If You're Going to Ride the Bus, Lay Off the Perfume

My morning bus ride is usually quite enjoyable. I get on early enough where I have my choice of seats. The bus never gets all that full, and if it does, it’s usually toward the end of the ride.

I don’t know what has happened, but that has changed.

For the last week, my bus has become swamped. This morning when I got on, there were no empty window seats left. This just never happens. Even in the fall when the college kids ride, there are always seats available. So, I had to sit next to someone on the aisle. I chose a woman reading her book. She seemed normal enough. What I didn’t realize at the time was that she was doused in perfume. It took a couple more stops for it to hit me, but when it did, I thought I was going to be sick. Since the bus was so packed, I couldn’t move. I was stuck, sucking in all of her floral stink.

To make matters worse, I’m still recovering from my cold. The last part of me still wallowing in sickness is my sinuses. Smelling her rotting flower perfume for 45 minutes did not help my situation. My nose and eyes are burning and it gave me a headache on top of everything else.

I don’t know why my bus is suddenly so crowded. It’s not like a bunch of people who used to take the bus are taking it again. I’ve been riding that bus for 3 years. These are all new people. Where do they come from? Why are they riding my bus now? I swear it seems like the world has doubled in population since Saturday. Yesterday, I had to drive into downtown St. Paul to do some work in the office and traffic was crazy. 9:45am on a Sunday and traffic was a mess. What’s going on? Where did all these people come from?

I know I’m very complainy right now. I’m just frustrated because I am trying to finish my album and I have 4 songs that need vocals and that is all that is left to do and I can’t sing with my nose all stuffed and that is the on thing on me that is still sick and all I want to do is finish the album and I have another scheduled recording session for Wednesday and it’s really hard to believe that my nose will be clear by then. I don’t want to cancel again.

It’s also my birthday week. So, being sick sucks.