“GHETTO ASS BITCHES”
DATE: 06.27.10 TIME: 09:40 AM

As I’ve said in many previous posts, I walked to my train station before I was pregnant. Once in a while, I took the bus…. but it wasn’t too often. Most recently, the extra weight on my frame plus the heat/humidity has basically forced me to ride the bus. The bus station where I wait is right across the street from our apartment and I see many of the same people each morning waiting for the bus while I say hello and move right past them to walk to the train station. Over the past 8 months, I’ve actually had a couple of women comment to me “So, I see you’re slowing down a bit!”

At about 30 weeks, the time came to wait for the bus every morning which I absolutely hate because 1) it proves that I’m now immobile when I swore I’d be walking until we’d be calling a car to take us to the hospital to deliver our baby; 2) the bus is so crowded in the morning that it takes about three minutes for people to get on and off at each stop (which is why it usually takes LESS time to walk than ride the bus!); and 3) the bus I ride is NOT coming from a good neighborhood.

So here I see the bus making it’s way down the street while it’s about to come to a halt at our bus station. Everyone at my station who are waiting tell me to go on the bus first. First, the bus driver does not lower the bus so I can my way easily up the first step. Then when I get on the bus, I have the pleasure to encounter three teenage girls who are sitting in the “disabled” seats right at the front of the bus. The disabled seats are for those handicapped and otherwise “immobile” passengers who can’t squeeze through the 30 people standing in the middle portion of the bus (because there are NEVER any seats available). As soon as I got on the bus, one of the teenage girls took one look at me and waved her finger while yelling “BACK OF THE BUS! YES, YOU, BACK OF THE BUS!” She couldn’t be but 17 or 18 years old. And look, I have NO PROBLEM making my way to the back of the bus, while squeezing through people, when I don’t have a huge ass belly poking out in front of me. There was NO physical way I could go anywhere but right where I was, and there were about 15 people at my bus stop waiting to get on the bus after me. So I stood there for a quick second before someone in another “disabled” seat offered me theirs.

And it totally doesn’t stop there.

As I made my way over to one of the six seats, the same girl who yelling at me to move to the back of the bus, started yelling….. “Would everyone look at this! Look at this 15 year old girl expecting someone to get up for her when she is pregnant! She can’t be but 15 YEARS OLD!” As I sat down, I looked over to this girl, took a deep breath, and said…. “I am NOT 15 years old. I am almost 31 years old, bitch, so have some respect!” And yes, I totally called this girl a bitch for everyone to hear me - it just came out without even thinking about it. I think she was a bit stunned because she didn’t say ONE SINGLE word after that and her friends, under their breath, where like….”dammnnnnnn!” Of course, she had to get the last word while getting off at her stop where she muttered under her breath “BITCH” to me.

And I was fine. Completely fine. Until I got off the bus and called my mom. As soon as I heard my mom’s voice, the tears and hysterics came. If I can recall correctly, I was trying to say something along the lines of…. “I want to walk but I can’t. I just want to be able to walk again!” Not sure if my mom was even able to understand what I was saying because I was crying so hard.

So as a bonus to this story (I know it’s getting long. I’m wondering if you’re still with me at this point!), I was actually on my way to my obstetrician for my routine checkup. I cried all the way to the doctor’s office while I was on the train. People around me were probably thinking to themselves that my “boyfriend” broke up with me because, you know, I totally look like I’m 15 years old and wayyyy too young to actually have a husband and money and a mortgage and cats (yes, I HAD to throw the cats in there). I somehow was able to control myself as I walked into the doctor’s office, but the tears started again when Charlie walked in to meet me. And they started again when my nurse came to get us out of the waiting room.

Obviously, most of you reading this are my closest friends and family, and know that I might quite possibly be the happiest and most social person in the world, so as soon as my nurse saw me, she was like….”Whoa!” She couldn’t even take my blood pressure because I was such a mess. My doctor came in who I have to add is seriously the best doctor! He’s young (39 years old), gay and Jewish! What more could a young, liberal, Jewish pregnant woman ask for, right? He takes one look at me and quickly asks what is wrong. Sobbing, I get out the words, “bus,” “teenage girls,” “seat,” and his first words were “Ghetto Ass Bitches!”. And that was it, I started busting out laughing while snot was pouring out of my nose, as he added “FUCK ‘EM!”

I tell him the whole story, while he shares with us his stories about the discrimination he has experienced on his commutes, which is just UNREAL considering we live in New York City, one of the most liberal cities in the world! I told him that I would have been like, “I’m a DOCTOR, bitches! What do YOU have to say for yourself!” But it’s not too surprising since every city has their own ignorant, disgusting people who have no feelings for other people surrounding them, people who are different from them.

Whether it’s discrimination against a religion, race, sexual orientation, or in my case PREGNANCY, people in this country need to be more compassionate to those around them. I think we’d benefit from this simple gesture and we’d all be a lot happier in our lives if we didn’t harbor so much hatred for others.