Friday, September 26, 2008

Me + Bus = Abusive Relationship

For some reason this semester is the first time I've had to wrangle the 9am buses, along with a mazillion other students, to get me to school on time. I've been conning RL into dropping me off more often than not, but when I do end up taking the bus, it's frustrating.

Case in point: I leave the house at 8:45 yesterday morning, get to the bus stop five minutes later. Of course the last "Dash" bus has just passed, so I settle in to wait for another 15 minutes. When the bus comes 20 minutes later (did I mention that this bus is always late?), about 20 other people have joined me at the stop. So late busdriver lets about three people on, says "I'm full!" and drives off.

I stand in disbelief, trying to figure out what I should do. What happens if the next bus comes in 15 minutes and the same thing happens? The other bus that takes me to campus leaves from the other side of this four-lane road, and it's a dicey prospect because I don't know the schedule. Should I run home and drive to school? Finally, a bus comes that can take me as far as Broadway, so I hop on, hoping to get to another bus on Broadway. Of course, that bus passes right before I get to that stop.

At this point I really can't believe my bad luck. Now I'm totally screwed, because there's only the one bus that goes right down Broadway. Except...the Dash! Amazingly, the original bus I should have just sat at the stop and waited for shows up just a few minutes later, not full. I board the bus, passing all the people I had just left at the previous stop, the people who were patient and not freaking out. I felt a little sheepish, but I don't think they noticed.

The moral of the story is: the Dash, 75% of the time, gets me where I need to go without drama. The other 25% it pushes my buttons and makes me nervous, only to show up to save the day just in time. What kind of a weird relationship is this?