Are you kidding me?

*warning - this is a bit of a rant*

There are no words.

However, I'll strive to do my best to relay the debacle that was my commute home tonight.

I didn't go straight to the train today, I had a little shopping to do, so I wandered about the city for an hour or so (and I managed to go into a DSW and out again WITHOUT a new pair of shoes. That might be the first time that's happened. Ever) It was a lovely evening and I had a nice little walk adn was feeling all content with the world in general.

Anyway. So I finish making my purchases and it's time to go home. I go into a T stop at State Street and I journey through a long maze of tunnels until I finally find my way to the Blue Line (which is the line I take to get home). So I get on the train and there are no seats (this is not unusual between 5 and 7 pm) so I'm standing and holding the bar while avoiding eye contact with everyone else, as is standard operating procedure for riding public transportation. The lady sitting down facing me apparently did not get the memo. She kept talking to me about the difference between my shoes and her shoes, and then my glasses and her glasses. She couldn't possibly understand how I could be wearing flip flops with "that thing between your toes" and she assured me in very passionate language that her shoes were a much prettier color when they were new (pink). Also that she can only wear very small pumps, but not real high heels, because her feet are too small. Also, her glasses are sort of similar to mine, but she has bifocals. She hopes they work great, but she's not sure because she won't get them until next week. I have friends that don't even give me that much detail on their lives. This didn't really bother me, however. I think the weird people on the train are usually pretty hilarious. There was the guy once who started serenading us during rush hour, the goth kids who had a contest to see how hard they could jump into the ceiling without knocking themselves out, the woman who had no shame about sitting practically spread eagle in a mini skirt, etc.

So we go along pretty smoothly, the chatty lady gets off the train and I'm just three stops away from where I get off to catch the bus. All in all it usually takes about 10-15 minutes to get from where I got on the train to where I get off the train. Then we come out of the tunnel on our way to the airport. And there's a signal problem. This happens quite a bit actually, and it'll slow you down for about 5 minutes or so. NOT TODAY. We would move forward a couple of feet and then stop. Then the announcement, "due to signal problems up ahead, this train is standing by." Repeated over...and over...and over.... There are also several small children in my particular train car who are starting to get more than a little antsy and progressively louder. I did manage to keep pretty calm and zen about the whole thing until the THIRD time we stopped for a signal problem and then I was feeling motion sick from all the lurching to go and stop all the time, I was tired because it was the end of a long day and I just wanted to go home, and these kids were really starting to give me a headache. Not to mention all the other commuters who started to get loud and yell at the announcement every time it came on, as if that was going to help. And of course everyone has to get on their cell phone to complain to everyone else they know that the train is delayed. At long last, 40 MINUTES after I got on the train, we finally pulled into the station.

Now to the bus. The first thing I will say is that they unveiled all new buses today, which was pretty exciting. However, the bus that was there when we pulled in was labeled as though it was my bus, so I got on it, only to find out that the driver hadn't quite figured out how to work the signs yet and it was the other bus route, so there was 75 cents down the drain. I get back off the bus and sit on the bench to wait for my ACTUAL bus, and then loud cell phone girl decides to sit next to me and yap away to make sure that she would have a car to do her shopping with tomorrow. Lord help whoever was on the other end of that phone if she didn't get a car. Anyway...

I'm happy to say that when the correct brand-new bus pulled up it was my favorite driver (I have them all ranked from best to worst based on braking habits and accuracy in hitting the stop where it's actually supposed to be) and all things went smoothly from there on out. I managed to make it home all in one piece, and now I look forward to a relaxing night of watching Gilmore Girls and going to sleep early.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes more smoothly!