What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

23 March 2011

Friday, Part 2

I have to dream that the stations in
Austin look like this. Maybe
someday...
Last week, I had a bit of a misadventure on the train. Once I got back downtown, it was getting dark, and the crowds gathering for South by Southwest were plenty thick throughout downtown. We had found out the previous evening that the buses through downtown were about as fast as walking because of the traffic and masses of pedestrians. Plus, there was lots of energy in the air just because of all the people, the festival atmosphere, and so on, so I decided to ride the bike as far as campus, and get the bus there.

Unfortunately, even though I managed to avoid the headache of taking the main thoroughfare, the buses did not, so I still had to wait. One bus went by that I could have taken to meet Chad (I didn't remember this until the bus had already been gone for about five minutes), but I had the choice of two that were meant to come within 15 minutes. Great.

Except they didn't come.

At least, not on time. The first bus was running 25 minutes late; the second one was behind by 15 minutes (or so said the driver). And as if that weren't enough, the first bus had a bike in both slots on the rack, meaning I was unable to board. So I sat back down to wait for the next one, which-- I bet you can guess it-- also had a full bike rack. Sigh. I was about to give it up for a bad job, when a passenger got off and removed his bike. I refrained from doing a dance of joy, because I had to load up my bike and get on.

That's about the end of the adventure-- I got off at my stop, had about a five-minute ride to meet Chad (about 45 minutes late, but at least I got there), and that was the end of it.

Kinda.

He was going to play basketball after Toastmasters, but I was tired and also was unsure about whether we'd meet up with a friend who would be able to haul the bike back home after basketball, so I declined to join him and was going to take the bus home instead. Someone at Toastmasters offered me a lift, so we were both all set, and I headed home-- to find out at my door that I was locked out. Yep, I had taken my key off the ring when I went running earlier in the day and forgot to put it back on. And the after-hours officer wasn't answering the phone. So I pulled out a book and sat on the front step waiting for Chad to get home after basketball. I probably won't be making that mistake again any time soon.

That last bit doesn't have anything to do with my public transport adventures, of course. So, best-laid plans? Or best-laid pantsing? Share yours in the comments.

12 comments:

Faith said...

Public transportation... sigh. I relied on it for so many years and while it's much cheaper than a car, it's random times like this that I don't miss.

Well, at least you had a book with you!

Su said...

I was about to cry when the second bus pulled up with a full bike rack, but I did think, "At least I can use this in a blog post!" :)

Lisa Potts said...

Funny that you immediately thought about doing a blog post about the whole thing. I do that ALL the time too. I'm sometimes disappointed when my day is completely boring because I know I'll have to come up with a post on my own.

Su said...

Oh, me, too! I start going around muttering, "Somebody do something weird, quick!"

J E Fritz said...

Wow. Quite an adventure. Maybe soon, they'll start putting more bike racks on buses.

Michelle in a shell said...

Ah, I was wondering about what happened to this. Sorry to hear about all the drama!

nutschell said...

Su,
I totally agree! Whenever something like this happens to me, I always look at the brighter side--which is that I'll get to blog about it.

Nas said...

Wow! What a journey.

BTW, I'm hosting Roland D Yeomans today, who self-published his book THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS and is sharing his journey with us as well as a four book giveaway!

www.nas-dean.blogspot.com

Charlie's Church of Christ said...

wow quite the story. You haven't been making a good case for Austin lately!

Su said...

@JE: The local bus company is looking into 3-bike racks right now.

@Michelle: I was going to post it sooner instead of waiting a whole week, but my days all got filled up!

@Nutschell: It really does make life more entertaining, to think what is blog-worthy, I think!

@Nas: Cool! I'll drop by.

@Charlie: I guess the moral of the story is "Don't go downtown during South by Southwest unless you're actually attending."

a runners' life said...

That's shocking. Public transportation is a pain. I hope the weather was ok for you whilst you were waiting though. It always helps to carry a book for times like these, it's amazing how much reading a person can get done just by waiting for late buses, trains or when you're locked out of your own home :)

Su said...

Normally I quite like the public transport here, but when there are festivals in town all bets are off. Truthfully, cars weren't moving much faster than buses. :(

Yes, I learned many years ago to never leave home without a book!