall behind you. “Oh, no, that phone only connects to our back office. We don’t have any outside lines here.” Sure, sure you fucking don’t.
Anyway, I eventually found a guy working at a coffee ship who let me use his cellphone.
I started going home at 4:15, it’s 6:30 before I find a person willing to help me.
Moral of the story is: this isn’t new or original. Am I mad? Yeah I’m mad, but what of it? A story like this is just par for the course.
Welcome to life, population you and a bunch of idiots who would rather watch you die then lift a finger to help you.
I’m posting this right away, because that’s what friends do, right? Friendships are just a support group for the horrible disease called “being alive”. I might take it down later once I regret posting this, but for now, welcome to my life.
Wow, you must live in DC. The bus drivers are the worst (read http://unsuckdcmetro.blogspot.com for examples) and your story is on the top of them. Unfortunately, the people here in DC are the same way (They all suck and could give a rat’s ass if you are dying and need water) The only reason why I suspect that you are not in DC is because it doesn’t snow here since it is the armpit of america. Sorry man. Wish you the best next time.
Me and this article, sitting in a tree, L—-ER-NAI-N-G!
You need to head into the local Walmart and grab one of those 20 dollar phones and a 10 dollar phone card or something, or at least a couple quarters for the payphone, to use just in these situations. That would suck…
I have to agree, you must live in a fairly large metro area if everyone is so disagreeable and unwilling to help. I mean, I might be hesitant to offer my phone to someone on a bus in new york but around here, where I live, wouldn’t give it much thought. But then again, it all has to be in context. Wither you asked politely, nicely, shaved that day, or didnt, hair messy, and even wheter you came to me plea-ing for a phone after a day of trying (hence, being quite annoyed and probably pissed)… basicly all those little whatevers that might trigger the wrong impression.
But thats rediculous that you were out there THAT long without any avail. Also, I dont think I’d ever turn down anyone a phone call if they were at my door, assuming I had a wireless phone or my cell on me. I would be reluctant to let someone in though.
I have to say I’m a pretty happy person, but there are definately those times where I’d prefer to forget my car had brakes and use people’s side doors as thing to rub up against to slow myself. Just today I was thinking out nice it would be if things were like GTA: Vice City, where your car could go invincible and everything the vehicle merely came into contact with blew up. I swear all the old people come out of the woodwork and onto the streats, with the intent of just pissing a few people off by going slow. Like retired people, who have nothing better to do and get amusement from just the sort of thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese people being absolutely worthless in a crisis is a well reported phenomenon. Your best bet would have been to approach a group of friends- since they gain social status by being nice, they are more likely to help someone else out.
Me, I’m actually pretty comforted that generally people don’t care. It means that, if I do something to make an ass of myself in public, most of the people there won’t care.
/hug
A quote to illuminate how I agree with you:
“Evil is making the premeditated choice to be a dick.”
When it comes to people being stupid, I wish I could disagree with y-… ya know what? No I fucking don’t. People are dumb, they are ignorant, they are only compassionate when it suits them, and they don’t make any effort to become otherwise more often than not. Yes, this makes me a conceited prick for thinking I’m better, but what words did I say that were incorrect?
You’re clearly an exceptionally intelligent human being and have the right to judge the stupidity and meanness of others as exactly what it is. Maybe I’m saying this because I consider myself to be the same way, but it doesn’t matter.
Your illustration of what happened to you in a FUCKING BLIZZARD (yes, caps are necessary) more than justifies your anger.
I usually go kill goblins in booty bay when I get angry.. what’s your choice?
Wow – that really sounds like a sh*t day… I’m sorry.
I guess part of the problem is that trust is something that is really difficult to earn in the few seconds you have to make your appeal to someone in a situation like this, and in a city, is even harder to gain. If some guy I didn’t know from Adam stepped onto a bus I was on and asked to borrow my phone I think I’d be pretty reluctant to hand it over. I might if he asked _me_ directly, but I wouldn’t volunteer in response to a plea addressed to a group (see the link above talking about dilution of responsibility in a crowd). Also, one hears so many stories about people feigning distress in order to con naive altruists. I would be worried about it being stolen. If it were just a phone, that would be a mild inconvenience, but my phone holds the key to my life – all my friends’ contact details, my appointments and working schedule, my emails, and many other things besides. Someone with only a moderate degree of technical skill could potentially use my phone to commit identity fraud. I don’t want to have to carry a letter explaining to prospective employers that my criminal record is as a result of someone pretending to be me when they were arrested. Plus it would be really frustrating to be without it – I couldn’t check this blog from work to see if another post was out.
I guess I also find the idea of a person under the age of 60 not having their own mobile phone a little hard to believe, which makes me look for another explanation for why he wants to get inside my home or hold my phone.
I would also be suspicious of a stranger who knocked on my door and asked to use my house phone – I might be prepared to let them use the portable, but I definitely wouldn’t let them in. I would be rather concerned about unlocking the door in the first place! I guess that “A Clockwork Orange” has scarred me…
I think I would try to offer helpful advice – there’s a pub over the road from my house and several businesses down the street – I would probably suggest trying there.
