Today’s Misadventures On The Way Home

I forgot my headphones when I left for work this morning. I usually use a pair of bluetooth AirPods, and then would keep a wired set of similar-shaped ear buds in my backpack, as a just-in-case. Apparently I took those out at some point, so today I’m listening to the world around me.

There’s two buses to get home; they usually sync up just fine, but there’s some pretty heavy construction up the main drag of my first bus, so we were delayed just long enough that I missed the second bus. Not a huge deal — there’s half-a-dozen restaurants at that intersection that I like, so I popped in to one for dinner while I waited for the next bus.

While I was waiting for my food, Guns ‘N’ Roses “November Rain” was playing on the overhead radio. I don’t know if it was a proper station, or like a Spotify or YouTube playlist or what, but the song got cut off after the “pretty” part, and before the heavy guitars kicked in. That, um, that’s like a third of the song. Weird! I remember a friend telling me she heard that, way back in the days if America Online, but I’d never experienced it for myself.

And then there was a weird edit of “Zombie” by The Cranberries that, like, shortened random parts of the song? I’m not sure how else to phrase it. It sounded like a CD skipping.

And then a live version of GNR’s “Paradise City.” Nothing too unusual there.

Then an edited version of U2‘s “With Or Without You,” with the same CD-skipping cuts that “Zombie” had.

As I left, a live version of GNR’s “Welcome to the Jungle” came on. What even is this playlist? Like the dude wanted to listen to JUST Guns ‘N’ Roses, but put some other random 90s songs on there? It was truly bizarre.

I caught the next connecting bus home, and as soon as I got on board, some random guy looked right at me and says real loud, “Oh THERE you are! Hi, Ken!!”

I stopped, blinked, looked at him for a second, and while taking my seat just casually said, “There’s no Ken here!”

I’m most of the way home as I write this. Most days, the trip home isn’t so eventful. Or, if it is, I miss it because I’m listening to something in my headphones.

What an odd trip home!