one week!

UPDATED as of 11:45pm


My commute tonight. once again, no good cruising. i would prefer segregation of buses into queer and nonqueer. it would make my commute so much more interesting.


71 departs 41st & University at 10:26pm (on time)
71 arrives University St. Station at 10:48 pm (three minutes late)


54 departs 3rd & Seneca at 11:02pm (one minute late)
54 arrives at California & Barton at 11:26 (one minute early)


UPDATED as of 8pm.

54 departs California & Barton at 3:33pm (five minutes late)
54 arrives 3rd & University at 4:07pm (two minutes late)


and of course, just as i thought, even though my bus was late i made the 72X anyways

72X departs University St. Station at 4:13pm (on time)
72X arrives at University & 41st at 4:26pm (one minute late)



so today marks one week on blogging about my times on public transit. overall, the week wasn't super horrible for riding the bus, though i would've definitely liked more widely available cruising at every bus stop i encountered. 


Here's my schedule for today, but for some reason i think that it's going to change, as in there is no way that i am going to have to wait around 22 minutes for an express bus to the u-district and the trip planner is just dumb. there is a 72X that runs at 4:12 and i don't think it's going to take me five minutes to go down the escalator.


anyways here it is:


54 departs California & Barton at 3:33pm
54 arrives 3rd & University at 4:07pm


73X departs University St. Station at 4:29pm
73X arrives 41st and University at 4:44pm

i love the weekend

so i am back at work today for a short four hour shift after having friday and saturday off. my life has improved dramatically since losing my job at Hot Topic and this weekend was awesome, including having a blast at country dancing on friday night and just lazing around the house yesterday. So, i don't know about yall, but I love The Lost Boys and found out a while ago that they made two sequels. The first sequal (Lost Boys: The Tribe) was supposed to be a really bad, so I skipped it. The second one called Lost Boys: The Thirst was actually a really good B-movie. Some of the acting was kinda bad, but the cheesy humor was still bad and i was laughing a lot the last half-hour. For those of yall that have netflix instant watch, all three of the movies are available.

Anyways, here's my first bus ride today (post Costco with the Daddies so i only had to ride from downtown)

71 departs Pioneer St. Station at 12:13pm (2 minutes late)

71 arrives at 41st & University at 12:35pm (7 minutes late)

I am going to my best friend/brother Kent's open house today after work and riding home with the Daddies so here is my expected schedule for this evening's bus ride:

71 departs University and 41st at 5:12pm.

71 arrives Eastlake Ave & E Louisa at 5:19pm.

(the bus before it ended up being late, so i rode that one instead)

loveyall and hope your weekend was as enjoyable and relaxed as mine!

-jean

Guess What?!?

i'm not riding the bus today. suck it!!!


instead i'll be writing a paper and constantly refreshing al jazeera's live blog following the egypt protests

you should probably read it too!


xxxo
-jean

a busy day

sorry to all of my faithful readers, just kidding (i don't have any faithful readers just yet), i was just way too busy with work school and paper writing to update my shit all day, but i logged it and here it is for ya!

part one:
54 departs California & Barton at 11:24am (five minutes late)
54 arrives at 3rd & Union at 11:58am (three minutes late)

73X departs University St. Station at 12:02pm (one minute late)
73X arrives at 41st & University at 12:15pm (three minutes late)

part two:
73X departs 41st & University at 6:33pm (three minutes late)
73X arrives at University St. Station at 6:52pm (one minute late)

54 departs at 3rd & Seneca at 7:02pm (one minute late)
54 arrives at California & Barton at 7:29pm (four minutes late)

weird work schedule today. class was good, got to talk about Cuba a lot. Nothing interesting happened on the bus, no cute guys to cruise, and no fights. overall a semi-decent day on public transit. the Daddies and i watched Paris is Burning tonight. Mike had already seen it, Kelley hadn't. I could watch that movie once a week for the rest of my life...SO GOOD!!!!

anywayz. loveyanite!

-jean

ugh

UPDATED as of 12am.
my friend Eden reminded me today when I was complaining about not enough good cruising on campus. their response was #bigcityqueerproblem. reminded me that i was complaining about not enough ass within 10 blocks of where i was, whereas two years ago i was complaining about not enough ass within 10 miles. thankfully, i live in seattle now.

