Nicknames and TheBus

Typically, society portrays Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) as having blonde hair. That’s why it was so hard for me one morning to decide if I was “Alice in Wonderland” or “Goldilocks.” You see, I was riding the bus one morning, as my usual routine in getting to work, and a man was speaking to another bus rider, but with an unusually loud voice.

“I have a name for every person who rides this bus every morning,” he boasted. “I call her ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ and that one is Goldilocks.” He babbled on about this for a few minutes, repeating himself a few times, and talking about nicknames for a few other people. I knew I had to be one of those two.

“But then again,” I questioned myself, “Why am I not Sleeping Beauty? Doesn’t he see me at least trying to sleep every morning?”

As creepy as it may have sounded, I did want to know who I was. I could ask him, but I didn’t want to spark a long conversation with him. I try to sleep on the bus, and that would foil my plans. As I posted it on facebook, most responses I got back were in favor of me being “Alice.”

Well, this Nickname Guy couldn’t be too creepy; I had a few nicknames for people before. Actually, one man in particular.

On a later bus I used to ride, a man with an earring, glasses, and a mole, who worked at a museum, would get onto the bus. Of course, since my eyes were closed, I would usually smell him before I could see him. That led his nickname to become “Coffee Boy.” He’d walk onto that bus with coffee every morning. Sometimes he sat next or close to me, and I could smell that coffee even more. I just started to call him Coffee Boy in my head. Whenever I see him (usually on the way home), I say to myself, “There’s Coffee Boy.” I guess some people earn reputations, neither good nor bad. I earned an Alice/Goldilocks rep because of my hair, and another man earned a coffee rep.

The one rule Nicknaming Guy broke: you should never tell people on the bus about your nicknames for other bus riders.

And I guess he just earned himself a nickname by breaking that rule.