you'd think

Call me late to the show but it's so much harder to be consistently  nice than it is to be a jerk. I'm struggling these days. I hope the struggle means I'm learning.
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That said, I had to tell a man he couldn't sit next to me on the bus today. He's a creepy guy, probably learning disabled, who rides very occasionally, and always makes his way to wherever I am sitting and sits next to me. Once he sat down close in a mostly empty bus and put his hand on my knee (I yelled Cut it out!). A couple weeks ago, he squeezed in between me and a college girl, his leg resting against mine. When I moved, he got mad and talked shit  to the back of the bus for the next fifteen minutes. So today, when he headed for the empty seat next to mine, I got up my nerve and said flatly, You can't sit here. When he protested, I reiterated Sorry dude, you can't sit here. The back of the bus quieted. The woman across from me slid over to let him sit down. I could feel people's horrified stares. How dare she tell the retarded guy he can't sit next to her. When he got off the bus I explained to the woman, and she seemed relieved. I wondered, she said. I figured you had a reason. I did, but I still felt horrible about it.
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I took this picture of glow stix a month ago but with Olympics fever raging it seems appropriate to post now.