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Worst. Commute. Ever.
May. 30th, 2008 09:27 pmAs the title implies, there will be a great deal of ranting in this post, but first a question for my non-Calgarian friends:
Do you ever get thunder storms and really bright sunshine at the same time? Like, pounding rain, thunder and lightening, but at the same time crisp, clear shadows and bright sunlight? Is this something that happens everywhere or is it a local phenomenon?
Onto the rant:
This morning I felt tired and lazy so I took the bus to work instead of biking. This went fine until I tried to come home after work. After a few minutes of waiting for the bus it started raining (one of those strange sunny thunderstorms), and I was thinking 'wow, taking the bus was the right decision! I'm glad I don't have to bike in this.' 45 minutes later I was somewhat less impressed with my decision. The bus I take is suppose to come every twenty minutes, and it had stopped raining shortly after I got to the stop. So if I had ridden my bike I would have been able to make it home at a reasonable time, even if I had decided to wait out the rain before starting. Anyway, after 45 minutes of waiting for my bus I asked the driver of a different bus if he knew why mine was so late. He said that he was on the same radio channel as my bus, but hadn't heard anything and said it might be traffic.
Um, no. That bus is sometimes 20 minutes late, in the dead of winter with two feet of snow at rush hour. So then I decided I was too pissed off with waiting for my bus and I decided to take the scenic rout home. This involved taking a bus that meandered its was from the university to Kensington to downtown to Bridgeland. When I got off the bus to transfer to the one that would bring me the rest of the way home I was faced with a dilemma: it was once again pouring rain (and I was wearing my pink coat, which is both velvet and vintage, so getting it wet is a big no-no, and I was stupidly without an umbrella) and the bus shelter was currently occupied by three homeless people. One guy was just sitting there, totally drunk off his ass and probably high. No biggie. The other two were furiously making out in the corner, moaning and groping and moments away from having sex.
I decided that witnessing the creation of new life was preferable to ruining my pink coat, so I squeezed into the shelter. Drunk Guy made a half-hearted, incoherent pass at me until he started muttering and ignored me. Not long after this a long-haired, bearded hippy guy joined us in the rather crowded shelter. He apologized for standing so close to me, then started chatting with Drunk Guy. Then another guy showed up, standing just inside the shelter and looking very uncomfortable. It only took a couple minutes for my bus to show up, and Uncomfortable Guy went outside to meet it, clearly preferring the rain to the magic that was happening within. Hippy Guy and I left when the bus was actually at the stop, leaving the Homeless Trio to their own devices.
I then politely asked the driver to drop me off on 15th ave, where I live, even though there wasn't a stop there. He told me he had a stop on 14th ave. I said I knew this, but would really appreciate being dropped off on 15th, to which he replied "it's only one block." Apparently he has never had to walk anywhere in the rain.
So I got off on 14th ave and plodded along in the pouring rain, praying that I wouldn't get splashed with muddy water as cars zipped past. Fortunately they were considerate enough to go around the huge puddles rather than through them. By this point my $10 plastic flip-flops were totally wet and incredibly slippery. I tried to run home, but my shoes kept falling off my feet so I had to walk. When I got onto my block I gave up, took off the flip flops and ran home barefoot, splashing through puddles that would probably test positive for HIV and God knows what else.
I finally got home after a commute that took two hours when it should only have taken twenty minutes. My mom and I proceeded to watch Sex and the City reruns and eat ice cream.
The end.
Do you ever get thunder storms and really bright sunshine at the same time? Like, pounding rain, thunder and lightening, but at the same time crisp, clear shadows and bright sunlight? Is this something that happens everywhere or is it a local phenomenon?
Onto the rant:
This morning I felt tired and lazy so I took the bus to work instead of biking. This went fine until I tried to come home after work. After a few minutes of waiting for the bus it started raining (one of those strange sunny thunderstorms), and I was thinking 'wow, taking the bus was the right decision! I'm glad I don't have to bike in this.' 45 minutes later I was somewhat less impressed with my decision. The bus I take is suppose to come every twenty minutes, and it had stopped raining shortly after I got to the stop. So if I had ridden my bike I would have been able to make it home at a reasonable time, even if I had decided to wait out the rain before starting. Anyway, after 45 minutes of waiting for my bus I asked the driver of a different bus if he knew why mine was so late. He said that he was on the same radio channel as my bus, but hadn't heard anything and said it might be traffic.
Um, no. That bus is sometimes 20 minutes late, in the dead of winter with two feet of snow at rush hour. So then I decided I was too pissed off with waiting for my bus and I decided to take the scenic rout home. This involved taking a bus that meandered its was from the university to Kensington to downtown to Bridgeland. When I got off the bus to transfer to the one that would bring me the rest of the way home I was faced with a dilemma: it was once again pouring rain (and I was wearing my pink coat, which is both velvet and vintage, so getting it wet is a big no-no, and I was stupidly without an umbrella) and the bus shelter was currently occupied by three homeless people. One guy was just sitting there, totally drunk off his ass and probably high. No biggie. The other two were furiously making out in the corner, moaning and groping and moments away from having sex.
I decided that witnessing the creation of new life was preferable to ruining my pink coat, so I squeezed into the shelter. Drunk Guy made a half-hearted, incoherent pass at me until he started muttering and ignored me. Not long after this a long-haired, bearded hippy guy joined us in the rather crowded shelter. He apologized for standing so close to me, then started chatting with Drunk Guy. Then another guy showed up, standing just inside the shelter and looking very uncomfortable. It only took a couple minutes for my bus to show up, and Uncomfortable Guy went outside to meet it, clearly preferring the rain to the magic that was happening within. Hippy Guy and I left when the bus was actually at the stop, leaving the Homeless Trio to their own devices.
I then politely asked the driver to drop me off on 15th ave, where I live, even though there wasn't a stop there. He told me he had a stop on 14th ave. I said I knew this, but would really appreciate being dropped off on 15th, to which he replied "it's only one block." Apparently he has never had to walk anywhere in the rain.
So I got off on 14th ave and plodded along in the pouring rain, praying that I wouldn't get splashed with muddy water as cars zipped past. Fortunately they were considerate enough to go around the huge puddles rather than through them. By this point my $10 plastic flip-flops were totally wet and incredibly slippery. I tried to run home, but my shoes kept falling off my feet so I had to walk. When I got onto my block I gave up, took off the flip flops and ran home barefoot, splashing through puddles that would probably test positive for HIV and God knows what else.
I finally got home after a commute that took two hours when it should only have taken twenty minutes. My mom and I proceeded to watch Sex and the City reruns and eat ice cream.
The end.
