The wheels on the bus

Part of my participation with Vocational Rehab involves securing transportation for when I can get a job. Since my car is out of commission and one of the cars my ex is letting me drive stopped working, I have mostly relied on getting to places on foot. Sometimes my neighbor, Jimmy, gave me a ride. Or his wife, Melissa, gave me a ride. But mostly I would walk to places and mostly my daughter walked with me.

But with the winter season moving on and temps dipping as low as 34 degrees, walking isn't always an option. Even for me. Vocational Rehab is working with me to solve this problem. My counselor got me a bus pass for December and I was SUPPOSED to have bus training the other day, but that didn't happen.

Why do I need bus training? Because I have NEVER ridden a public bus before, in all my life. Not ONCE.

That is, until recently.

Since the bus training thing didn't happen, I decided to try learning all about how to use public transportation myself. I've never read bus schedules or anything like that before and I never knew what the numbers are on a bus. so I have been asking lots of people lots of questions, checking out the LTD Web site http://www.ltd.org/index.html and also checking out the bus schedules people can pick up at certain locations.

And that seemed to work out okay for a while. I decided to take advantage of my freedom this weekend and REALLY crack down on figuring out how to use the bus. Getting to my destination was a breeze. I ended up getting off earlier than I planned to, but that ended up being a good thing because I saw a place with a "now hiring" sign on the door and went inside to fill out an application.

Now getting to my destination was no trouble. It's GETTING HOME I ended up getting wrong.

I checked the time and headed for a bus stop. Now, Allison has explained bus-riding stuff to me before. She said I need to check scedules posted at the stops. Some stops have schedules and some don't. This one did but I didn't check it. I pretty much relied on the schedule I had in my hands. Now therein was my mistake, because I ended up boarding the WRONG bus. Which took me to the WRONG stops. Then it went back to the station. I figured, "OK, I'll just stay on and it'll go to my stop next."

But what I didn't REALIZE is that a bus changes its number when it gets back to the station. So I ended up going all over the place again, nowhere NEAR my stop. (I pondered getting off at a familiar location then walking the rest of the way home, but by now it was dark and I try to avoid walking around in the dark when I can.) So I'm sitting there for two hours, thinking, 'Why aren't we going THAT way?' The bus got back to the station so I got up and asked the driver if he was planning to go along my route next.

Ah, actually, he was going home now. Whoops.

So I asked him about how to get to my stop and he pointed out the bus stop I had to go to.

Well, I FINALLY got home last night, but I was SERIOUSLY kicking myself over the mix-ups. OK, soo, to recap: ALWAYS check the schedules at the bus stops. MAKE SURE you have the RIGHT bus. If you're not sure about the route, ASK. The bus numbers CHANGE when getting back to the station. AND the bus routes stay the same after each round.

OK. Got that.

So this morning I was going to take the bus to get to church. But I overslept and missed it. So, I walked, despite the fact that it was FREEZING COLD. But something told me I HAD to get to church today. I HAD to be there. So, cold or no cold, I went. And it was a lovely service, really. I GOT THERE ON TIME!! LOL Yay!! People cried during the service and it was really enjoyable. As usual, I didn't understand a darn thing, but I still enjoyed it.

I had not been able to find my friend, Nicole, when I got to the church. (She signs for me.) But later, I got to the bus stop outside of the church, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I turned to see her walking towards me, smiling and waving. I REALLY thought my eyes were deceiving me. But there she was!! YAY!!

We hugged and talked. I'd been at the bus stop for a WHILE. As usual, I had relied on the wrong schedule and was waiting for a 12:38 bus that was actually a 1:11 bus. *groan* We talked about a lot of things, though. She said she was planning to move to Colorado to live closer to her dad and she had plans to do this next year. Of course, I was sad at the news, but I told her I had plans to move back to California next summer, so at least we'll be close. And I told her, "COME AND VISIT! I'll fly you out there myself!" She laughed and said one of her best friends lives in California and she knows a lot of people in California, so she'll definitely be coming out to visit, anyway. Sweet!

