\nWith less than half an hour to get to work, I couldn\u2019t take the Metro. I haven\u2019t timed the public transit journey yet, so even if the meeting was a wash, I still couldn\u2019t take the chance of being late for the 10 o\u2019clock class \u2013 bad enough to be late for your own class, but pretty disastrous to be late for a sub job. So I trotted over to the cab stand outside the Metro station, and hopped into a cab.
\nAnd hopped out again, since I had no cash.
\nThankfully, there\u2019s an ATM inside the Metro station, so I ran downstairs, took out $40 \u2013 at least I would have cash on hand for coffee once I got to school \u2013 and ran back up to the cab stand.
\nWhich was now deserted.
\nExcept for one guy, obviously waiting for a cab.
\nSo he got the one that showed up.
\nEventually, another cab did<\/i> show up, and I was finally on my way. Just a quick hop up the Decarie expressway, and I\u2019d only be about ten minutes late for my meeting. I called and left a message for my meeting-mate, and sat back and relaxed.
\nObviously, this was a mistake.
\nTraffic on Decarie \u2013 and on the highway from which there is no exit that we took to get to the Decarie \u2013 was stopped. Not slow, stopped. It took so long to get to the top that the final fare for the cab ride \u2013 which, you will remember, I chose instead of a $2.50 Metro journey \u2013 was $33.
\nI got to school with five minutes to spare to get to my sub class.
\nOK, the worst is over. Here I am, in class, getting to painfully and slowly extract comments from students about Hamlet! Yay! Oh, that Claudius. What a jerk. Like he even tried<\/i> to stop Gertrude when she picked up the poisoned wine\u2026
\nBut I digress.
\nClass ended, I rushed downstairs to get the projector, rushed back upstairs, and made my presentation to the next class. Done! Apparently the streak had ended, and all was right with the world.
\nOn my way back to my office, I called Dr. T to rant and rave a little, and to discuss how to get the kids home without my car. Which is when he told me that he had, in fact, decided to take the bus himself this morning, and his<\/i> car is parked less than a block from mine.
\nWell, at least I could use his car to go get the kids, after I got home.
\nI headed back to my office, took care of some business, and had a nice long chat with my officemate, since we rarely get to see each other these days, what with the whole me-not-teaching thing. Then, since I am subbing again tomorrow, I packed up my briefcase and stowed it under my desk, rather than lug it all the way home on the Metro.
\nOff I sauntered to the Metro station \u2013 really, I did saunter. The spring weather was gorgeous this afternoon \u2013 warm and impossibly sunny and so on. And, I thought, here\u2019s a perfect opportunity to time the journey, for future reference.
\nForty-five minutes later, I was home. Good to know.
\nForty-six minutes later, I realized that the key ring on which I keep the key to Dr. T\u2019s car is in my briefcase<\/i>. Which, if you\u2019ll recall, is safely stowed away under my *&^!@* desk, at work.
\nAfter turning the house upside down with the slim but desperate hope that there\u2019s a valet key for the car somewhere<\/i> (there wasn\u2019t), I tried once more to start my car (it wouldn\u2019t) and headed back to the Metro station to catch the bus that would take me to the other end of Verdun, where the boys\u2019 school is located, rather inconveniently.
\nWhen I got to the bus stop, I discovered that in my frantic search for the valet key, I had taken my book out of my purse. Which is why, no doubt, it took the bus about 20 minutes to arrive.
\nAnyway, the bus finally arrived, on I got, and off we went. I got to the kids\u2019 school just after 5 o\u2019clock. The minute I walked through the door, one of the after-school daycare ladies accosted me because, she says, I didn\u2019t tell them that the boys were supposed to stay at school today, so Colin had taken the bus home.
\nThankfully, the bus driver had the presence of mind to realize something was amiss when (1) there was only one brother on the bus and (2) there was no Mummy waiting at the bus stop, so she brought Colin back to school.
\nSo Colin was there, as was his bag, in which was his agenda, in which was the note I had sent with him this morning \u2013 along with the one in Robert\u2019s bag, which did<\/i> get read.
\nBy the time all of this was sorted out, we had missed the bus going back toward home, which meant a 30-minute wait at the bus stop, helpfully whiled away by small-boy-questions like \u201cbut why<\/i> did you leave your keys at school, Mummy?\u201d and \u201chow come the bus isn\u2019t coming yet, Mummy?\u201d
\nWe got home. Dr. T was there. We tried to boost the car. Didn\u2019t work. Called CAA. Had bath. He dealt with CAA (who got the car started, thank whatever malignant deity started this whole thing). He cooked. Drank wine. Day over.
\n
![\"smileytongue.gif\"](\"http:\/\/www.golding.ca\/maggie\/images\/smileytongue.gif\")
Mondays suck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"