When I was there, a huge Grizzly Adams-bearded homeless guy wandered by wearing a sailor’s hat like this and a giant pink flowery muu-muu dress.
Definitely an odd dude to have walk by. I don’t recall him talking, although he did stink something fierce.
There was a guy here who used to ride the bus up and down one street in Albuquerque. He’d apparently had a seeing eye tiger, a seeing eye polar bear, and a seeing eye alligator. He’d also gone to Alaska and become a leader of a pack of wolves.
He’d killed a cop in Oklahoma and been given the death penalty. When they let the gas into the chamber, he just got high so they gave him the chair. He got high off that too. They gave him a lethal injection and that also made him high so they gave up and let him go.
Aside from the bizarre stories, he was actually a pretty nice guy. Once I got sick and spat up on the bus and he was the only one of the passengers who asked the driver for a paper towel so I could wipe my face.
One of the reasons I didn’t go into psychiatry was the fear that one day talking to people with severe craziness would no longer be entertaining. Then I would have lost a true joy in life.
Being a CTA rider every day, it kinda wears on ya. I’m a bit jaded and wary of people who seem unstable. I keep pepper spray handy. When I lived in the suburbs and drove and never used public transportation, I found them more amusing. Now, being stuck in a tin can with no escape for several minutes at a time is not appealing.
I miss her, too. I don’t think she was crazy. A lot of people were really mean to her. Did she quit? 
On the topic at hand, no I don’t enjoy listening to really crazy people. I often feel very bad for them or very scared. Most of the crazy people I’ve meet offline seem to have anger issues.
When I was living in Philadelphia I was riding the subway when this guy took off his clothes and was sitting on the other side of the care talking to himself, buck naked. He was in pretty good shape. I kept thinking to myself “Yeah, this is wrong and he’s going to get arrested soon, but his dick is so big, and black, and I should put my bag in my lap.”:o The cops were waiting at the next stop and arrested him.