I agree with the person who said that someone with friends would have been a better bet – I imagine that, apart from the desire to appear generous to their friends, the feeling of security imparted by being surrounded by friends would make them less concerned about your stealing their phone. I am not surprised that the place you achieved success was somewhere public, rather than someone’s home, as well, for the same reasons – a feeling of security for the person who lent you the phone.
I also agree with Azryu: context is all. If the person in distress on my doorstep were a child, or a respectable-looking man in a suit, or a supermodel in a bikini (please, come in!), I think I would be much more inclined to help than if a burly 6’6″ muscle-bound bloke in leathers and covered in tatts rang my doorbell.
So, in all, I can see why you had such difficulty, and can even empathize with the reasons why others might be reluctant to help. Does that make me an asshole? Maybe, but I’m less likely to have my house burgled or my phone stolen than some others…
I should point out that I have no real familiarity with the weather where you are – where I live it rains a little bit more in winter, but true blizzard would never occur. I don’t think that snow has ever fallen in the city I live in. Maybe if things were more extreme outside I would be more inclined to help…
Oops – accidentally clicked submit prior to adding a sympathetic final line, because I really do think that it would have been a really, deeply unpleasant experience, which would leave anyone bitter. I suppose my instinct is to try to look at all sides of a situation before casting blame or saying the world is full of assholes.
I think the world is full of frightened people who are too scared to help. And maybe that’s worse.
I believe this is why I was forced to learn to drive. It took me fucking ages, a lot of money, but I’m glad I did because people are fucking idiots.
Really sorry to hear.
I’d let you use my phone (or anyone else) if they were stranded.
Sub-zero weather IN A BLIZZARD?? Anyone who wouldn’t lend you there cell phone is an IDIOT!
I would have let you use mine. Oh wait, you’re Canadian… yeah I still would.
Bastards… if not genetically, then it sounds like their parents would abandon them give half the chance.
Come to Oz…
At least one of us would have helped you, if not bought you a beer, taken you home for a good feed…
Ohh and the weather never gets that cold.
I don’t know if you’ve ever done this but if you’ve gone frost at any point in PvP and decided to AoE down the people standing next to the turrets in Wintergrasp then…
Karma is a bitch i guess :p
I especially agree with magicstrudel (great name) because in a blizzard obviously you’re trying to get home, not con someone out of their cell phone. Also, I hardly ever hear pleasant stories regarding bus travel. Sorry to hear about your crappy day, Euri.
Oh wait a minute, also, it’s almost Christmas!! Where is people’s Christmas spirit? Jerks.
Sounds like you’re in Calgary. Nasty blizzard yesterday. Stupid snow and wind and transit being stupid. And Calgary bus people are inherently unfriendly. Probably all annoyed at how awful transit is.
(And if you really are in Calgary, shit hotdamn, it was terrible out there… sorry you had to deal with such awful jerkholes.)
In situations like this, it sometimes pays to call people in their bullshit.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Unfortunately that’s how many, if not most people are. Sometimes they have good reasons. Sometimes not. Times change. The best we can do is to make an honest effort to be better than the rest.
*on their bullshit. Wow. What wouldn’t I give for an edit button …
I used to ride the bus until I had a story much like this. That (and when they raised the fares in my city) was when I decided that the higher incidental costs of driving were worth being able to get home without freezing half to death in the process.
hiya Euripedes! so a lil bit off topic here( although i am deeply sympathetic towards you with your crappy day you had) but my father is a rogue… and he never stops complaining about how he thinks that his class is way underpowered… which i keep tellin ghim that hes a rogue and hes not even close to being underpowered i tell him its just him(just to be funny but also meant seriously to an extent) well i understand your mostly a master of mafges but i was wondering if you had any advice for him much appreciated (e- mail i think i s given on the comment thing right? i believe so so neways if you get a chance e mail me with your thoughts or even with a”i have no clue” lol thank you
Like was mentioned before, get yourself a prepaid phone. I’ve not ever been in a situation quite as bad as you described but my prepaid phone has bailed me out of a lot of jams.
I got a Tracfone model from Walmart that cost 10 dollars and then I threw about 20 or 30 dollars down for minutes which lasted me two months or so. S’a good deal.
“I think the world is full of frightened people who are too scared to help. And maybe that’s worse.”
this.
in my case, its also a case of being to scared to even ask for help. Every few years we get this huge several days long blizzard in New York. and of course for a duration, the place more or less shuts down. some of the major subway lines are working but its still extremely unreliable. last time the blizzard happened, I was working at the office with a moderate dress code. no power suits necessary, but no jeans and sneakers either. SO here, I am – no cellphone at the time, wearing a skirt and heeled boots (thankfully the kind that ends just bellow the knee) and the train stops several neighborhoods away from our house. not streets. neighbourhoods. SO I walked. in knee, sometimes hip deep snow becasue they haven’t had a chance to clear all the streets yet plus snow just kept covering up the cleared areas. no, no one offered me a ride, but even if they had, I would have refused, becasue I’m just too scared of getting into a car with a stranger.
would I lend you the phone if you asked me? depending on how scary you look, I might have offered to call for you, but I doubt you’d get your hands on my phone otherwise. Well, maybe if we were in a public place with limited exits, like a coffee shop.
