On bus drivers...

I have been riding buses regularly since I was 11 years old, so I consider myself somewhat of an expert on buses. I won't even get started on the bad quality buses and lines here in Provo, because that's not my point: the truth is, most of the bus drivers are great around here.
Many times, I've gotten onto a bus after a grueling day at work/school/dance to go home and then been uplifted by the kind bus drivers. There's the nice and slightly quirky one who likes to talk a lot, and then there's the smiley lady with nice skin, and there's the nice old man who compliments me on my smile and tells me to make sure to stay warm when I get off the bus. I love bus drivers!

Except for one.

I can understand hating your job, but in his case... he just hates people in general. WHY IN THE WORLD would you do a job where you are CONSTANTLY in contact with people every minute of the day if you can't stand people! You might be thinking "oh maybe he just doesn't like blondes, or just you." NO, he hates everyone!

I have NEVER seen him smile, ever. as if it wasn't enough that he's just plain grumpy (which I could live with), he goes out of his way to get annoyed at me. Once, while getting on the bus, I swiped my card as usual and the machine made a particularly loud BEEP! so I figured something was wrong -- (turns out it was just a new one so the beeps were louder-- I had validated my card just fine) so I swiped again to see if maybe I had just swiped wrong and this time the machine was just beeping at me with a red light-- I turn to him for some help and he looks at me with an annoyed look and says "why did you swipe it again idiot" (ok, he didn't really say idiot, but it was in his tone, and he rolled his eyes at me) and then he turned away from me and I just hustled on to my seat so as to avoid further contact.

People, it's not that I haven't tried to be nice. I've flashed him my biggest grin. I've said hello as loud as I could while climbing on (I figured maybe he's just hard of hearing and that's why he never says hello back). Nope. definitely heard me, he just ignored me on purpose.

Oh, did I mention the time I dared to sit on a bench two yards from the actual bus stop sign? Mind you, the bench is on the same corner as the stop, and the stop happens to be where there is no sidewalk and a tree with low branches. I have a 15 minute wait and it's already freezing, so of course, I wanted to stand a foot deep in the snow right? Silly me. The bus stopped at the stop because someone else WAS standing at it, but when I got on I got his snide remark: "that bench isn't the bus stop." oh EXCUSE ME! Why in the world would somebody put a bench in the middle of nowhere? Mind you, this is not a park, not a play area. It's a corner on a street. No logical reason to stick a bench there UNLESS it's because... oh wait, the bus stops on the same corner. Yeah, forgive me for making THAT mistake.