On Being Angry

Today, I had a pretty annoying ride to work. I ride a van to go to the next terminal and this morning, I had the chance to wait for 30 minutes to catch a ride. "Not so bad" I said, flicking the sweat on my then moist brow. The van arrives and we hopped in. And I was so fortunate to have been given the chance to grace the seat between two seats. That seat would be a wedge between a steady seat and a foldable one, a main feature for many passenger vans here in the country. "Okay, not that bad" I said to myself considering I can sit a bigger part of my butt on the seat. But as the traffic melee ensues in the bottleneck stop & go traffic near our highway exit, the tension begins.

My co-passenger on the right was a petite woman. I identified her as one of the more friendlier tellers at our neighborhood bank. On my left was a short but burly long-haired guy. Hugging his Deuter pack along the way. What sucked was he hugged that pack all the way, and it was bulky. His right elbow was lodged on my left ribcage. And it was annoying since I had to tilt right to compensate for the misplaced elbow. For more than 30 minutes I had to maintain that position. 

And I was beginning to feel the hit on my knees for trying to stick to that awkward geometrical shiz. Then I began inching towards my right seatmate. I felt sorry for her and then she got off. I wanted to dig my knuckles to the bridge of my burly seat mate's nose. "What a complete fuck" I said. No disregard for personal space at all and now I'm beginning to disregard my pacifist-nature. I honestly considered donating a quick elbow as if he was begging for it.

A sigh of relief was let out. Not by just me but by the guy as well. I didn't realize that he was having a bad time too. Apparently, his shin or knee was being ground to some part of the van. We were both going through some kind of discomfort during travel. I almost blew my top. But I still did not regret the things I would have done to him if I had my way. I'd breathe smoke into his skull but I'm glad I didn't. We all have bad times and we get angry, only to know that others are feeling the same without looking the part.

But still, I'm annoyed by his lack of respect for people's personal boundaries. We paid the same fare, I think it's but right to have the same degree of comfort. Fuck you dude, your Deuter pack is quite an old model.