Just one more day of commuting to school from my current location. I will be ever so much closer, my bus ride knocked down to only three stops. I'll miss my reading time. I had a good hour of reading a day on my return bus trips, allowing me to race through several delicious novels this summer. I also get a certain people-watching joy out of bus riding.

There are a couple of things I won't miss though! One thing is the people who push ahead of you to get to the empty seats. That's irritating.

There's a strange line-culture here too. Because it often rains here, and the bus stop I wait at is not covered, people have a tendency to stand back, under the awning of the nearby building. It's understood that we're all in line. But occasionally someone will go and butt ahead of the rest of us, racing onto the bus when it arrives. Or even worse, they'll try and enter on the back entrance of the bus. I get a certain satisfaction when the bus driver notices and boots them off.

But there are two things that bother me even more. One is the cell-phone thing. There are people who have loud, personal conversations on the bus. It's most intrusive and annoying. It's bad enough I have to hear annoying conversations of people next to me talking inanely about their dull lives. It's infinitely worse to hear only half the conversation. Cell-phone conversations should be kept to the bare necessities in places like restaurants, sidewalks and most of all busses!

And last but not least, the crime of all crimes, the door-blockers. These people don't seem to understand that the door is actually a portal through which people exit the bus. They seem to think that the bay is merely there for them to stand in for five or six stops. They don't even bother to turn around or scoot out of the way when the bus stops at Granville Street or some other busy intersection. They act genuinely surprised when you ask them to move out of the way. My plea to bus-riders everywhere: don't stand in the door unless you are getting off at the next stop. Not two stops or three. The very next one.

Well, if I had time I'd also complain about people who don't take off their schoolbags and then bang into you whenever the bus changes lanes, or people who reach over your seat and open the window without asking, or people who don't move back even when the bus driver asks them too, totally destroying the efficiency of the entire system. But I'll save that for another rant. After all, my bus days are not completely over, just reduced.