don't wait

i had class at 9 am this morning. it's not 9:50 and i'm not in class. "what happened, nicki?"

i woke up early this morning so i'd have time to walk to class. i knew the strike was still going on, so i figured getting to class would take a while. so i put on my tennis shoes, plug in my nike+ thing, and leave about 47 minutes before class. i'm ready for the 3 mile walk. then i walk past the metro station and see people going in and i think, heck, why not? maybe they're running more frequently than yesterday. i'll go check it out.

so i walk down into the mirabeau metro station and see someone at the counter. great news! they weren't there yesterday, so this is a good sign. maybe they finally gave up. line 10 doesn't tell you how long until the next train comes (it says "reglage cours," but i don't know what that means), but there are a few other people waiting, so i figure it must not be long. i got to the station around, oh, let's say 8:18 am.

i'm listening to my "keith and the girl" podcast, and they're pretty funny, talking about strip clubs and bathrooms and whatever else they were saying. anyway, i was enjoying it, so i didn't really notice the first 20 minutes pass by. okay, i figured, it's 840, so i'll be a little late. not a big deal. not like poli sci ever starts on time anyway.

more and more people come, and everyone's getting real ansty...we're all standing at the edge of the platform, looking down the tracks like morons, as if that'll make it come faster. as the time passes by, more and more people scoot closer to the edge.

ugh, now it's 856, and i'm definitely going to be too late to miss the first important part of lecture. i could be calm and say, "oh, well, nothing i could do now!" but i didn't feel like that. i felt like getting worked up (i just started my period, so maybe that's why [ooooo overshare! CRY ABOUT IT]).

i let out an impatient, angry sigh, like that will help coax the train down the tracks. two trains went by in the 45 minutes we were waiting. THEY ARE SO LUCKY.

my podcast ends, so i get increasingly upset. i hit shuffle songs and dashboard's "don't wait" comes on. talk about fucking irony.

finally, at 908, the train comes. it looks crowded from far away, but i can do crowded. i've been on line one at rush hour; i can do a crammed train. but this was unreal...it was already packed with people pushed up against the windows, and nobody was getting off. THIS SUCKS. people were pushing on anyway, which is understandable. we had been waiting at least 50 mother effing minutes....we deserve to get on this effing train. but i couldn't do it. literally, i couldn't get on the train...people's feet were hanging out the door, and i think they were gonna crowd surf or something in there just to get a few more people in.

i started to laugh like a retard. i couldn't believe it. all this time i've waited, and now i can't even get on the metro. AGHAHG ASDHF jf. well, whatever, i have my tennis shoes on, dashboard's telling me not to wait, so i'm gonna walk. yeah, i'm gonna miss poli sci, but i've already pretty much resigned myself to that.

so i walk across the bridge for a change of scenery (i already walked on the left side of the seine yesterday). i pass by the javel rer stop and consider going in. then i remember dashboard, and pick up my walking pace. there's no way an rer will come within the next 5 minutes anyway.

GUESS WHAT COMES IN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES. i wasn't 100 m past the station when i see the rer slow down to a stop at the javel station. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME. i smiled again (people must've though i was a bumbling idiot) because, well, what else can i do? i walked really fast to school half because i was pissed i had to walk (even though that's what i had planned on doing in the beginning) and half because i thought it'd be nice exercise. exercise always gets me in a better mood. but i dont WANT to be in a better mood. i wanted to still be pissed when i got to a computer so i could write this ranty blog. now that i've written it, i can calm down.

i've got an econ midterm in half an hour that i should study for. whoops.