Hard Truths for the Practitioner of Public Transportation

This is not my bus.

Brothers and sisters, I have learned some hard truths in recent days. So gather up the kids; here comes wisdom.

1. Do not get on the wrong bus in the morning. Do not get on the wrong bus in the morning even if it is the bus that you take in the afternoon on the way home. Number 26 is not the same as number 27, even though your mind will tell you that it is.  Number 26 will take you the wrong way. You will then have to stand up and pull the "Request Stop" cord and explain why you need to get off before the first stop. All the other passengers will shield their faces in shame. You will proceed to run back to the transit center but you will still miss the bus you should have taken.
   
2. The schedule posted on the Metro website is somehow more accurate than the live GPS bus tracking app. If you give it the chance, the app will lie to you. It will tell you that your bus is over twenty minutes late when, in fact, it's right on schedule. This will cause you to say, "To hell with it," and begin to walk home instead. The bus, bloated with climate-controlled air, will then blast past you less than two blocks from the station you just left.
   
3. You should not walk home from the bus stop in the summer while wearing dress clothes. If you do, you will be reminded by nature that when it rains in Houston in June it doesn't "cool things down" or "take the edge off." Instead it makes the entire city feel like a 5k-running werewolf's ass-crack. You will curse the month of your birth.

All that said, I really can't complain. These things were my fault, really. The bus and the train have been pleasant up to this point and quite liberating to boot. In a city where the car is still by far the most popular way to get somewhere, its nice to actually turn away from one.