Ways To Stay Sane As A Commuter.

Sometimes you can't stay sane as a commuter when it comes to issues you can't control.

First off when your day starts out with your fancy commuter train being stuck at a station nowhere near you and you're standing on a freezing cold platform surrounded by a few feet of snow and no one is telling you why your train is late you get agitated.

I used to take the bus and sometimes it wouldn't show up or it would be late but I would have my music and my book to still my mind while I waited. now though I travel with a friend since they switched my route so although I still read in the morning, I don't want to be rude and have my headphones on.

So after the train is about 20 mins late we finally hear that it's having mechanical issues and they suggest that we hop n one of the buses that will take us to a skytrain station. Well ok off we go, now the normal one we should have taken was packed so we took another one that would take us to the same point but apparently took 25 mins opposed to the 10 that the packed bus would have taken leading us to a lot of  "Where the hell are we going?" comments. All is quiet until two girls that know each other realize they're on the bus together but as they started to chatter, the bus stopped and they got off.

Finally we get to our station and head up to the platform where a train is waiting with the doors open so we rush on and after a few minutes we're wondering why the doors aren't closing because you know we're cold and need to get to work along with the other people thrown off by the first incident and what do you know those same two girls are on the skytrain and it's like they were the only two on it. The doors finally close and an announcement comes on saying that there's a medical emergency at another stop and that we'll be delayed.

Well at least we were warm but then...in what we thought was quiet...they started, and were loud about it. The two girls standing right behind me and my friend were like squirrels on a mission. I heard so much about Nadia, Callum and Emily that I felt sorry for them. Except Emily because apparently no one should mess with her which the other two topics of conversation apparently did. Really it might not have been so bad except for all of the "DUDE!...Seriously!" and "Oh My God's" throw in a few "Likes" and they were chattering cliches.

It's bad enough that I have issues with space and really bad issues with rudeness that I wanted to slam their heads together but I could tell as I looked around the train that I was most definitely not the only one, so when they finally got off the train there was an audible sigh of relief from the car we were in.

Already a half hour late for work and getting closer to the city core our train comes to a HARD emergency stop throwing everyone forward. Concerned commuters were checking to make sure others are ok when we hear yet another announcement and they tell us that an Intrusion alarm was set off and that we would be moving shortly so we had 3 delays on the 3rd day of the week.

Hmmm...interesting.

Strolling into work an hour late threw off my whole day. I was in a rush and couldn't think straight for pretty much the whole day but I got my work done as I counted down the minutes until I could just go home, put on my jammies and write this as I went over my day. The trip home was easy breezy until we were walking past 711 and there was a guy yelling at people that wouldn't give him change but whatever, I was home.

Sometimes I'll think to myself that you can look at someone and have no idea what's going on in there world so it's always best to be courteous no matter what and at the same time they have no idea what's going on in mine and should think the same way but that isn't how things work when you're a commuter so...how do you stay sane as a commuter?

1. If you can, tune them out.
2. If you can't, breathe.
3. If you breathe and you still can't tune them out, pray they leave soon.
4. If they don't, pray that you don't go to jail because you lost your mind at their stupidity.

Now I'm going to go attempt to make something I saw on Pintrest that I will probably fail miserably at but at least I tried!

Happy Hump Day!

See Ya
S

Let's Just Pretend That Didn't Happen.

Happy Ugh...
Hi Lovelies!

So...how ya doing? I hope your weekend was good.

I tried to do yard work and realized I just need to get rich and hire a gardener or move. We have a blackberry bush from hell in the yard which over the course of 5 years has taken over the skyline because it's MUCH taller than it is wide. Half on my property and half on the neighbours. Wait there is 2 of them one that along with Morning glory ( also from hell ) is choking the Walnut tree that I have never actually seen bare Walnuts. the other one has consumed the decrepit shed out back so that only one door shows and I swear a family of Raccoon's is living in it.

I did clean up the back yard a bit until it got to hot to be out there and I switched my gardening to the indoor variety until it got cooler. That led me into a Walking Dead Marathon of Season 5 before the premier of FEAR the Walking dead. WOOOOOOOO!

As usual it starts out as a typical Zombie flick where the outbreak has already started and we don't know how. With rare exceptions like 28 Days Later when they show you how it starts FEAR followed the same pattern as the not so rare. First half of the show...character introductions and establishing relationships a little long but the episode was an hour and a half long. After that, shit starts to get real. The character I've latched on to right now though is Nick and not because of that awful white chick shirt he was wearing but because I think he did a not so bad job. To me he looks kind of like a young Johnny Depp with a Christian Slater speech pattern. He was the most interesting character for me though. If you haven't seen it you'll see why when you watch it.

