Day One: Not That Bad, So Far

Day One of my endeavor in carlessness was, of course, the same day a flood warning was issued for the area.  But while the skies were ugly and the roads were wet, it could have been a lot worse.

The "pantry" in my office

I had already planned the different routes I could take to get to my office in Rockville, including a metro bus and a combination of a RideOn bus and running.  Since some other days I'll be running or biking, today I wanted to take the recently improved Q line to work so that I could carry everything I wanted to have for the next few days.  That included lunches for the week, clothes to run in, and food for breakfast.  If I were simply planning to get around by using bus or metro, that would require some planning in and of itself.  But what further complicates my plans is that I intend to fill in missing pieces of bus routes by running or biking.  As a runner, if I'm running in the morning I always prefer to grab a swig of orange juice, down some water and eat breakfast when I get back - meaning that I'd need to keep some breakfast food at the office as well.  So I stuffed all of that stuff in my backpack, and realized that, of my three pairs of black dress shoes, two were already at my office and one was at Jon's apartment.  But, I also needed to take my running shoes to the office, and since I was otherwise lacking a pair of shoes to wear, I just rolled with those.  "Stranger things have been seen on a metro bus," I reassured myself.

It took about 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop at Spring Street and Georgia Avenue.  I couldn't believe how crowded the bus was when it pulled up.  Every seat was filled and ten, maybe fifteen people were standing in the aisle.  I would have tried to snap a picture, but my hands were full and everytime I try to take a picture on my iPhone I encounter major ongoing capacity issues due to my obsession with music, and my phone tells me there's no more room for pictures or anything else.  I wondered what would happen first: the State Radio mix I was listening to would come to an end, the bus would get to Rockville, or the plastic bag carrying my milk, salad, and shrimp pasta leftovers would break. 

I tried to follow the crowd and move back each time the bus stopped and more people tried to stuff on.  Then, somewhere on Viers Mill, the girl sitting right next to where I was standing pulled the "stop requested" cord.  I casually glanced around and realized I was surrounded mostly by people my age or younger probably en route to Montgomery College's Rockville campus where the line terminates.  With no senior citizens in sight, I jockeyed for position in taking over the newly vacated seat and lucked out when the girl took off for the front bus door, blocking the other potential seat-claimer.  SCORE!

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I paid the right amount in bus fare... my SmarTrip card went in to the negative on Saturday coming back from Georgetown, so I grabbed some change before I left my apartment for fare.  But, if there are different fares for SmarTrip and cash, then I probably didn't pay enough.  Amateur mistake, I'll do better next time, I promise!  The bus arrived shortly after 9am - about ten minutes late which I am guessing either happens every time it rains, or it just happens every time.  I'll get on the earlier bus from here on out.  All in all, it took about one hour to get here.

Alright, lunch is almost over.  Tonight I'm running to my boyfriend Jon's apartment after work as long as the weather holds out.  If not, I'll be riding my first RideOn bus.