Homeward Bound

In my little suburb, there is a program named "Call & Ride." It helps fill in gaps in the local bus service. They pick you up in their little van and take you somewhere local...like your home or to the bus station. While I rarely use it, it's very nice in theory and is absolutely the most inefficient program in the western hemisphere.

Today, since I had no need to get home in a reasonable amount of time and since it's always an adventure, I rode the Call & Ride van home. If I walk home from the bus station, it takes about 25 minutes. If I wait at the station, I can transfer to a bus and be home in 15 minutes. So. After sitting in the van for 20 minutes, we finally left the station.

One of the amazing illogical things the van does is it drops people off in the order they got on, not by location. So. You ride from one end of the suburb to the other and back to the other side again. We passed the Hobbit Hole three times before I could exit. We also passed the bus station four times and went to the exact same apartment complex twice. I got home an hour later. It hurts my brain every time I use the Call & Ride van and there are people who use it every day who I assume are completely insane.

The best part of tonight's ride was the lady who got on just before I did. She started off cranky because the driver didn't want to let us on. (He pointed out it was cold outside and when he opened the doors, it made the van cold. She pointed out it was cold outside and she'd like to ride the damn van.) She was the one who asked 15 minutes into our wait, "Are you planning on going any time soon?"

I think it was her first time on because she asked him to turn down the music (the drivers always blast easy-listening as they struggle to hear your dirctions on how to get home). And as we passed and re-passed various familiar landmarks her head-shaking-in-disbelief became bigger and bigger. When her turn came up, she kept yelling over some maudlin version of "O Holy Night" that "REALLY, JUST LET ME OUT HERE. PLEASE. I CAN WALK. STOP. HERE WILL BE FINE!" Sadly, the driver didn't hear her and she was dropped off in a seething mass at her front door. Times like these are my secret love.

An Erinku:
the crinkling
of cat food bag
of ripping
of spilling...dammit!