I watched and interview with Robert Kirkman saying that the walkers in this show will be like we've never seen them before and there are very noticeable differences in these ones unlike TWD Walkers and I wonder if it's because basically they are the ground zero infected and what happens over time to change the very prominent blue eyed walker?

Watch it and tell me what you think!

OK now it wouldn't be Monday without stupid dumb ass Monday like things so here was my Monday morning so far.

5:45 - Alarm goes off
6:00 - Actually get out of bed
6:02 - Take the dogs out, Chase California out from the front of the house, drag Whiskey back from the neighbours yard, Watch Smokey and the cat pee side by side.
6:10 - Find my clothes from the dryer on my bed and dig through them for god knows what to wear.
6:15 - Watch a video of bears swimming in a pool.
6:20 - Realize I haven't had a coffee yet and instead watch Jon Bon Jovi on Breakfast Television surprise fans with a concert that almost didn't happen. How Nice!
6:25 - Still didn't get my coffee.
6:30 - Face, teeth, Ugh...
6:40 - Kick dogs out of the bedroom, take 30 extra seconds get the little dog out.
6:41 - Oh look my coffee is undressed on the counter. Sugar. Check. Non Dairy Creamer. Check. Travel mug. check.
6:45 - Out the door to the bus stop.
6:55 - Bus late...hmmm.

The bus finally showed up and it was only a few minutes late. I get on and sit in my usual spot, put my feet up on the bar behind the bench of seats across from me, dig my book out and tuck my travel mug between my knees. Turn the page. Sip, after a few more pages I sip again each time putting the mug back between my knees until I feel something warm an wet traveling down my thighs.
Well what do you know...the travel mug is leaking.

Great...

Thank goodness I'm wearing dark grey pants. I change positions of the mug so that it's being braced by my forearm and the wall of the bus with my purse locking it into place it wasn't long until I feel liquid travelling down my arm and I have nothing to clean this up with but I'm confused because I only had half the mug filled when I started. Anyway now I'm sticky in more than one place and am hating this Monday already. So I go to McDonald's and grab a coffee that I can drink and it was free so what's better than that!

The cashier asked me if I wanted it in my travel mug. First thing out of my mouth "Hell No!"

Crap... Sorry lady.

Now the spot has dried and  I'm paranoid about my pants as I have to walk along West Georgia. Looking at it you can't really tell but because I know it's there I can see it as clear as if there were flashing arrows pointing at me, but I just try to pretend it didn't happen.

Got to the office and attacked myself with a wet wipe and now my pants are wet again and I can't move until they dry. Maybe if I'm lucky the rest of the day will move smoothly and I'll be able to get work done on all fronts and then celebrate my youngest daughters 20th B'day tomorrow!

In the fetal position...crying.

Ok Guys!

Have a great week!

See ya
S

The Imperfection Of Everything

Hello Lovelies!

Well last week I saw Whitey again and he was very happy to see me!

I should be scared right?

     The funny thing is that even though his stories seem way too...umm...fictional, he's so far a very nice guy just interested in sharing I guess and because you know I'm soooooo approachable that I get to be one of the many.

     As he sat down across from me in his blue and yellow Hawaiian shirt he inquired about my reading again noticing that I was reading a different book from the last time he saw me and then asked me how my day was. I told him it was good for a Wednesday and without hesitation off on the story train he went this time telling me about his travels to Mexico during a Cinco de Mayo some many many moons ago where he took his 007 type spy gear so that he could catch sight of a Spirit in an ancient church somewhere. He told me about finally catching it on film but that the spirit was just a shadow in the picture but he was certain he caught it.

Kind of makes me want to throw him in a story! In a way though I guess I am.

    Next he told me of meeting Stephen King during the filming of the original IT. After a brief conversation about my fear and downright hatred of Clowns that made him laugh he says " I like you!" I'm not sure it it's a good thing or a bad thing so if I disappear on a Wednesday never to be heard from again look for Whitey the Vampire/Werewolf/Secret Agent & Spirit Chaser guy he might have thrown me in a coffin, under the full moon with nothing but a micro-recorder and a bag of salt.

 He got of 3 stops later gave me a smile, a wave and as was well.

    So, now on to other things that will bore you to tears if that didn't already. this past Sunday we had the annual Car Show in Port Coquitlam that has gotten so large now that I prefer to stay at home instead of walking around in the masses but I had baby boy to keep me occupied so at least I wasn't bored. Being less than a block away from the center of it all it's much easier to go first thing as the cars are being driven in or right at the end when they form the loud vibrating lines of revving engines that shake you to the core as they drive off for home.

