The most stupid ticket story

While enduring my bus-taking torment during my first month in Vegas, I realized I had less than 2 minutes to make it to the bus stop before the bus, and waiting for the pedestrian light to go green was not going to cut it. So I looked both ways, saw no car in like half a mile, and ran for it. I made it perfectly fine, but I failed to notice the cop in a motorcycle hiding behind the bushes. As I ran for the bus stop, he caught up with me and told me he had seen me jaywalking. As my only concern at the moment was not to miss the bus, since I was not looking forward to waiting for 30 minutes for the next one (in some dubious company, I may add), I did not argue it. When he finally issued the ticket, I frantically took it, thanked him (my generous nature knows no limits), and ran for dear life to the stop. I had made it. However, I also made it into the record book as the only person in the US who's ever got a jaywalking ticket.

While waiting for the bus...

The craziest things in life happen in bus stops. If you have never ridden one; man, are you missing on a lot of exciting experiences! On my last bus trip here in Vegas, I was so excited that I was going to get my car. Destiny, apparently, sensed how memorable that occassion was, too, and decided to give me one more creepy experience. The following is a true account of what happened to me next.

I had to transfer buses, and I got off at a central bus station. My next bus had already left, so I had to wait for almost 30 minutes. As I was walking around, a strange-looking man stood in front of me and said: "Que bonita estas!" I stared back and said nothing. He then said: "Hablas español?" I realized I had blown my cover when I said "No". However, I refused to say anything else. He kept flirting with me in Spanish, while I kept insisting I couldn't understand him and moved away.

I walked over to a bench in front of my bus door, and sat down to read. Once, I looked up from the book, and noticed the same man seating on a bench next to me, staring. Realizing how blessed I was for being in the midst of a very populated place, I tried to focus on my reading again. Happily, the bus came not long afterwards, and as I got in line to get on it, creepy man stood 3 feet away from me, and kept saying how I was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, while I cursed all ignorant men in my head. Never before had I been happier to get on a bus than that day, and never before had I seen my cute white Impala as one of the largest blessings in my life.

Unfulfilled prophesy?

A couple of months before I moved to Vegas, I quit my job as a professor, and started working as a freelance teacher at a language school, teaching...guess what? Yeah, English. I loved working there, because most of my colleagues had very interesting backgrounds. They were from or had lived in many different parts of the world, and hanging out with them was always exciting.

I used to talk a lot with the guy who was my immediate supervisor; he was a unique character, and I suspect he had a crush on me...but I could be wrong. Anyway, when I told him I was only going to work for them until the end of July, he seemed very disappointed (I have been blessed with the gift of public speaking, which makes me an awesome teacher...sorry, I didn't mean to sound pretentious there). When I told him I was moving to Vegas to go to school, his face twisted into a sarcastic grin, and said: "Vegas is going to eat you alive."

HUH!! I proved him wrong!! Or did I?