Early last month, little Chicklet turned six months old, the age, according to the current wisdom, when baby should start eating solid food. To be ready for our offspring's spoon-feeding debut (not so much the eating as the pictures and videos), Bus Nerd and I needed a high chair.
After a bit of searching on Craigslist, I found one of those space-saver contraptions that attaches to an existing dining room chair. In the past, I've rented a Flexcar for Craigslist purchases, but this time, I decided to bus. The seller lived in Northgate, near a couple of bus routes I'd been wanting to try, and said the box was small enough to carry.
Of course, I was already at her house (routes 27 plus 66) by the time I realized that the box wasn't small enough to carry. It wasn't heavy, but it was too large to get my arms around, even if I hadn't been wearing my daughter in a front-pack carrier. After about a block of struggling, I used my keys to cut a handle in the side of the box. From then on it was a cinch to carry, and I had no trouble making it back to the bus stop. I had followed my rule to carry large items on the bus only during off-peak hours, so there was plenty of room for Chicklet, the box, and me on our 67 ride to 65th & 15th; we had an entire section to ourselves. Then we transferred on the 48, the bus that passes about a zillion schools (including, of course, the University of Washington) and for which 3 p.m. is very much peak time.
After I crammed myself, backpack on back, Chicklet on front, into the first front-facing seat, there was no place to put the big box but on the seat next to me. When the bus started filling up, I moved the box to the floor, but it was too big to fit between my seat and the folding, sideways-facing seat in front of us, so I put it in the leg space of the seat next to me. The woman who was brave enough to sit there was cool about having her knees in the aisle, despite the numerous dirty looks she received from the people who tripped over her on their way to the back. By the time we reached Montlake, all of the available sitting and standing room was taken, and the sun was beating through the windows onto the cramped, cranky passengers.
Forty-five long, hot minutes later, we arrived at our stop and managed, again, with the help of our seatmate, to maneuver the box through the crowd and off the bus. By the time Chicklet and I made it to the house, I had learned my lesson, and she (a trooper for the entire ride) had really worked up an appetite. Good thing I had a high chair handy.