in de ghetto!

i live in an area / neighborhood of washington, dc called SHAW. with the advent of gentrification all over the place here, i certainly live on the *fringe* of what is and what isn't ghetto (pronounced: zhet-toe) LOL. on the way home from frank's house i took the #96 city bus across town enroute to stadium armory. at around 1:30 am i witnessed the most interesting of things. (mind you i was the only one on the bus at the time!) at the corner of 14th street and u street, nw, the bus operator proceeded to jump out of the bus at a red light and tried to make his way to the all night mcdonald's window on the corner. exasperated because he was obviously hungry and the line was too long, he reluctantly got back on the bus to continue on his late night route. as the bus operator was buckling himself back in, some random man waiting for another bus to come by offered to sell him his pizza for $5.00. As a whole stop light cycle came and went, I literally witnessed an exchange of words to sell this sausage and olive pizza from PAPA JOHN'S. "Let me see it!" "It's cold!" "Oh no you didn't just drop it! Damn, I'm *howngree* -- lemme buy that damned pizza!" Wow -- the driver finally bought the pizza and in the same motion, trying to catch the next green light, proceeded to drive the bus with a somewhat cold pizza in his right hand, and pizza box and steering wheel in the other! To make things better, we pick up another rider about 2 blocks down who tries to use a bus transfer well expired beyond the time allotted. The driver then quizzes the new rider about how old the transfer is with his mouth full of pizza and driving at the same time. The rider, in turn, attempts to actually pay another fare when lo and behold, the driver asks if the kid has any soda in his bag. The kid pulls it out and gives it to him and is subsequently excused from paying another fare! WOW!!!! I live living in the city. :-)