71 departs 41st & University at 10:26pm. (arrived four minutes late)

71 arrives at University St. Station at 10:48pm. (arrived on time)

54 departs 3rd & Seneca at 11:02pm (arrived on time)

54 arrives California & Barton at 11:26pm (arrived one minute late)

i almost shit a brick when i got to the bus stop. I ran from the library to the bus stop (four blocks) thinking that the bus was going to be early again. When it didn't arrive on time I though it had been super early, but it wasn't, it was late. But i'm totally ok with that shit today because i got home before midnight...hollerrrrr. more grapefruit juice and vodka for meeeee

-jean

UPDATED as of 9:30pm

still sitting here at my desk. been utilizing grindr and scruff (applications for my ipod touch) to try to find folks to hook up with on campus but it just ain't workin. grindr around the UW is all twinks all the time, which just isn't what i'm looking for. and scruff has barely anyone on it in the u-district except for fellow bear&cub chasers like myself. Here's my schedule for tonight (time permitting):


71 departs 41st & University at 10:26pm.
71 arrives at University St. Station at 10:48pm.


54 departs 3rd & Seneca at 11:02pm
54 arrives California & Barton at 11:26pm


Wish me luck!


-jean

UPDATED as of 4:30pm


i finished my paper. it's probably just ok, but its due tonight so there's no turning back now!!!


54 departs California & Barton at 11:54am (Arrived 3 minutes late)
54 arrives 3rd & Seneca at 12:27pm. (Arrived 2 minutes late)


73X leaves University St. Station at 12:36pm (Arrived one minute early)
73X arrives at 41st & University at 12:49pm (Arrived one minute late)



so today i have to write a paper so i am going to campus earlier than i usually do. after yesterday, i'm gonna get myself there five minutes early. all i wanna do is lay in bed!!


-jean

trying something different today

UPDATED as of 11:15pm.

So I skipped the last half of my class because I just wasn't feeling the whole classroom discussion thing today. Which means... a completely revised schedule for my commute. By the way, this was kind of a crazy commute because buses were all over the place and late because of rush hour traffic etc. so bear with me plz:

73X departs University & 41st NE at 5:54pm (On time)
73X arrives at University St. Station at 6:15pm (Arrived three minutes late)

55 departs 3rd & Seneca at 6:30pm (Arrived two minutes late)
55 arrives at 35th & Avalon at 6:40pm (Arrived four minutes late)

21 departs 35th & Avalon at 6:44pm (Arrived nine minutes late)
21 arrives at 35th & Henderson at 6:54pm (Arrived eight minutes late)

Needless to say, sometimes those rush hour commutes to West Seattle can be a little complicated, but I'm a complicated gal. There was this really cute cub guy that I was crusing at the 3rd & Seneca bus stop but he ended up getting on the 120... too bad I don't live in White Center.

On another note, RuPaul's Drag Race Season 3 premiered last night and the Daddies and I watched it online tonight after I got home. Raja is obvz the bomb and I was really pissed that Venus was such a catty queen in the Lip Sync for Your Life portion because she would've totally fucking slammed Shangela otherwise, fucking ugly ass lamp skirt. ANYWAYZZZ, you can watch all that shit right hurrrr.

I'm working on a paper for my fantasy literature class that's due tomorrow and I'm just not feeling this shit. AND it's on Lord of the Rings, my favorite book(s) ever. I think I just don't really give a shit about the academic side of LOTR and just really wanna have sex with Aragorn.

-jean

UPDATED as of 4:00pm.

So I arrived three minutes early for my 1:18 bus, but the bus arrived four minutes early, leaving me to wait for the next bus. This is my revised schedule for that trip:

54 departs Fauntlery SW & Barton SW at 1:50pm (Arrived on time)
54 arrives at 3rd & Union at 2:21pm (Arrived at 2:19pm)

71X departs University Street Station at 2:22pm (Arrived at 2:23pm)

71X arrives at University Way NE & 41st NE at 2:35pm (Arrived at 2:37pm)

I got to work 15 minutes late. Thankfully today was a day where my lateness wasn't an issue due to the department I was working in. Second day in a row having problems with EARLY BUSES!! UGH! Here is my proposed schedule for my ride home:

73X departs University Way NE & 41st Ne at 6:33pm
73X arrives at University Street Station at 6:52pm

54 departs 3rd & Seneca at 7:02pm
54 arrives at California Ave SW and SW Barton St at 7:29pm

2nd trip

UPDATED:


Going home tonight after work. Been thinking a lot about formatting of this blog and I am feeling that posting every single trip I make in individual posts is a little over the top. I think I might just have one post a day and update it throughout the day.

