Tales From the Bus: It's Been A Day

The day before Halloween my manager's manger gave everyone who dressed up a treat.  We could take a complimentary half day.  Since I spent the past 5 days my own in NJ while my husband stayed in P, I decided Wednesday (11/13) would be my day.  That way I could drive to early in the afternoon to PA while it was still light out.

 

However it's Q4 so we are really busy in the office.  I decided to go in early (even earlier than usual).  I haven't been sleeping well so when I woke up at 3:45 (after being awake from 1:30 to nearly 3:00) from a bizarre and upsetting dream I decided it was time to get up and get going.

 

It was still dark when I left the house just after 6.  Thankfully I bought a glow stick that I hang off my bag so that people can see me walking (I want to be seen!) and so the bus driver can see me too! The 6:13 was on time and there were more passengers than I expected. (Guess everyone needs to get in early!  But despite making numerous stops to pick up more passengers I still made it to the light rail station in under 20 minutes! Furthermore even with me stopping at Dunkin' Donuts to get a latte before I went into the office I was still in my workstation seat before 7:00 a.m.

 

The day was busy.      Coming in so early, I should have left by noon, but had a lunch to attend. (This was supposedly a lunch and learn that instead morphed into a Thanksgiving lunch. This meant I could not eat anything other than salad due to my allergies.  Going off track for a moment here; having food allergies really makes it uncomfortable for me to have midday meals with my coworkers!  Whenever we order out I have to make it a salad to be safe.  No matter how good the food might sound, with anaphylaxis a real possibility, I have to be EXTREMELY careful and sometimes that means missing out. ). I cut it very short because I wanted to make sure I had wrapped everything up so I could leave at 1:00 to catch the 1:21 bus.  

 

Fate was not with me on the ride home like it was in the morning. There was no light rail waiting for me. When it finally came I feared that I would miss the bus. However by the time I got to the station the bus that was supposed to be there at 1:21 was now going to arrive at 1:26. And then 1:27. And then 1:28. I know a few minutes doesn't seem to be a lot, but when you're standing there with a bag full of stuff and wearing a heavy coat that you no longer need  because it's not 20 degrees out anymore, it's a long wait! I kept checking the app to see which bus would come first. The one that was supposed to come at 1:21 was supposed to arrive at 1:28 and the one that was supposed to arrive at 1:28 would arrive at 1:29. As it turned out the second bus, the one that was supposed to arrive at 1:29 got there first! The NJ Transit app told me that this bus was relatively empty. The other bus, according to the app, was relatively full. Hence I took the first bus that was supposedly empty. Guess what? It wasn't. It was full almost to capacity!  (Which is why I still wear a mask on public transportation!)

 

 As I got on a woman sitting in the front told me to take the seat beside her.  I thought she was being nice, and she was because there were so few seats. However, it quickly became apparent that she was not in her right mind. She kept talking to me and I couldn't understand what she was saying.  Was the fact that she was missing all of her teeth the issue?  Well it was part of it. Clearly she was trying to tell me something, but I could maybe get one out of every ten words.  I thought she was talking about a conspiracy, but I am not completely sure. I tried to nod and smile at the appropriate places.   To be honest, I didn't know what I should do. I didn't want to be rude. I try to be a compassionate person, but I couldn't understand her and she made me a little uncomfortable. (Mostly because I didn't know what she was saying)  I kept holding up my finger to indicate that I was texting on my phone, but I don't think she got it.  Again I tried to listen and understand, but the best I could do was nod and smile. I felt that that was the best thing that I could do. She offered me a piece of fruit which I politely turned down. She also tried to engage with several other passengers, none of whom were having any of it. 

 

This went on for a good 20 minutes or so as the bus slowly made its way up the road.  It seemed like endless stops. Clearly this ride was not going to be the quick one that I had in the morning. I was anxious to get back to Pennsylvania not just because I missed my husband, but also because while I was away we had a plumbing problem. (This seems to be a common theme that I'm not very fond of.)As the saying goes, sometimes cheap turns out expensive. Before we moved in, one of the sump pumps was broken. However the owner had assured us that it was fixed. It had been fixed, however it hadn't been fixed correctly!  Starting on Saturday night, there was a loud noise that continuously echoed in the family room. It took my husband half a day to figure out that it was coming from the crawl space below the family room and was most likely the sump pump. This coupled with a dripping shower head in the main bathroom and the knowledge that the shut off valve (also located in that same crawl space...yes, we have more than one) was going to need to be replaced (the technician from the water company who came to replace the water meter, which didn't actually need replacing upon inspection, had clued us in on that), meant that it was time to call the plumbing company.  (They should have a dedicated phone line for me as I have spent more money with this company in the past 3 months then I have with any plumber in the past couple of years!)  They could not fit us in until Tuesday.  (Again, I think I should have my own dedicated person on call at the rate I'm going!) . It took the technician (the same one who spent 6 hours cleaning our ducts back in August) 3 hours to figure out what the problem was and fix it. It wasn't the actual sump pump but one of the valves that was banging.  In addition to replacing the shut off valve, he also did the annual heat tune up (I think it was a little late, but...) He didn't have the part for the shower, so I am waiting for that.  (Hope it's soon...drip, drip is annoying!)  

