Sleep in Motion

As I've mentioned, I often sleep on the bus. When you have an hour of travel time to class (and you're not driving) sleeping just seems like the best option, especially on the really early morning commutes when it's still dark outside. Some people are so into sleeping on the bus that they bring travel neck pillows and small blankets. This seems a bit much to me, as it would mean carrying around naptime supplies throughout my day at school until I could get back on my rolling bed chamber and sleep my way home. All I need to sleep on the bus is either a seat to myself or someone sitting next to me who doesn't spend the ride chatting on the phone.

At this point in my commuting career (about 4 years), my internal clock has the ride pretty much timed and I tend to wake up about the same time each morning as the bus pulls off the busway onto Grant St. If you're new to sleeping on the bus, it might be a good idea to set an alarm on your phone or ipod to vibrate you awake about ten minutes prior to your stop.

I've never slept through my stop, but I've come close. I've also woken up way early, looked around in a daze completely perplexed by my surroundings and began to panic under the assumption I had missed it.

Keep in mind, it's easy to fall out of an aisle bus seat while nodding off, and it also might not be a good idea if you know yourself to be a heavy drooler or someone who talks in their sleep. Otherwise, it's a great use of time on the morning commute.

Killing Time

Most of the time I spend on the bus, I sleep. When I'm not sleeping, I tend to just gaze out the window and let my mind wander as a I watch people and absorb my surroundings. With headphones in my ears, I stare at people on the sidewalk waiting for buses of their own or drifting from one place to the next. As my ipod creates the soundtrack for the ride, I often find myself thinking that, were this a movie, these people would begin an elaborate dance number where they all know the steps and transform the city landscape into a musical extravaganza. I'm still waiting for this magical, musical experience to happen.

My bus travels through Oakland and parts of Shadyside and Point Breeze. Rolling through these tree-lined neighborhoods I become captivated by beautiful and diverse architecture. One stone house resembles a fairy-tale cottage while the next is modern, rectangular and resembles a Frank Lloyd Wright creation. On the other side of the street a Spanish style hacienda complete with cream colored stucco walls and terracotta tile roof is only doors away from a Gothic castle--it's dark stone walls and wrought iron gates resting in the shade of towering trees.
So while my mind wanders from what might be happening in the lives of passersby, to what type of cars are most common in the various neighborhoods, other people on the bus tend to read.

Reading is one of the most common ways to kill time on the bus. I spend most of my spare time with books, but I just can't focus on text when I'm on the bus. Some fellow riders use this time to catch up on current events with a newspaper spread out between their outstretched arms. A habit that appears to require way more space than exists in a bus seat, especially with a person seated next to you constantly dodging your pages and arms while you browse the sports section.

NewYorkTimes.com has put together this really interesting slideshow (and this article, it accompanies) on what people in NYC read on the subway. Check out what others are reading while I'm pondering the architecture of Pittsburgh suburbs.