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"Just another day in my life..." or "I hate weather. Period."
You know, I used to love rainy days…really, I did!
Until this morning…
I get up at 5 am, my shift at work starts at 8. It takes a little over an hour by bus to get to the store, but knowing the weather and how it effects bus travel, I plan ahead like a responsible young adult, and leave the house earlier than usual. I get to the first transit center, a park and ride area. Now, normally, I’d continue on the same bus the entire way, but one particular chunk of the route is so inundated with construction and everyone and their pet monkey getting on the bus and crowding it for dear life, it actually takes even longer to get where you’re going. I plan for this, too. I get off the bus at the park and ride, planning to catch another, more direct route to the second transit center, where I can hop the first bus line (but usually an earlier route time, go figure), and continue on to work.
Generally, it takes 15-20 minutes to get to the park and ride stop. Time it took this morning because of hellacious rains and roads flooding? 40 minutes. Looks like the plan to leave early was a good one. Time I arrive at the park and ride: 6:55 a.m.
I wait at the park and ride, irritated because despite having an umbrella, I STILL got soaked to the skin from the waist down. Anyone who knows me knows two of my pet peeves are wet denim and squishy socks. I had both. Add that to the brisk wind, causing me to shiver in the 73 degree weather, and well, I am not a happy llama.
Now, the connecting bus I need to catch generally shows up around 7-ish, give or take 10 minutes. Plenty of time, right? Riiiiight…
7:20 rolls around, I’m watching the rain start falling horizontally in sheets, and the roads continue to flood. I’m getting a little anxious because if the roads get really bad, METRO will stop service, and I really really don’t want to be stranded anywhere, most especially at work, all the way across town from where I live. I call my store, since we open at 7:30, and no one answers.
Great!
I keep this up at 2 minute intervals until 7:30, at which point I call my textbook manager’s cell phone. I don’t like that I have to call him that early and spend the first 30 seconds apologizing profusely. I explain the situation and that I’m stranded at the transit center, with the bus being about 20 minutes late and counting. He asks me if I’m going to attempt to go in, or if I’m going to just try and get back home. I explain that, given the weather conditions, I have a very real fear that I may not be able to get home if I do somehow manage to make it to work. Yes, it sucks relying on public transpo, but what can I do when I’m too poor to afford to buy and maintain a car? (and fuck it all, I am NOT going to ride my bike in this shit!)
He tells me he understands, and my safety comes first. I tell him I’d been trying to call the store, and he says the opening manager is caught in traffic, so she’s running late, but he’ll tell her for me. I thank him, but note that I’m still going to keep trying to get a hold of her so she can hear it directly from me. (I don’t say this part out loud, but this particular manager tends to get pissy when she hears things secondhand, and will no doubt write me up for not showing up/not finding someone to cover my shift. I want to have clear records of my informing BOTH managers of inclement conditions, so if I do get written up, I can note down dates and times of calls, and what was said in each conversation.) We hang up, and now I start scouring bus schedules to see how I can get back home.
Success! There is a bus that will drop me off across the street from my apartment complex and it’s scheduled to hit the center at 7:45. Completely doable as it’s 7:40 by now, and I’m figuring it won’t show up until 8.
I was right. It showed up at 8:02. I JUST got home, when again, it usually takes 15-20 minutes to get from this center to my apartment complex. The entire time I kept trying to call the store, so I could explain to the other manager my predicament, and still no answer, repeatedly. My last call was about 30 seconds ago, and I finally got through. Success!! I explain and she’s surprisingly sympathetic. But then, it took her 3 hours to drive to work in this mess, so yeah. I arrange to work longer on Saturday for homecoming, and she’s appeased. I hope.
So, in summation...it took me over 2 hours, 2 FUCKING HOURS, to make a 40 minute round trip, I got soaked to the skin, lost hours, (which hurts even more because I had to call in sick last week when I was running an inexplicable fever for some reason…), and had to slog through the river my apartment complex sidewalks have turned into, not to mention getting further soaked when assholes in cars continually played Splash the Pedestrian. I get inside and squish my way to the bathroom to find a towel to dry off. I'm achy, and cold and wet and tired.
