Like moths to a flame...or something like that.

For some reason that I will never understand, the same people tend to sit next to the same people on BART. And for some reason, this drives me nuts. I don't want the same person sitting next to me every day. Who do you think you are that I want you next to me? Why don't you go sit next to someone else and drive them nuts? Take up their personal space and leave mine alone!

For way over a year, I was taking the same train each morning -- the one that leaves a few minutes after 6am. For way over a year, the same lady would sit next to me. If not her, then this red-haired man that I almost killed one day because he really gets on my nerves. If I had my choice, I would pick her over him. If I really had a choice, no one would be sitting next to me unless I knew him or her. So come February, my work schedule changed and I was taking an earlier train. And then come April, my work schedule changed again, and I was taking a way later train. Then come the middle of April when I couldn't stand coming into work so late, I went back to either the earlier train or my normal, few minutes after 6am train.

Lately I've been getting on the earlier train -- not for any particular reason, just timing. But today, I got on the one a few minutes after 6am. Saw some of the same people I used to always see -- these two men who always sit next to each other, another fellow Translink patron who used to feed stray cats when the Hertz rental car lot wasn't in the BART parking lot...those people. I settled in, started reading, fell asleep, woke up and someone was sitting next to me.

It was that same darn lady. She must have missed me. But maybe not because she used to get up at Montgomery right at the time I wanted to stand up and get to the door (after the train stops, thank you, don't want to fall on my face like so many others do). I had to ask her to move.

I mean, if it were me who got on during the train commute, I would personally mix it up with whom I sat down next to. You don't want anyone thinking you're weird or keen on him or her or something. I can kind of see why someone would pick the same person over and over -- limits the surprise element on when the window seater wants to get off the train. It's like some BART entity is pairing us up. My only hope is that I don't get stuck next to the red-haired man. I actually moved to a different bench because the guy was driving me nuts. And of course, he followed me.

Like moths to a flame....