I got on the wrong connecting train in Jamaica this morning and wound up in Brooklyn. I realized I’d made a mistake almost immediately, but almost wasn’t good enough to get off the train before the doors closed. So I took the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, a slower ride than I might have liked, and wound up at work maybe fifteen or twenty minutes later than I had planned on being. Which I can say now, like it’s no big deal, but for someone who only rarely uses the subway — and has quite possibly never actually even been to Brooklyn before — it was a panicked hour or so as I tried to figure out how best to correct my course, and if the corrections I’d landed on had me going in the right direction. It’s only in retrospect that I can say, “Oh yeah, got on the wrong train. So I went and got some cereal for breakfast, hung out in the lunchroom” — that’s it up above — “left half an hour later than planned. No big deal.”
The office move has forced me into a whole new commute (or at least some added parts to cut down on the walking), and I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I’ll no doubt be an old pro just as it’s time for me to move out and learn which trains I need to take now.
Meanwhile, the week is kind of kicking my butt. It’s been an okay week — in some ways better than okay — but with a little too much excitement and crazed walking around. I’m actually really just tired…and a little flabbergasted that it’s still only Wednesday. How can it still only be Wednesday?
Egads! I always have a dread fear of falling asleep on the bus and ending up in some strange part of north Calgary. I’d have been in a tizzy if I’d ended up in Brooklyn.
It did make me sort of wish I’d had my iPad with me, to look up directions. The ticket collector was helpful and friendly, but I did feel hopelessly lost for awhile, on top of running late.
Luckily, even when I do fall asleep on the train, I wake up before we reach my stop.