Fuck it all. I’m going back to bed.
Until this morning…
I get up at 5 am, my shift at work starts at 8. It takes a little over an hour by bus to get to the store, but knowing the weather and how it effects bus travel, I plan ahead like a responsible young adult, and leave the house earlier than usual. I get to the first transit center, a park and ride area. Now, normally, I’d continue on the same bus the entire way, but one particular chunk of the route is so inundated with construction and everyone and their pet monkey getting on the bus and crowding it for dear life, it actually takes even longer to get where you’re going. I plan for this, too. I get off the bus at the park and ride, planning to catch another, more direct route to the second transit center, where I can hop the first bus line (but usually an earlier route time, go figure), and continue on to work.
Generally, it takes 15-20 minutes to get to the park and ride stop. Time it took this morning because of hellacious rains and roads flooding? 40 minutes. Looks like the plan to leave early was a good one. Time I arrive at the park and ride: 6:55 a.m.
I wait at the park and ride, irritated because despite having an umbrella, I STILL got soaked to the skin from the waist down. Anyone who knows me knows two of my pet peeves are wet denim and squishy socks. I had both. Add that to the brisk wind, causing me to shiver in the 73 degree weather, and well, I am not a happy llama.
Now, the connecting bus I need to catch generally shows up around 7-ish, give or take 10 minutes. Plenty of time, right? Riiiiight…
7:20 rolls around, I’m watching the rain start falling horizontally in sheets, and the roads continue to flood. I’m getting a little anxious because if the roads get really bad, METRO will stop service, and I really really don’t want to be stranded anywhere, most especially at work, all the way across town from where I live. I call my store, since we open at 7:30, and no one answers.
Great!
I keep this up at 2 minute intervals until 7:30, at which point I call my textbook manager’s cell phone. I don’t like that I have to call him that early and spend the first 30 seconds apologizing profusely. I explain the situation and that I’m stranded at the transit center, with the bus being about 20 minutes late and counting. He asks me if I’m going to attempt to go in, or if I’m going to just try and get back home. I explain that, given the weather conditions, I have a very real fear that I may not be able to get home if I do somehow manage to make it to work. Yes, it sucks relying on public transpo, but what can I do when I’m too poor to afford to buy and maintain a car? (and fuck it all, I am NOT going to ride my bike in this shit!)
He tells me he understands, and my safety comes first. I tell him I’d been trying to call the store, and he says the opening manager is caught in traffic, so she’s running late, but he’ll tell her for me. I thank him, but note that I’m still going to keep trying to get a hold of her so she can hear it directly from me. (I don’t say this part out loud, but this particular manager tends to get pissy when she hears things secondhand, and will no doubt write me up for not showing up/not finding someone to cover my shift. I want to have clear records of my informing BOTH managers of inclement conditions, so if I do get written up, I can note down dates and times of calls, and what was said in each conversation.) We hang up, and now I start scouring bus schedules to see how I can get back home.
Success! There is a bus that will drop me off across the street from my apartment complex and it’s scheduled to hit the center at 7:45. Completely doable as it’s 7:40 by now, and I’m figuring it won’t show up until 8.
I was right. It showed up at 8:02. I JUST got home, when again, it usually takes 15-20 minutes to get from this center to my apartment complex. The entire time I kept trying to call the store, so I could explain to the other manager my predicament, and still no answer, repeatedly. My last call was about 30 seconds ago, and I finally got through. Success!! I explain and she’s surprisingly sympathetic. But then, it took her 3 hours to drive to work in this mess, so yeah. I arrange to work longer on Saturday for homecoming, and she’s appeased. I hope.
So, in summation...it took me over 2 hours, 2 FUCKING HOURS, to make a 40 minute round trip, I got soaked to the skin, lost hours, (which hurts even more because I had to call in sick last week when I was running an inexplicable fever for some reason…), and had to slog through the river my apartment complex sidewalks have turned into, not to mention getting further soaked when assholes in cars continually played Splash the Pedestrian. I get inside and squish my way to the bathroom to find a towel to dry off. I'm achy, and cold and wet and tired.
Fuck it all. I’m going back to bed.
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