 

Back on the bus...when we finally got about 5 miles away from my destination the bus driver pulled over.  He told us we all had to get out and get onto a bus that was parked in front of us! So we all got out and changed buses, a task that took at least another 5 minutes. On the "up" side I was no longer sitting next to the crazy lady and I don't know how I felt about that. I felt badly for her, but I didn't know what to do.  Was the little time and attention that I tried to give her enough?  Probably not, but at least it was something. 

 

By the time I finally got to my stop it had been an hour and 10 minutes since I had got left the office!  (Remember I got to the office in record time that morning.)  Not at all what I had hoped for in the middle of the day. It was about the same amount of time it would have taken me if I had gotten on a bus during rush hour. At least I was almost home. 

 

As I made my way up the block, sweating bullets because I was wearing a winter coat that was appropriate for the morning when it was 27° out but not for the afternoon when temperatures were more seasonable . I could see that my neighbors were having lights put on their house professionally for the upcoming holiday season. We live on a dead end street and street parking is sometimes difficult.  The company putting up the lights had to park his truck along with his attached trailer in front of my next door neighbor’s house and practically in my driveway. Again things did not seem to be going my way.

 

Once inside the house, I quickly grabbed a few things. I had spent the past two days during my downtime trying to load up the car by myself. (I have to admit my husband doesn't a lot better than I do.)  I also remembered, thanks to multiple text messages from my husband that I had to go to the local CVS to pick up his medication. Medication that they won't ship to the CVS near the house in Pennsylvania. (Sigh) Medication that needs to be kept cool. (Sigh) So as I was walking out of the house with my last bag and with an insulated bag in which I had a cold pack, my husband called me to remind me that I needed to take and insulated bag!  (As if I would forget! Well, after the day I had...)

 

Heading to CVS, I got to the local traffic light and waited and waited and waited. It seemed like the light was never going to turn green. And it didn't. I knew something was wrong. What to do? I decided to try and turn around and go the back roads to CVS. However, you do eventually have to get on to the main highway to get to CVS. I turned down one street only to find out you couldn't make a left turn onto the main drag. So I turned around again and kept going and tried another street. This street also said you couldn't turn left, but I was fed up that I did it anyway. (Don't tell on me!)  

 

Once parked in the lot, I grabbed my purse, locked the car door, and headed towards CVS only to realize that my keys were not in my purse!  I had tried to attach them to the strap in my purse in the house when I left, but obviously they had not latched on correctly. So now I had to use my phone (thank God for apps that let you get into your car without a key) and got my keys. 

 

Went into CVS. Of course the line at the pharmacy was long and deep. There were at least six people ahead of me and I was about to have a breakdown. Somehow I managed to keep it all together. (I’m not really good at that. Eventually got to the front of the line where I requested my husband's medication and got it without issue (hurrah!). Back to the car where I unlocked the passenger side door where I had left the insulated bag with a cold pack. Put the medication in there and FINALLY headed out. 

 

Even though it was the middle of the even though it was not yet 3:00 traffic was already starting to get heavy. I could not go the way I normally would to get to the highway because there was a water main break in town and one of the main roads had several lanes shut. So I went another way; a way that took me further east to go west. 

 

Finally nearly 2 hours after I left the office, I was on the highway. It should come as no surprise that traffic was heavy.  During my hour and forty minute drive (slightly longer than usual), I finally pulled our driveway.  I was so glad to see my husband, but even happier that he did most of the unloading of the car himself (which included a small coffee table).  All I had to do was put everything away once it was inside.  (I stuff a lot of items in closets with the intention of dealing with this weekend...we'll see how that goes.)  Then it was a phone call to order pizza (amazingly the little hole in the wall less than a mile away has really good pizza), dinner (with wine), a hot shower and bed.  

 

It was a long and stressful day; here's hoping for less stress today, tomorrow and...