I told her about my little bus adventure and she laughed so hard. She said she has not had to ever ride the bus before she moved to Eugene over a year ago. This was the first time in her life she was relying on bus transportation. And I told her it was MY first time, too! At least Nicole had the smarts to rely on the schedule POSTED AT THE STOP to know what bus to get on when. I started eyeing the paper schedule in my hands more and more bitterly. Gah!

We also talked about her new job. She works at a feed store and she said it was funny how there are ALWAYS big ranch-type guys coming in to buy cowboy hats and cowboy boots. It was funny. She started imitating these big cowboy-guys coming in with their lopsided walk. LOL I told her about how I used to entertain the idea of getting one of those "ranch hand" jobs where you get room and board in exchange for doing the ranch work. I also told her I have always wanted to have a job working with animals. (My meeting Joleen Lambert has REALLY had that kind of an influence on me!! Ah, to live the life of a cowgirl.) She said right now in Eugene, there are NO jobs, but where she works at, they are hiring. She said, "We need people." I raised my hand and said, "I'm people!" She said they need help around the store. Stocking shelves and cleaning up. She gave me the name and phone number and I said I would definitely call them to see if maybe I could get something set up. That would be so awesome! Even more awesome would be working at the same place as Nicole. Yay!! Then I could FINALLY see her more often. (She MAY be younger than me, but we really are good friends.)

She also told me she hasn't checked her email for a looooong time. I told her I have sent her emails and ecards before. So! She needs to be checking that there email! LOL But I knew some emails I'd sent her were getting returned.... She has a Hotmail email account and I used to have one, too. The thing about Hotmail (and lots of OTHER free email accounts) is that if you go several months without checking it, your account gets deleted. So I started to worry maybe her account was a little...compromised and that's why some emails I'd sent her got returned. So I reminded her to check it soon.

While we were waiting there in the ICE COLD windy and rainy weather, this white minivan pulled up with two guys inside. I was nervous so I remained quiet as Nicole talked to them. I didn't get all she said to them but I did catch her saying "thanks, anyway" before it drove off. I asked her what was that about and she said that one of them goes to our church and he was asking if we wanted a ride to the bus station. She later told me she'd turned them down because she felt bad and didn't want them to have to go out of their way for us. She said she DID know one of the guys and that he was a real funny guy. She also said she had thought the bus would be there any minute now.

But, it wasn't. Actually, it took FOREVER for the bus to show up. Meanwhile, Nicole and I were standing there, freezing our butts off. (Well, our HANDS, really. Neither of us wore gloves.) It was COLD!!! At one point, I looked up and saw a rainbow and I pointed it out to Nicole. She brightened and we commented on how big and colorful it was. Then I turned to see that a light drizzle was falling. I didn't know it was RAINING!! I showed Nicole and I said, "I didn't see it without the sunlight."

She said, "I love it when there is sun and rain."

More time passed. Nicole kept checking the time on her cell phone and when it was 1:11, she said, "The bus should be here right now."

"We need to will it here!" I said, using my hand to mimick using mental powers to make the bus suddenly appear from around the corner.

"Yes. Will it! Will it!" Nicole cheered.

After a minute or two, I saw Nicole standing there, shivering and saying, "For the love of God!!"

Finally, like only a MINUTE after that, THERE was the bus! FINALLY!!!

I showed Nicole and we jumped up and down, cheering and saying, "Thank God!" (LOL It was VERY COLD!!! BRR!!)

So we got on the bus and got ourselves warmed up. THANKFULLY, the busses are warm. Wow, free transportation AND warmth. Ahh, life is good. LOL

We got to the station and parted ways. Nicole had to go to one bus stop and I went to another.

At least this time, I knew EXACTLY which one to go to in order to get home.