Just get on and sit down!!!

When I drive to work in the mornings I have to drive through Channleview. Which, as most of you know, it the town I grew up in.

Let me tell you a little about "The View"...Channelview is a lower middle class area, sure, there are some people with money but those are usually families whose dads have worked at the chemical plant for 20+ years. I remember when I was growing up, there were a couple of people I went to school with whose fathers were executives, but for the most part everyone else's parents were working class. The majority of Channelview is non-deed restricted, which means you could have a $250,000 home and someone could buy the property next to yours and build a trailer park, and there is nothing you can do about it. Over the years, more and more trailer parks have popped up around the Channelview area. Which is fine, I don't care if you live in a trailer! In a trailer park, for those of you who have never seen or been to one, you can have as few as 5 trailers or as many as 30, depending on how big the piece of property is. So, if you have a trailer park with 20 trailers, more likely than not, you are going to have A LOT of children living in said trailer park. That brings me to what I want to bitch about this morning. I think there should be bus stop rules!

1. If there are two trailer parks located right next to each other, combine the kids at one entrance.
(This morning I was behind a school bus that stopped at one park and picked up about 12 kids, then as soon as she closed the bus door her yellow lights came back on and drove about 10 feet to the next park and picked up another 10 kids. Why is this necessary...combine the kids and get moving, I need to get to work!)

2. When you see the bus at the end of the street, start hugging your kids goodbye and telling them to have a good day before it stops at your residence.
(So, you have a cluster of kindergarten age children and every one of them has a mother waiting with them, which I get, you don't want a 5 year old running into the street...why do you wait to hug and kiss your child when the bus stops making all 10 of the cars behind the bus wait 5 minutes for you to tell your kid you love them. Seriously, you see the bus...hug your kid. It's not hard, I need to get to work.)

3. After you have all met at one location, you've seen the bus, hugged your kid, start lining the kids up, that way getting the kids on the bus is more efficient.
(Seriously, 22 kids in a cluster can't all board the bus at the same time. Put them in a line so they can get on the bus and I can get to work!)

4. You know what time the bus gets there, be standing in the line with the rest of the kids.
(Every morning I have to wait even longer because there is a mother and a child running from the last slot in the trailer park and the bus sits there. You're not there, you get left...that's how it was when I was riding a bus.)

5. Once the kid is on the bus, tell them to find a seat and sit down.
(Get on the bus and walk towards the back until you see an empty seat and sit down. I don't care if you don't that kid, make a new friend, read a book, whatever...just hurry up because I need to get to work!)

If they would follow these easy rules, it would probably knock about 15 minutes off my commute.

Until next time...

Mandy