on not having a car in grand rapids, mi

walking everywhere/taking the bus can give you a unique perspective on people. on the one hand, it makes me all the more appreciative of my friends who do drive that are always willing to pick my ass up to go to a movie or hang out at someone’s house or drive across the state to a concert. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: i really do have the best friends in the world.

on the other, it can also make you hate humanity with the red hot fire of a thousand burning suns. take for instance, the fact that everyone in this city, homeowners, renters, and businesses alike, feel absolutely no obligation to shovel their sidewalks. i know it’s hard to pull yourself away from that rerun of two and a half men for the MAYBE 20 minutes it takes you to shovel the 10 yards of sidewalk that lies in front of your property, but there are people in this town that have to, you know, walk on those things. especially when the only bus that goes near work decides, “hey, it’s christmas, i don’t feel like stopping at diamond and fulton today so a certain already-tired-from-hanging-out-til-3-am-the-night-before-mustache-enthusiast has to walk 1.6 miles to work through, at times, literally 2-foot high snow.” awesome.

i was walking back from my lunch, contemplating not writing this angry rant due to it being christmas and all when a car passed me at high speed and splashed a wave of sludge tall enough to coat kareem abdul jabbar from head toe.  that was the second time that had happened to me today.

good will toward man, indeed.  i’m moving to australia.

-srd