I used to be cheery and helpful. And then life taught me, that most of the time, when you try to be nice, try to be good? you get a punch in your face for your efforts.
and I’m far too selfish a person to risk my own well being to help a stranger, who may or may not hurt me in return. Sad, I know
What a sucky day for you. Honestly though, being a female I wouldn’t help lone males. My partner would help you but I always tell him not to associate with strangers. Exactly…what is society coming to, is there not enough trust to enable goodwill?
Hope you manage to get a mobile phone soon.
If there is one thing that might lighten the mood it is that you can be damn sure any of your readers would loan you their cellphone in a heartbeat. =]
Ya shoulda said “anyone willing to help out a fellow mage?”
Actually that might hurt your chances as much as help them.
Yeah. I’m sure everyone in my city is a stupid asshole warlock. 😉
As was stated before, Euri is canadian, and I feel for you man, I got caught downtows when that fucking blizzard started as well, I missed my bus home cause I biffed it just 4 feet away from the goddamn bus and they decided to close the doors and pull away, the bus driver watched me biff it.
If people haddent guessed Euri and I live in the same city and have known each other for a while, people here are fucking assholes.
Next time something like that happens just give me a call buddy and I’ll get you a ride home.
I think it’s a conservative conspiracy. They’re still trying to get rid of us long haired hippies.2 nights of demo derbies? The mental rolodex is just spinning with &#;Re0822dneck jokes.”
as a fellow mage, it’s at those moments when i wish i could just use a damn teleport spell. as a non-driver as well (for the same reasons), i feel for you, man.
I feel your pain man.We managed to avoid the blizzard part but still got the arctic temps.And of course our greedy bus drivers are on strike so that means an hour long walk.Love this country but you have to question the wizdom of living somewhere we can freeze to death half the year.
Once upon a time I was driving down a road in the dark and saw the truck in front of my swerve around something laying in the road.
Roadkill?
No.
It was a person.
A person.
Laying in the middle of the road.
Bleeding.
At night.
Did they stop? Did they even look like they paused? Did they call 911?
No (we called the cops later and no, no one called).
I boggled, and stopped. Now, granted, I only stopped because I had someone else in the car with me, else I’d genuinely hesitate to help a guy much bigger than my bitty female self-BUT AT LEAST I WOULD HAVE STOPPED IN THE ROAD (so people wouldn’t run him over?) AND CALLED 911.
Drunken bleeding head guy was helped into my back seat, and we went on our merry way-he refused the hosiptal, so we left him at a friend’s house (and made sure the friend was home and got him!).
But shit like that makes me sick.
People suck, dude. Those of us who don’t tend to be perpetually angry at the world.
Handing over a cell phone, especially with all the other stuff that cell phones do and hold these days, would give me pause. A general plea to a crowd would not sway me, but if you were to ask directly to me I would be hard pressed to not offer some sort of help. But it may not be the specific help you asked for. If you truly need the help, anything has got to be better than nothing.
Now, if it was money to make a call or something of the sort (and again, I was asked directly) I may be more inclined to help. No strings attached, if you con me you get whatever money I gave you, not my phone with contacts and other things. I have in the past done just this. Mostly with people I “kinda” know (neighbors I don’t know, but have seen around; people I bowl with, but don’t see otherwise), but I have also given a complete stranger money when I was traveling.
Maybe I’m just gullible, but all I lose is some money. And maybe I help someone out.
That totally sucks.
50% of the people are too scared/paranoid to help, 45% that don’t give a shit, 4% that would help, and 1% are psychotic and you wouldn’t want their help.
I personally wouldn’t mind loaning out my cellphone if needed. It’s an old LG phone I’ve had for like 6 years now. But if I had a newer more expensive phone, I would probably be more hesitant.
It’s just the way the world is now. People don’t trust strangers no more. Crazy world we live in.
Heck, I even get paranoid when I give enchanters my mats for them to enchant my weapons!
Can’t trust people with Gnome Warlocks named “Gnomercy”! Wait… can’t trust Gnomes, period!
Everyone is stupid.
Everyone thinks they’re the only one who isn’t stupid.
Everyone thinks everyone else is stupid.
Rip, you know I love you; but you need to learn to drive OR get a cell phone.
Thou can not bitch of others whilst thou lives like the Omish.
I’m gonna agree with Gnomeaggedon. If it were Australia, you would receive many cellphones handed simultaneously and probably someone willing to take you in for a time. I guess that I’ve only experienced general kindness from random people in a moment of need thus my faith in humanity. Although there is always the chance of being stabbed. It all depends on what bus you catch.
[…] face it, if he can survive a Blizzard (no.. not the 3.3 variety, but well timed never-the-less), then this guy knows Blizzard Survival […]