Writes of Passage

It would take me approximate 30 minutes on a 20 miles journey, costing $7.50 on the LIRR, on a weekend (off peak) from my home to New York. The ride was relatively comfortable, somewhat on time.
.

.
I didn’t take this direct route.  Instead I went to Flushing because I  wanted to treat my family.  So I stopped by Flushing in the morning for some authentic food. There were so many freshly out of the oven stuffs, steaming hot.   I ended up with bought 3 boxes. When I got to the bus stop in the city, they were still warm. The luggage handler asked me what those warm stuff are.
“Food .. feel free to try some .. ”

9th Avenue at 33th Street

For $17.50 (the 50 for booking fee .. funny ..), I rode in comfort from New York to Washington DC, about 238 miles. The bus left sharply on time, at 10:30, arriving at DC, after two brief stops in Maryland’s White Marsh, little over 4 hours.

The bus crowd was at the luggage opening, one handler was inside and pushing out our luggage one by one. Everyone, male and female of all colors was standing there watching, except a black girl who’s helping the put the luggage on the ground to make room for the handler to empty the load. Few moments later, the handler, a big man shouted,
“Come on, can you guys do it??” [instead the girl].
The boys seemed suddenly waken, and lent helping hands.

The bus loading area was quickly emptied but my food was not among them. It’s long gone.
I was really upset ..
I called the customer hot line, got nowhere.

K St. NW and N Capitol St. NW

On Monday, I took the same bus back home only because Uncle Jim had already purchased a ticket the day before.
We got there at 11:21am. A chubby lady with short hair cut was on duty.
She informed us loudly, it’s $25 but the bus is full.
“I have 50 passengers to pick up at Maryland.”
So we have to wait for the 12:30 bus.
“Oh, you guys lost my food on Saturday ..”
She cut me off.
“I lost your food? Sweetheart, you’ve got to talk to the customer service..”
She then denied Uncle Jim’s ticket as the number was wrong.
“See this? You’ve got to give me this long number.” Then added that Uncle Jim needed to re-buy his ticket.
Guess neither of us was good enough for her.
Then a lone passenger came, announcing that he’s waiting for the 12:30 bus.
She said something I decided to not to listen.
“Ok, you go ahead.” She gestured the lone passenger to board the 11:30 bus.
“Hey, that’s not fair. Didn’t you say there isn’t room?” I was only half serious. Because, after all, we were two passengers and he’s one.
“Didn’t you hear me telling you to get on?” She enlarged her eyes .. ..
“Ok .. thanks .. no need to get mad .. ”

After we sat down and bus began to move, did I realize she didn’t charge me for the ride.

After endured my adventure-recap, Pumpkin said,
“Mom, you did say they can eat your food ..”
” .. yes .. but I was only kidding .. who’d eat other people’s food?”
“Mom, people sometimes can’t tell if you’re joking or not .. ”
Isn’t it a miracle that neither of us is in a mental institution?