My Thursday

Depending on public transportation leaves one vulnerable to periods of time during which free movement is not terribly realistic. I prefer not to submit to that, and so go out and about in the evening with the expectation that I'll figure something out on the way back. Even not being able to get back until morning is a sacrifice I'm prepared to make provided that it doesn't adversely impact the following day. Thursday was one of those nights when the trip home looked to be akin to the travails of Odysseus.

I had decided to go to an improv class on the other side of town, as I knew that friends who had switched from my own class would be there, and any time there's a class on, it's a good time for free. I went and had an excellent time with my friends. As it finished at 10pm and was accessible by multiple seemingly dependable bus lines, I expected that getting home would not be difficult (although it would surely be a long trip). This fell into question around 11pm, when the clusters of people lingering to talk finally broke up.

The mobile version of the Metro website seemed to be rather buggy, and left me with incomplete information regarding bus timetables and stop locations. As a result, after a lengthy period of uncertainty, I set out down the nearby major artery not quite knowing how far I would need to walk until I hit a bus stop served by a still-running line going downtown. My idea, once there, was to hopefully get the subway back to the valley and then probably walk nearly two miles home. I don't say this with the intent of seeming to tell a tale of woe and soliciting sympathy. It's more an adventure of the kind that young people experience out of necessity.

Anyway, the way things transpired was a little different from how I thought. I got a good distance down the street before a bus I thought had shut down for the night showed up. I got on, only for it to stop and let us out at its terminating point a few minutes later. This was a "short line", stopping well before its usual terminus downtown. Fortunately, the driver informed us that another bus line ultimately reaching the same point would be along in a minute. I thanked her, got off, and realized moments after the door closed that I did not have the slipcase for my phone any more. It could only be in one place. The bus had not left yet, and I rushed over and pounded on the door. The driver seemed to assume that my action related to some notion that I needed to employ force to re-enter the bus and compel her to take me downtown. I dissuaded her of that thinking, and she let me on to recover my possession.

The next bus came as she said. I got on, expecting that the ride would take the same half hour to reach downtown that had been the case going the other direction. Before I knew it, however, I looked out the window and saw Union Station. Panicking, I got off there. Somehow I had thought that I missed my stop. There was a subway station there, but I had already been concerned about catching a train at at that hour, and thought that I had missed the earliest opportunity to do so. In fact, getting off there had granted me the earliest opportunity, or so I think now. Still, though, I got on that subway train thinking I might yet be walking home from the end of the subway line. This again was because I was unable to check the timetables due to aforementioned bugs in the website. There was, in fact, one last train just minutes after I reached the station in North Hollywood. It deposited me right there at the side street leading to my home.

I treated myself to a hot dog heavily laden with toppings and condiments (along with some salt and vinegar chips for which I have a weakness), and got into my bedroom at one in the morning- well after an ETA of 10:30 had I asked to ride with friends heading my way, but a whole lot better than an ETA of 6am had I found myself stranded pending the reactivation of most bus and train lines in the morning. It was yet another interesting trip which built character and strengthened my motivation to raise the money for a car.