   On the writing front I'm glad to say that I'm still at it and that's a good thing. Revising has slipped back a little as the story is progressing forward and I know that I have to catch that up and fix the continuity issues for it to mesh together better but that work in progress is at least progressing and that's all I can as for. OK not all I can ask for but for right now I will take the consistency at which I spend time in my alternate written world over the perfection of it.

    If I've learned anything the only perfection I see is in the imperfection of everything and those imperfections make the world I live in much less plain. There is so much more to see and more to share preferably without judgments but that's impossible. Everyone has their own opinion and that's OK, being able to agree to disagree is a big thing in my house because even though some of us share the same view or opinion a lot of the time we'll have different reasons why we came to the conclusion. I am one of those people that tries to see everything from all angles. I never used to be and those teenage years were tough to learn from but I did. After I had my girls I was still learning being a younger mother at 19. Actions do have consequences whether they slap you in the face or just sit in the dark side of your brain reminding you that there was a time when what you thought was the perfect idea or the perfect choice...just...wasn't.

I'm rambling again, sorry! That just happens sometimes so on that note Lovelies...

Have a great week!

See Ya
S

"Vampires Are Real." He Says

I don't usually do this, I'm more of a Post a week type of girl but after my trip home yesterday I had to share the wealth of knowledge I received from a bus patron.

I get on the bus in Vancouver and take the hour and fifteen minute ride home simple because it gives me more time to read. This trip however was vastly different from my usual ones. Almost all of the trip was normal until we got to Coquitlam Center where the bus sits for about 10 mins before it takes me on that last stretch home to Port Coquitlam.

As usual I sit in my regular spot, feet on the bar in front of me, book in hand, headphones in tuning out the world as I'm deep in another one in my head. Two guys get on, one kind of young and the other graying at the temples. The two are deep in conversation about the 701 bus to Maple Ridge and how it surprisingly left earlier than usual so they were taking my bus instead to get to where they needed to go. I don't crank my music so I can hear them but I'm not really caring. Chatter, chatter "What time is it anyway?" the older one says. The younger replies "I don't know I don't have my phone." As their conversation turns to how no one uses watches anymore I reach into my purse check the time and say "It's 5:52." Both men look at me and say thank you clearly shocked that I not only heard them but gave them what they asked for. Since the 701 runs ever 15-20 mins another showed up and the younger man decided to take it and they both got of my bus.

Ok back to reading I go until the older man gets back on and sits across from me and starts talking. After a minute or so it's pretty clear I'm not reading anymore so I pop out a headphone and close my book.

Him - What are you reading?
Me - Oh it about Vampires
Him - Oh really? That's pretty cool!

I nodded for a second thinking I was going to be able to spend the last 10 mins of my ride with tunes in my head as the sun streamed in the window beside me.

Him - You know why that's cool?

I shrugged and shook my head.

Him -  Vampire stories are awesome! Even more so because I am one.
Slow blink...slow blink again. Assessing the situation here before I move on.

Him - Actually I'm a Werewolf/Vampire
Alrighty then...again with the slow blinking and an even slower nod.
Me - Interesting...

Him - Ya I had to get my fangs removed when I was a kid because they were too big and I kept cutting my lips.
Me - Oh really?
This being quietly said because my flight response was pounding in my brain and I was in a moving vehicle wondering how unhinged the man across from me was.

Oh wait he's still talking.

He leans forward and shows me his thumb and pinky nails. My brain is hammering that he's too close just way to close to me but I hold it together and look down.

Him - The nails are the worst when the elongate on the full moon! ( He actually used ELONGATE)
Me - ( because I'm stupid and have to encourage the guy ) How bad is it?
HIm - OH IT'S THE WORST! They just shred through!

He continues to tell me he took a trip to Transylvania and proved his blood ties to Dracula. I think I stopped breathing at one point because that seemed to be one hell of a statement. Blah blah he continues next thing I heard that his sensei cut off his long dark hair with a Samurai sword.

Where the hell am I and why is this ride taking so long????? I looked him in the eye though the whole time and then he leaned forward again and as serious as could be he says...

"Vampires are real...you better believe it." In my head I said "I believe that you believe it."

His stop approached and he said thank you for the conversation smiling the whole way and stood up. Just before he turned to leave he said "Oh! My name's Whitey!...Ah...no offence."

Is it strange that the No Offence line rocked me harder that his forward I'm a vampireness? My own daughter told me she forgets I'm black. I just smiled and said no problem.

He caught sight of my natural fang and said "Yup that's what I'm talkin about." Ya...not creepy at all.

I will leave you now back to your normalcy while I try to reclaim mine!

See Ya
S