"I Have My Dignity!"

Another true tale from San Francisco. It's taken me a long time to get around to telling it because it deserves some thought. It was weird, fucked-up, and racist, yet I still can't believe it happened.

We didn't want to deal with a rental car in Frisco, so we relied on public transit instead. The cable cars are a San Fran thing, and from our hotel we found it quite useful to get to everywhere we wanted to go (mainly Chinatown). But we needed to hit the Golden Gate Bridge our second and final day there. The cable cars don't go there, but the dingy ol' bus does, so we started on the two buses (and one transfer) to get to the bridge, hybridizing tourist goals with local transportation.

While waiting for the second bus in an area of the city that no tourists (besides the ones on their way to Golden Gate) see but probably is pointed out in guidebooks for people who want to "go beyond the usual, worn-out places" and "see authentic San Francisco and real San Franciscans" (forgive me for ripping off Zagat, although I think I use phrases that are longer and a little more informative), we ran into these two Chinese ladies. They were dressed better than we were, spoke Mandarin a mile a minute but had conversational English, and were also going to the bridge. One of them was quite; made small talk, but seemed to have a plan and didn't want to waste her time on too much small talk.

The other -- ugh, the other. They were both older (sixties I think?) but this one was not your stereotypically docile and easygoing senior. She seemed friendly at first, sitting down at the bus stop with me and asking me where we're from, etc. But then she started talking about herself, and then other things, and then I forget what specifically was the subject at hand because I started to get a little annoyed. But she kept talking like she'd be shot if she even took a breath.

I was relieved when she suddenly stood up because she was unsure that the stop and side of the street we were on was the spot where the bus that went to the Golden Gate Bridge would stop. I got away from her as quickly as possible and stood by my Mother. I was sort of close to holding her hand; I was that scared.

But this idiot really outdid herself. I look back to the shelter where we were sitting at and she's getting in the face of this townie. He was trying to be nice, but she was saying things repeatedly, like "I know-I know" and "yeah-yeah-yeah." Those are the exact words, spoken in the exact way, that My Fucking Father uses when talking (down) to me, and that is a button that is permanently depressed for me, resulting in so much vitriolic insanity spewing from out of me because of the condescending, dismissive attitude those words signify to me. And she wasn't just being obnoxious; she was touching his shoulder and poking his chest, and it looked like she was getting in his way.

Either he got sick of this physical accosting or having everything he says in order to try and help this obnoxious bitch be ignored by her and her "yeah-yeahs" or "I know-I knows," but he just started yelling at her. He went around her corporeal blockade and pointed to the electronic sign showing that the bus to Golden Gate was coming in several minutes. And then -- and I can't fuckin' believe she said this -- she said something to the effect of, "You're rude."

And that's when he finally lost it, and lost me. "Why can't you Asians go back to where you belong? (At this point, I'm paraphrasing everything he said. I might be making whole phrases up. But this guy was a racist asshole, believe me.) You come to our city and you can't even figure out how to get around this place?!"

Then Annoying Mandarin Bitch says, "You're not nice!"

Him, after some other stuff that would make sense in a segue to this: "Then we should all vote and get [San Francisco mayor] Gavin Newsome outta here!"

And that's when I had to point out what a wingnut he sounds like: "We don't live here. If you don't want to help, don't!"

That's when he said something that I couldn't help but internally laugh at: "I want to help. If someone asks me for help, I give it. I'm a nice person. I have my dignity!!!"

After that he went on his way. I should've taken out my digital camera and shot something more rare than a sighting of Bigfoot: A Republican in San Francisco.

Mother and I also went on our away -- the fuck away from this rude, personal space-invading moron before she got us into more fucking trouble. And yet, with a bus ride and subsequent walk on the fogged-in Golden Gate, she and her friend glommed onto us until they decided they didn't want to walk across a bridge that couldn't see any longer. Thank bleepin' Buddha.