hurricane not i

double-lane bitchslap - pencil

Vancouver

My problem with the city is,

(1) I can't follow the rules.

(2) I'm extremely sensitive to closed people. (And you have to be closed to stay sane in dense human hives.)

(3) I get overstimulated easily - especially with noise.

(4) I tend to speak my mind when (1) (2) or (3) turns into a human interaction. It almost always results in some kind of scene.

Don't get me wrong, whenever I'm in the city I have great talks with strangers and share smiles, give someone a quarter when they're a little short for change for the bus, etc.

But my Vancouver trips always end up in some kind of argument with a butthole. This time in Vancouver there were two scenes.

Number (1) was a guy on moped-with-bike-pedals who yelled at me for biking through a red light. What the hell does he care? Let me be. This turned into an extended conversation at each red light, with him yelling over me and not letting me get a single word in. I had polite things to say, but by the end I was furious that someone was taking out all their shit on me and not even letting it become a dialogue.

Looking back on it, I wish I slapped him on the face.

Number (2) Was a guy playing a video game on his IPod on the 45-minute bus ride from the Ferry terminal into Vancouver. With the sound turned up. Everyone was irritated, you could tell, especially the guy sitting next to him. I ended up giving a two-sentence lecture on respecting the people around you. On the bright side, everyone was happy I spoke up when he muted his piss-machine.

What's my fucking problem?

Sometimes I feel like a bear wandering around the streets. I'm doing my thing, but people don't like it. Fine. Then they have to get in my face somehow, maybe without even knowing it. Then I get mad.

I'm really lucky I haven't been beat up more often than I have been. My close friends tell me that a lot.