okay - here's the cast of characters i encountered & met on the train from LA to Portland:

*almost punk rock ex-goth bisexual girl
*completely level headed black girl who i later discovered had been rolled for GTA and was(is?) a bit of a gangbanger
*15-16 year old who looked like she was 13 and (apparently) had recently had a kid
*40 year old ex-skag head (or maybe crack - i never asked for details) who's 17 year old son was facing 30 years in prison (in trial at the moment - btw this woman was my seatmate and was without question amazing - so glad to have met her)
*dude wearing a "10 excuses for chating" shirt who gave a 13 year old his number to give to her mom (she went for it too - the mom, not the kid)
*a very tragic drag queen
*two parents unable/willing to control their kids one of whom went on a 4 minute tirade repeating 'fuckfuckfuckfuck...' in her ubercute kid voice.
*an ex-military western grandpa saying 'dunno about you, but i look around me and i see the end times are coming'
*tweaker - had it WAAAAY worse than chuckles.
*an 8th grade gangbanger who was trying his hardest to be tough and hard, but only succeeded to a point because of his spiderman backpack

*and a LOVELY ex first grade teacher who was completely normal.

between these people there were alot of desperate smokers screaming for the next smoke stop and a grip of homophobic people. the homophobes were funny though...well, as funny as homophobia can get...

the first 24 hours were super fun. after that i was ready to kill these two amazingly annoying 13 yearold kids. in the meantime i finished 2 hats and a scarf. good times all around.,