The Very, Very Bad Day

Okay, so the first day back to reality after vacation is NEVER fun. But this day absolutely sucked.

First of all, leave it to my kids to decide to sleep past 6:30 on the one day that I actually need them up earlier than that. This made me about 45 minutes late for work since Dean was driving me so as to use the car (we only have one car and usually only NEED one car....). Fine. Late for work.

Rest of the day went fine.

Leave work. I'd planned to run to the train station (one about 3 miles from my office) rather than walking to the train station nearest my office. I took my Visa card, my ID, and my work access swipe card. I had only enough cash for the train (since, you know, some asshole stole money from our checking account, and we have ZERO cash on hand right now until we can get to the bank). Fine. So I run to the train station--best speed training ever since I'm so freaking worried I'm going to miss the train.

Make it to the train with 10 minutes to spare but am basically ready to die. I'm sure I broke all previous 5K records running to the train station today. Train comes. I board the train. Sit on the train. Notice train is not moving. After about 10 minutes, we get an announcement that the engineer is working on some sort of engine issue. Awesome. At this point, it is the time that Dean and the girls were supposed to pick me up at the train station near home. All the doors on the freaking train are closed, so we're basically hostage.

Finally, after about 25 minutes of just SITTING there with no updates, I figure out that a door about six cars down is open. I get off the train. Begin the frantic hunt for a pay phone. Have you tried to find a pay phone lately? Good freaking luck. They simply do not exist anymore. And, of course, I did not have my cell phone on me because I had been running. Fabulous.

The Starbucks guy takes pity on me when I ask for the nearest pay phone (after first laughing at the very idea that a pay phone would still exist in this country--note that they're quite prevalent in Mexico). He hands me the store phone. I call Dean's cell phone. Big shock: He does not pick up. This is not the first or even the second time that I've not been able to reach him by cell in a semi-emergency. Wonderful. I try home. No answer. Awesome.

I begin walking aimlessly. See a sign for a pay phone at the bus station, but--of course--it does not work. Head across the street to a gas station that also APPEARS to have a pay phone. And magically happen across a bus that is basically headed to a station from which I can take the el home. I give the guy my train money. (Remember: This is the only money I had on me, and I had to steal it from one of my kid's piggy banks this morning. Of course, there is plenty of money in our checking account, but I had no car today and I have no ATM card.) The bus driver is the biggest asshole I've ever met. I ask him if the bus is going to Jefferson Park since I am NOT a bus user. He says "What does the sign say?" Um, seriously??! It takes less words to say "Yes" than it does to say "What does the sign say?" I actually have no idea how much the bus costs and don't want to ask this guy since he's a supreme jerk. I plunk in extra money for a transfer. I'm down to a dollar.

An hour later (the train was blocking the road the bus driver needed to take, so he had to take an alternate route), we get to Jefferson Park. Which would be good except when I get off the bus, a woman tells me I can't use my transfer for the train. I tell her I'm down to my last dollar and walk toward the train station anyway. I try my transfer for the hell of it and am just about to tell my hard-luck story to the train station attendant guy (including the Mexico trip, the debit card fiasco, the train issue, etc.) when the woman from the bus finds me and hands me the dollar I need to buy a ticket on the train. I don't know what I would have done otherwise because at this point, I have no coins to make a call from the pay phone and no idea if Dean even has his cell phone on him.

Board the train. Get off train. Walk home. Door is locked.

Lovely, lovely day. Fortunately, our upstairs neighbor had just arrived home, and she had a key to our back door.

It was a no good, terrible, very bad day. I think I'll move to Australia.