Lessons Are Where You Find Them

[James1588]

I've just had occasion to drive a car belonging to a relative to her home, some 900 miles away, after which I needed to return to my home. Most people would fly. As it happens, I'm strongly allergic to taking orders from imbeciles with blue gloves and attitude, so I don't fly; anywhere I go, I drive. So I thought, I'll have an adventure. I'll go by bus. I hadn't been on a distance-traveling bus since the early 1970s, so I didn't realize what I was letting myself in for. Over 27 hours later, I had a very complete appreciation for the realities of bus travel in the year 2017. But this isn't really about bus travel. It's about the demimonde. So indulge me, if you will, and read on.

Just hitting the high spots on the bus world: every station has the same signage, prohibiting the wearing of sunglasses, hoods, and ball caps. The driver's seat is separated from the rest of the bus interior by thick plastic walls, which probably aren't bulletproof but look substantial enough to resist knives, crowbars, baseball bats, fists-o-fury, and kung-fu feet, at least for a while. Every driver's spiel over the speakers, when leaving the station, includes the admonition that not only is smoking frowned upon, but narcotics use is also discouraged. The passenger population: well, let's just say that the grungiest Walmart you've ever seen is an elite, exclusive club (pretty much a Mensa chapter), compared to the population of a bus rolling down the highway. In terms of physique, the passengers fall into two bins: those who are working on their upcoming diabetic coma, who require every bit of the width of their seat and up to half of yours as well, or the ones whose emaciation, skin quality, and remaining teeth cry out loudly and eloquently that the substance of which I may not speak here (but that was made famous by that AMC series about Walter White) is probably bad for your health. I'd say 90%+ are cigarette smokers, and even though they do not indulge on the bus, when they all pile back in after a "rest break," with the residual smoke pouring out of their clothing and hair, well ... it ain't pleasant, not if you're smoke-averse, as I am.

So, what's this got to do with the demimonde?

It's this. What I was traumatized by was 27 hours of semi-intimacy with people I didn't choose. And, really, "semi-intimacy" is misleading. It was more like 5% intimacy, a condition for which I don't have a specific term. Not very intimate, anyway. Nobody was naked, quite. Didn't get in touch with anyone's genitalia, nor vice versa. Didn't kiss anyone, not even a little closed-mouth peck. Didn't have to find out just how poor a job any of them do, in terms of cleaning their rear ends, post-defecation ... an experience that I'm extremely grateful not to have had. And I got to thinking about sex workers. Not just those specific women with whom I've been lucky enough to share the joys of the bed; I think about that small handful of women many times during my usual day, and I smile each time. No, I thought about working women in general. I thought about how many profiles I've read, in which the chief "like" is clean clients, and the chief dislike is unclean ones. Damn, but that's easy to understand. I thought about newbie-friendly women, who have to prepare themselves to get naked with men whom they not only have never met, but who also have never been with a sex worker at all, and all the hideous possibilities they face, even without the possibility of law enforcement or serial killers, rapists, robbers, and whatnot. All of this for market rates that I know perfectly well, even having done "this" only since 2013, are falling. And, although I knew this anyway, I was reminded afresh ...

These women earn every. Damned. Cent. That they take in. Period.

[yitzchak]

Yea, right. I've road the grey hound bus across the states. All I did was sleep and play on my phone. I was hurting for cash and the people there gave me money. Do you think a hooker would ever do that? She is not better than those people on the bus. She is even worse company, because at least those people are honest and have decency. We can never understand why she does what she does. For every man like yourself that she has pleased, there are a dozen more she has slaughtered.

[SeekingFun69]

http://www.theonion.com/article/30-m...bus-crash-2339

[James1588]

Originally Posted by SeekingFun69

http://www.theonion.com/article/30-m...bus-crash-2339

My old father used to say, "Too true to be funny." I have to disagree, though. I laughed my butt off at that!

The four passengers pictured: I guess I couldn't have seen them, since they're dead. Pretty sure I saw their siblings, though.

Thanks!

[Old-T]

Originally Posted by yitzchak

Yea, right. I've road the grey hound bus across the states. All I did was sleep and play on my phone. I was hurting for cash and the people there gave me money. Do you think a hooker would ever do that? She is not better than those people on the bus. She is even worse company, because at least those people are honest and have decency. We can never understand why she does what she does. For every man like yourself that she has pleased, there are a dozen more she has slaughtered.

Typical YZ Troll. You have it backwards: for every dozen she has pleased, there is one like you who self-destructs.

[Claire She Blows]

Originally Posted by yitzchak

Yea, right. I've road the grey hound bus across the states. All I did was sleep and play on my phone. I was hurting for cash and the people there gave me money. Do you think a hooker would ever do that? She is not better than those people on the bus. She is even worse company, because at least those people are honest and have decency. We can never understand why she does what she does. For every man like yourself that she has pleased, there are a dozen more she has slaughtered.

Bitter much?

[yitzchak]

Dude, my life is destroyed by someone who is doing absolutely nothing with theirs. What kind of a person pretends to be poor in order to take money from a poor person? What kind of person begs for money when they have enough? What kind of person sells themselves instead of getting a job? They are con artists, and they are corrupt. The people on the bus might be ugly on the outside, but they are better people on the inside.

What kind of a person begs for money when they don't need it? I've never begged for money in my life, and I've needed it plenty of times. Those people on the bus gave me money, because they have a soul, not because I was begging or making up stories to manipulate them.

[Wakeup]

Originally Posted by James1588

As it happens, I'm strongly allergic to taking orders from imbeciles with blue gloves and attitude...

Quit reading after this point...

[FLReWrite]

Originally Posted by Claire She Blows

Bitter much?

Yes, yes she is.

Well written, OP.

[James1588]

Originally Posted by Wakeup

Quit reading after this point...

You did better than I would have. I generally quit reading as soon as I see "Wakeup."

[yitzchak]

But you didn't. You saw Wakeup and then read the whole post.

I just don't understand how you can logically come to the conclusion that someone who is unattractive, overweight or diabetic is lower in status than a peddling whore or a deluded old chode. I'm sure you're not Mr. Handsome yourself. So, I don't know why you feel inclined to look down on other people, at least those who are not whores or "established gentlemen" like yourself. If at anyone, you should look down on drug dealers and whores, who chose a dishonest means to make a living.

She wants designer clothes and useless shit, and she'll do anything for it. She is in love with money. A woman who is married to money can never be trusted. Her way is the way to hell.

[James1588]

Originally Posted by yitzchak

But you didn't. You saw Wakeup and then read the whole post.

I just don't understand how you can logically come to the conclusion that someone who is unattractive, overweight or diabetic is lower in status than a peddling whore or a deluded old chode. I'm sure you're not Mr. Handsome yourself. So, I don't know why you feel inclined to look down on other people, at least those who are not whores or "established gentlemen" like yourself. If at anyone, you should look down on drug dealers and whores, who chose a dishonest means to make a living.

She wants designer clothes and useless shit, and she'll do anything for it. She is in love with money. A woman who is married to money can never be trusted. Her way is the way to hell.

At whom are you trolling this time?

[Old-T]

James, you know better than that--trolls don't need a specific target, they just inject trollishness into the environment to slime whomever gets in the path.

[yitzchak]

Who do you think? I mentioned a deluded old chode who thinks he is better than working class people and thinks a whore is a debutante.

Forgive me, your highness. You have fucked many whores.

[Old-T]

Well little troll boy, why don't you actually comment on something you know first hand.

From your most likely fictional life story this whole board does not fit that category.