Dear Public Bus Drivers

Dear Public Bus Drivers of the GTA,

I thank you all for your hard work
getting people from one place to another.
Although some times it is creepy,
I enjoy the random singing some of you do,
the kindness and understanding
that you show when I forget
where I placed my transfer ticket, and
the beautiful smiles you show
whenever I greet you.

I've never been a bus driver,
so I don't know the hardships that you go through.
I often wonder if driving a bus for hours
would mean experiencing difficult times
like having to hold it in and wait
for a short break to a washroom.
I believe it's hard to be a bus driver
with all the different people
you meet and deal with everyday.

Keep up the good work though!
Hopefully the umbrella that the YRT and TTC are under
would better their services
to benefit both you workers and commuters alike.

Sincerely,
Mun-Yeen Cheung

And It Hit Me

It's my third year studying environmental studies as my major, and it seem like there is an endless amount of work that need to be attended to. I think it may be because the courses I chose require a lot of attention. I enjoy the topics the lecturers and students talk about in my courses, but there's just too many issues in this world to talk about. School club activities also require spending a few hours every week.

I calculated the amount of time I spend on average in classes, school work, club(s), and travelling to figure out how many hours I have to myself at home to do chores, eat, clean, and sleep per week. This is what I got:

44 hours in class
12 hours for school work
6 hours for club
18 hours travelling

total: 80 hours
Hours per week: 168
Hours to myself at home: 88

If I divide 91 hours by 7 for each day of the week, I get about 12 hours to myself (not rounding up) everyday. I spend about 6 or less of those hours sleeping, so I actually get 6 hours to eat decent meals, read manga, iron shirts, and blah, blah, blah.

I wanted to try going to the pool at night, try this 'going out with friends' thing I've been missing these past years, and attending events held by the city and unknown organizations. I haven't been able to stop at a mall to get a swimsuit though, so swimming's out of the question. I either don't feel a comfortable connection with friends when we're together anymore or people keep cancelling on me, so I can't seem to keep up with this 'going out' thing. Tickets to events are costly, and it's not as fun when you're there without a friend as it would with a friend. I am complaining. I should just go do things myself rather than ask people to go with me, shouldn't I?

This is the part where an imaginary friend comes by, hangs out with me 24/7, and I end up being called a lunatic [again]. Many times I hope a bus or a truck would hit me, even though I know the chances of that happening is under 50%. I would occasionally listen to news reports about people being hit by a bus or a truck and I wonder how the people they knew were affected. Whenever I think about how I'm alive, I make a schedule. Maybe that's why I don't have enough free time to myself.

The skin under my eyes are purple.

This squirrel could never take over the world

I was walking with Ariana and Oie Lin on Spadina last Friday, and as we were passing by an apartment building surrounded by trees, we heard a loud thump. Something that was black and fuzzy and about the size of a soccer ball fell out of a tree. We took a closer look at it and it turned out to be a squirrel. The squirrel fell out of the tree and landed on its butt.

It sat still for a moment then ran to the back of the tree it fell out of. It didn't climb up the tree: it seemed more like it was waiting for us to do something because it wouldn't stop staring at us as we stared at it. We figured the squirrel was embarassed and wanted to be left alone, so we continued our journey up Spadina.

Is it normal for squirrels to fall out of a tree? Did that squirrel break its butt? Will I ever get to see another epic fall of a squirrel?


Heh heh. It made a loud thump noise.