Hipppies, sun eaters and friendly, friendly New Englanders....

I think it finally hit me yesterday, after waiting in sub zero temperatures for 20 minutes for my bus, that I was back in New England.  That I had ditched the high paying job and yet again moved my shit here for grad school.

The bus I was waiting for (20 mins in sub zero temps may I again remind you) never came.  I have the bus dispatcher's number on my speed dial (yes, this is a frequent and daily process) and called him only to learn my bus was stuck in some other small New England village for some unknown reason.  So I had to take another bus that winds its way around the environs of my village and then ponderously crawls via the industrial road to the next village over.  In that village I need to wait yet again for the next bus that FINALLY takes me to U. M ASS.  This is all because I need to get my car registered, get a license and get insurance.  Which is hard to do when you don't have a car to GET to the DMV in the first place.  Yes, this is a nightmare.

When the other bus finally came, I got on and I flashed him my student ID (here we get to ride the system for free with the ID).  And what friendly, friendly (and fucking typical I might add) response do I get from the old codger behind the wheel?  "I DON'T TAKE STUDENT IDs MISS!!!!"

I mean, he yelled it.    The others on the bus looked away.  In NY, someone might have stepped up for me at that point, but here in chilly Mass. everyone minds their own business.  How do you think so many witches were burned at the stake?

Anyway, I politely informed him that I was under the impression that I could use my ID on the bus line and he impolitely yelled back that I couldn't and that I had better pay up.  Fuck.  It was only a dollar so I gave it to him and huffed to the back where I sat for the rest of the ride glowering at him in the rearview mirror.

Welcome back to Western Massachusetts.   

My neighbor, a pianist from Argentina, came over last night for a cigarette and a beer and to introduce himself.  Not 5 minutes into the conversation, after finding out I'm not from these parts, he leaned over and said, "Can you believe how awful the people are here?  How rude and unfriendly?"  I had to agree and to this we drank a beer.  So perhaps I've made a new friend.

I'm currrently sitting in a cafe located in my village.  This is the only cafe in my village.  I naively walked in at 3:30 hoping to spend the evening here writing, but was informed by the pale and skinny vegan hippy behind the counter that they close at 4pm.   4 pm.  I looked around.  The place was packed.  With hippies of course, but hippies eating their stupid vegan food and drinking their coffee.  Hippies spending money. 

I told her I had just come in from New York and maybe I didn't understand the ways of life yet in the Village.  She looked and me and smiled and responded that frankly she found the Village to be too big for her.  She could never imagine the likes of NY.  So I bought a rather bland tasting vegan chili burrito and I sit here eating it.  Blogging now instead of working, because what's the point.

Interesting fact shared to me by someone who had once lived here a while.  There is a commune of people who live outside of Northampton called the Sun Eaters.  Apparently, they are raw foodists who believe eventually they can wean themselves off of raw food and just live on the sun's nutrients ALONE.  Eventually they want to feed themselves by sitting in the sun and just soaking up the rays.

First of all, good fucking luck in this weather and second of all, have they mentioned this technique to those displaced folks in Darfur?  Hell, who needs food!

And with that folks, I welcome you, and me, back home to Western Massachusetts. 

Comments

[King Of The Hill]

Taking the "New" out of "New" England I see. Buses / taxis / trains / any public service over here is run and operated by people like your bus driver I'm afraid. It must be a colonial legacy. We got used to it long ago. Unlucky there Oeds.

The Sun Eaters 'eh? Now I remember years ago, a really weird but rather pretty American woman who was on TV and in the papers a lot for a brief period claiming that she hadn't eaten anything in two years, living off solar nutrients. The reason I remember it is because not long after, a Scottish woman's starved body was found up in the remote Hebrides and the police established that she was a "disciple" of this notion - she had basically starved to death waiting for the sun to feed her (in Scotland - clever move).It was big news in the UK for a while. I thought this obscene fad had died out. From what you're saying, obviously not.

[vague]

This pianist neighbor sounds pretty interesting -- maybe you've got a new friend there, or, pair-happs, ze potentielle for somessingk moarrrr??

(Apparently this wine has made me type in an ambiguously European accent. I don't know.)

And KotH, I must admit laughing out loud* at your story of the Sun Eater in Scotland. Good grief.

*I kind of hate that the whole "LOL" thing has made me feel weird about mentioning that I laughed out loud. Bah.

[King Of The Hill]

Unless of course she belonged to the Sun Eater offshoot group, "Freezing Cold Gale Blasted Grey Murk Eaters."

[Oedipa]

Wow. I had no idea this was a global movement. Indeed, Scotland is a poor choice KOTH. Very poor. I mean, like, WTF???

Of course, New England is a poor choice too. Perhaps I can extend this judgement to the entire movement?

And Vague...the pianist is quite cute I think. Nad my age. And he's super well read and talented. But he's "kind of seeing someone" (this according to one of my friends...he didn't mention it to me).

This information will not prevent me from flirting with him once my many, mnay boxes of books are unpacked and my apt is finally set up.