Anyways, my commute tonight is going to be hella tricky. I'm supposed to get off around 10:25 and my bus leaves at 10:26 from a place 5 blocks away. If I don't make that bus then I won't get home until midnight. So my (very) hopeful schedule goes a little something like this:

71 leaves NE 41st & University Way NE at 10:26pm (Arrived at 10:24pm)

71 arrives at University St. Station at 10:48pm (Arrived at 10:44pm)

54 leaves 3rd & Seneca at 11:03pm (Arrived at 11:04pm)

54 arrives at California & SW Barton at 11:26pm (Arrived on time)


Thankfully I got off work earlier than I thought and ran to the bus stop. Another thing that I didn't really think that I would be addressing too often is early buses. I assume this happens a lot more at night when there are less people riding, but it's not necessarily a good thing. I know I'm always happy when I'm waiting at a bus stop and my bus is 2 minutes early, but I also know I'm always hella pissed when I'm at a bus stop just on time and the bus had arrived 2 minutes early. 


Overall, I didn't have any major problems with my transportation today. After yesterday, I really needed a day like today. Now to sit down in bed, read, and drink grapefruit juice with vodka to lull me to sleep


-jean

First trip of the blog

Today I am going from my home in West Seattle to work in the U-District. I will be timing all of my trips via metro.kingcounty.gov's trip planner so any changes in scheduling that may not be reflected in paper schedules are incorporated and will be timing all of my trips using my phone. I will compare my phone to the time on the orca card scanner time when i arrive on the bus to make sure the times are the same.

According to metro trip planner:

54 leaves SW Barton & California at 3:33pm. (Actually arrived at  3:37pm)

54 arrives at 3rd & Union at 4:07pm. (Actually arrived at 4:09pm)

72X leaves University St. Station at 4:13pm. (Arrived on time)

72X arrives at 41st and University Way NE at 4:26pm. (Arrived at 4:29pm)

Overall not a bad first trip on my blog. All of my buses were within 4 minutes of when they were supposed to be. Though, it kinda sucked that my first bus was 4 minutes late, mainly because I was late myself and ran the last two blocks to the bus stop to make sure I didn't miss it.

My ride was spent listening to Tegan & Sara and Comeback Kid and thinking about this totally fucked up post that Dan Savage made on the Slog today. Other than that, I am at work today until 10:30pm so holler at me on fbchat because i'll be bored!

-jean

PS: still trying to figure out how i should format this. should i do one entry a day, and update it with my various thoughts and transit adventures throughout the day, or should i put up one post per trip? any suggestions?

Starting this thing!

The Beginning!


So over the past couple weeks I've been thinking a lot about documenting my experiences in public transit in the city of Seattle. And after the experience I had tonight, I decided now is the best time (I'll go into that in a moment).


So an overview of myself. My name is Jean. I am 22 years old. I have lived in Seattle since September 2009. I currently live in a neighborhood of West Seattle called Fauntlee Hills with my partners. I go to night school at the University of Washington as well as work as a student library clerk in the Suzzallo-Allen Library. I do not have a car and cannot afford a car, though both of the people I live with do. I ride the bus  two to four times a day, five days a week, and often every day of the week. 


My preferred buses are the 21, 22 and 54 buses to and from West Seattle and Downtown and the 70, 71, 72, 73, and 74 buses to and from Downtown and the U-District. I often ride the 55, 43, 48, and 49 as well. The 55 brings me to a reasonable transfer point in West Seattle and the other buses bring me to Capitol Hill from the U-District and Downtown where a majority of my social/bar life exists.


The reasons for this blog


I obvz wouldn't be writing this blog unless I had a reason to. In my experience, and I assume most other people's, the buses in Seattle are rarely on time. I know there are a lot of reasons public transit is and always will be late. I feel that writing this blog will allow me to vent some of my frustrations and qualms with the public transit system in Seattle without having to get angry at the drivers who are just doing their jobs.


I also have had two very negative experience in the past six months involving Seattle public transit. In October 2010, I was sexually assaulted while riding home from school one night and just tonight, January 23, 2011, I was followed home by someone from the bus. I don't think it is necessary to go into detail on how I knew this person was following me, but I know. 


I did not report either of these occasions, and that may puzzle some of you. I personally don't think that getting the police involved in anything that I do is justified unless I know for certain that my life is in danger. The person who sexually assaulted me did not appear to me to be within the boundaries of what people conceive to be "sane." I thought that reporting them would just lead to more struggle and strife in what may already be a hard life to live. The person that followed me home tonight appeared to be houseless or "down on their luck," whatever you prefer, and if they had robbed me would've gotten an ipod full of bad music and $4. 


My goals for this blog


I intend for this blog to document on a daily basis: the buses I ride, when they arrive in relation to when they are supposed to, and any interactions I may have with fellow bus riders on or off the bus that seems fun or interesting. I also hope to relieve some of the anxiety I feel when things just aren't going my way during my daily commute. Feel free to comment, critique, or converse with me about your daily commute.