Today was one of those days that was miserably long and just would not end. I even got down onto my hands and knees and begged for night to come and it was like the world stood in front of me and laughed. I've been having a pretty good month, all things considered, but it was as if life decided it was going to save all the goodies for one special day. Didn't it know that April Fools day was last FRIDAY? Monday and Friday don't even sound the same when you say them too quickly.
“Monday.”
“Did you just say Friday?”
It doesn't really work.
Anyway...
It began with me waking up with a migraine I had gone to bed with last night. I walked around looking and feeling very much like a zombie as I tried to get ready without opening my eyes. As you can imagine this didn't work out so well and I ended up opening my eyes for brief moments at a time which only added to my pain levels and mixed in some nausea. It was shaping up into a great morning. And I'd only been up for 5 minutes.
I stumbled on, determined to get to school because some important things were happening in my classes. Was I going to let some little migraine stop me from going to school? I think not!
Well as I was about to head out the door so my parents could take me to the bus stop I realized my sister had my ear buds in her car. I always listen to my iPod on the ride to school, it helps pass the time more quickly. Right then and there I should have turned around and crawled back into bed. However, migraines are never accompanied by common sense.
Bus rides can be pretty entertaining, but in the mornings I ride with a bunch of solemn, cranky-pants, quiet business people so nothing at all exciting happened on the way to Denver. In fact that might have been the best part of my day as I was able to grab a quick nap before arriving at the bus terminal. Straight off the bus I headed to Starbucks. I had exactly two dollars in coins and I wasn't going to waste good energy lugging all that change around campus with me so of course I had to waste it on caffeine. Besides isn't caffeine supposed to help with headaches?
Coffee cup in hand, and the day beginning to look a little brighter, I happily looked around the Starbucks for a place to sit so I could wait for my bus in the warmth. However a new group of solemn, cranky-pants, this-time-talkative business people filled every seat in the joint and I glumly headed out the door to my bus stop. Sadly my bus stop is in the shade and the bench was wet from the snow we got yesterday so I had to stand, shivering and praying for my bus to come early. As luck would have it my bus was a whopping five minutes late.
Skipping ahead 15 minutes we come to a migraine ridden student, laying her head on her desk wishing she could sleep before class begins (and hey, what about through class? Oh that's right, big important information today.) when sploosh... no no no! This cannot be good! I hear a cheery voice say next to me, “Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to spill your coffee.” Spill? Oh no. You didn't spill my coffee. You threw my coffee. It was all over my jeans, my shoes, my bag, the floor and other peoples bags. The spiller of my drink sheepishly grinned and blinked at me with “innocent” eyes. Almost as if the spilling of my coffee was my fault. I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. Unfortunately after about 16.8 seconds I realized she wasn't going to clean up the mess she had just made. After all, people, it was my coffee. Biting my tongue so hard I thought it would bleed I stormed out of the classroom and spent the next thirty minutes of class mopping up coffee and trying to dry my things. I was going to smell like a walking Starbucks for the rest of the day I thought to myself as I leaned over sop up coffee with the third round of paper towels. As I was thinking this I hear a voice near me say “That is so gross.” I looked up to see several pairs of eyes looking at me and they were all nodding. Seriously? As if this was my fault and as if it wasn't just coffee.
Sigh
My first class of the day was done so I hurried to the next, hoping the fast I moved the faster the day end of the day would come. I was glad to see my professor already in the class, this gave me the chance to talk to her about scheduling a meeting with her. I was thrilled she could meet with me at the end of my school day. I sat down, had a terrific class and moved on to the next. My head was feeling a bit better, maybe the end of the day wouldn't look like the beginning.
My next class went as smooth as it could, besides my only friend in class deciding to ditch, and my professor hollering, but that usually happens. The meeting with my second professor was only a few doors down the hall, so I hurried there. Not because I was anxious to have the meeting over with, but because it was just oh-so-convenient. After waiting for a few minutes our meeting began, but we decided we couldn't finish the meeting today so we scheduled for the rest of the meeting on Wednesday and went our different ways. Because we were together for such a short amount of time I had to call home and tell them to expect me at my bus stop sooner than possible. But I wasn't sure what time that would be so I told my brother I would call him again to let him know when exactly I would be at my bus stop.
So, you think my day was beginning to look up? Well start looking back down.
I got on my first bus and headed to my first stop. After almost dying when the driver decided to slam on the brakes and fling all the passengers into new medical conditions I alighted the bus glad to be off. My second bus immediately showed up and I hurried aboard. I now knew when I was going to be home and started to search my bag for my cellular phone. In dismay I flung everything out of my book bagOne hoping it had just slid to the bottom and was hiding under all my things. In dismay I stood and searched all my pockets and, just for good measure, searched my bag again. Never has anyone ever been so sad looking as they placed everything back into a book bag.
I was at the very back of the bus at this point, and as some of you may know at the back of the bus the seats face each other. Across from me was a young man who had been watching me with great interest search for my phone. “Looking for something?”
Distract, not thinking clearly, I absentmindedly answered, “My phone.”
“Oh do you need to call it so you can find it?”
Ding ding ding!
“Oh... um. No... uh thanks. It's... uh... on silent.”
One might assume I was trying to think of something fast so he wouldn't bother me any longer, but it really was on silent. I was just shocked at his smooth way of trying to get my number. Too bad, pal! I may have a migraine, and this may have been a very long day, but I am still smart.
I sat back in my seat and sighed. Nothing to do now but finish the ride. My stop wasn't too far from my Grandma's house and I would just walk there so I could phone my family to have them come pick me up. This thought running through my determined little mind I heard one of the regular bus-riders in front talking very loud. He's handicapped and doesn't realize when loud is too loud and when some subjects shouldn't be talked about. Today's topic was on suicide.
I hunkered down in my seat and tried to ignore his conversation and maybe get some sleep. I successfully dozed off for a few minutes, after Mr. Chatty had gotten off the bus, in fact almost everyone was off the bus at that point. I was peacefully about to fall into a sleep when I noticed that the bus had been at this one particular stop for a long time. Too long. I sat up and noticed I was all alone on the bus, with it's motor running. Where was the bus driver? I looked out the window behind me and saw her hurrying into a fast food restaurant. “Okay,” I thought. “Maybe she's just using the WC.”
And yes it did cross my mind that I was in a running bus and wouldn't it be fun to take it for a joy ride? But the thought was out of my mind almost the moment it entered my mind.
After about three minutes, however, I was beginning to worry about what was going on. Why was on on here alone? Why wasn't my driver coming back? I couldn't believe it. I had actually been forgotten. My shock doubled when I saw the bus driver walk out of the restaurant carrying a sack for food and a drink. She hadn't just had an emergency run to the WC, she had missed seeing me on the bus and had gone in for food! I sat up as straight as I could so she would see me when she got on the bus. But I didn't say anything to her, and she didn't say anything to me. I can only imagine what was going on through her mind, and the fear she must have been experiencing. “What if she calls RTD and tells them I pulled over to get food while she was on bored. Will I get fired?” At least those would have been my thoughts.
I got off the bus and headed on my way. I was half way to my Grandma's when it occurred to me she may not be home, and I had no way of getting into her house. The very thought almost jolted me into sitting down, right on the sidewalk, and start to weep this miserable day away.
Good news though, she was home, my Mom came and got me and my day got better. This was after I began to see the humor in what happened to me. Don't worry, if you laughed at this post you weren't the only one. I was laughing at myself as I was writing it. One good thing came out of today and that was the whole day!
Till next time.
