science moment at the X55 bus stop

So recently i've been taking the green line to work, and though I love having to dash across the freeway of death in order to get to the 55 bus stop off of the redline, the greenline bus stop definitely trumps the redline with its cast of characters that hang out in front of the liquor store/Harold's/abandoned H&R block storefront. Today, as I was waiting in my oh-god-I-really-need-coffee stupor, a little old lady asked me to help her out with bus fare. I gave her what i could dig up from the bottom of my bottomless pit of a purse. She sat down on the bench next to me and pointed to a pillbug on the ground. "What is that? I have never seen anything like that before". I kneeled down and nudged the thing with my finger and we watched it roll up into a ball. I said "It's a pill bug. You see, it rolls into a ball when it's disturbed. It has a hard exoskeleton that protects the soft squishy stuff underneath". She looked at the bug, then back at me, and gave me this look as to say "well that was a pointless bit of information I could have done without hearing, and will probably never use again". Now I know exactly how my calc II professor felt at the end of every lecture.