The Bellamy 9

The Bellamy 9 is a project the TTC started to fuck with my head. For the past few years that ive depended on it, its managed to never show up on time, and almost more often than not, not show up at all, drive right past me, and just made my life harder all together. Heres a log of occurances however that happened this weekend that left me feeling a bit better about all of it.




February 25th, 2011
Me and Ana, after not seeing each other over a long period of time, had just come out of Just Go With It with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The movie was sub par, but then, i didnt expect it to be good anyays. I had just received a text message from my friend Karli saying that i should come to Boston Pizza for a drink. Of course, i wasnt about to go for drinks with Ana on my arm so i kindly declined but asked who was there anyways. After dropping the usual names, she also mentioned that my old kitchen manager Rob was there. Knowing i wasnt going to see him again any time soon i insisted on dropping by to say hi, however the time was 12:30am and the last bus was at 1:00am so if we were going to make it we would have to be quick about it. So as it was, me and Ana set off to Boston Pizza.
We arrived and made our appearance, saw rob, endured some truly annoying pestering about me being with a girl and how this girl HAD to be my sister or cousin or bodyguard instead of just a girl i went out with...and then we were on our way.
Ana and I walked back to the ttc station just in time to see the last Bellamy bus at the bus platform. The moment i saw its turning lights were on i knew that it was pulling out and that if i didnt start running for it i would lose it. So i took off sprinting, leaving ana behind so as to catch the bus for the both of us. I managed to run up next to the bus as it was driving away and started banging on the windows which, in retrospect, wasnt a good idea, but when its cold and the last bus is driving away youre not too worried about making a scene. The bus came to a sudden stop and the doors opened. Laughing in joy while trying to catch my breath, i approached the doors and found myself face to face with one of the angriest ttc operators i had ever seen. The angry bus driver pointed at me, and began to yell, "DONT YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN! YOU JUST LOST YOUR RIDE FOR THE NIGHT BUDDY!" And in an angry fit drove away leaving both Ana AND me stranded at Scarborough Town Centre with no means of getting home.

February 26th, 2011
Its about 12:30am and im about to leave from work. Im still upset about the nerve of the bus driver but i havent let it ruin my day. I say my goodbyes and head off to the station to catch the last bus. I enter the station and begin waiting for the last bus. In the mean time im listening to 6 foot 7 foot by Lil'Wayne (cant stop listening to it..). The bust approaches and i get on. As i enter the bus, i glance at the driver and realize its the same one from the night before. He didnt recognize me so i just kept walking and took my seat at the back of the bus. As the bus pulled away from the platform, this time with me inside it, my mind began to spin. I started wondering if maybe i should take advantage of this opportunity. But how would i make the best out of this? My initial instinct was to walk up to him, look him in the eye and say, "I wanted you to know that i had to walk ten miles in the cold and snow last night just to get where i was going and didnt get home until 4:00am" But i immediately discarded this idea, for it contained lies and hatred and would have only ruined another persons night, be it the person who ruined mine. My next intention was to apologize for upseting him but then following up with something along the lines of "what you did was wrong and youre a bad person" The problem with this however is that by following an apology with a negative comment, i cancel out any weight the apology could have potentially carried and instead turn any guilt in him to anger and hatred for my guts, and whats the point of that. My conclusion was that the only way to go about the situation was to leave my ego out of it all together and to just apologize. Apologize for upsetting him, for slowing him down, and for any other inconveniences i may have caused. The rest of the bus ride was spent rehearsing what i would say to him in my head until just before my stop i got up and approached his seat. I pulled the cord, got off the bus, and quietly walked home. I was ashamed of myself for not being able to work simply apologize to someone for something I did wrong. Even if what i did wasnt that bad, there was still a conflict that needed to be addressed, and i was to week it through.


February 27th 2011
It was a slow night so my manager let me leave early. I finished cleaning and stocking and decided to head out early for once so that i could go home and start the book my friend Holly had given me for christmas, Casino Royale by Ian Flemming. I began walking towards the station, the time was 11:27pm and the bus for that half an hour was arriving any minute. Its important that you catch the bellamy bus, otherwise theres no telling how long you'll have to wait for the next one. In order to walk into the station from my work you have to walk all the way around the back and up to the front where the entrance is which, as you can probably imagine is very time consuming and inconvenient, especially if your bus could show up any second and its the only one for at least half an hour. As i was walking around i noticed in the distance, thats right, the bellamy fuckin 9. Well damned if im going to miss this bus, i decide to run through the station and ask to pay on the bus so as to avoid the $5 000 fine i would have to pay if i got caught not going in the right doors. All in the meanwhile im thinking to myself, in the end at least im not gunna have the guy who drives the one oclock bus. As i approach the bellamy bus, im greeted by the beautiful face of the man who drove away from me friday night. Now, i have to ask a man who clearly respects the rules enough to leave someone at Scarborough Town at 1:00am, if i can pay on the bus in the station because i didnt feel like walking all the way around to the real entrance, WHILE hiding my face. Screw it. I walk up to him and say "Sir, i saw you in the distance and didnt want to miss the bus so i ran through the station, can i pay here?"
he replied with, "You arent supposed to do that, i cant technically let you on."
In saying technically i knew that he didnt want to have to turn me down and that i was one change of subject away from him just letting me take a seat. Well, what better way to change the subject than to blurt out, "Oh and sorry about the other night i didnt mean to scare you."
He immediatly came back with "That was you! I dont want to talk to you.." I could see he was still upset so I swallowed my pride and apologized again reassuring him that i was only trying to catch the last bus. He explained that the only reason he was so upset was because i was laughing so hard when he stopped the bus and thus assumed i wasnt appreciative that he stopped. I told him that i was only laughing because i thought i had caught the last bus and didnt mean to come across as a punk. After saying this he asked if i had gotten home okay. At this point i knew i had just made amends and didnt have to worry about the situation anymore. i took my seat at the back of the bus and enjoyed an awkward but happy bus ride home.