Commuting

In May 2009 I started a job as a grocery store cashier in Kingston. Conveniently, the wholesome family-run grocers was located directly across from the Saucy Minx Manor (my aptly named student home in Kingston during undergrad.) As any of my roommates current or former can tell you, I am incredibly absent minded. I spent a long time denying the fact (much to Courtney's frustration.) I have since come to terms with this character quirk and I have come out of the closet about it so to speak. I now identify as an, "absent-minded intellectual." As a graduate student, I now feel I have a little more validity when I argue that I am only forgetful because there are so many other important thoughts bonking around inside my skull ie. "omg, is Sookie going to date a vampire or a werewolf in the next season of True Blood?" or "should my next jean purchase be skinny jeans or boot-cut? and I don't care what people are saying I am not jumping on the fares trend again."


So anyways, here I am, in all my absent-mindedness, conveniently working across the street from my house. Forgot to wash my travel mug last night. Doesn't matter! I'll just walk across the street with my ceramic mug of tea! Feeling kind of chilly at work. Call Courtney at home to bring me a cardigan. Didn't plan anything for dinner. Call Gill, make her come to the store and buy chicken souvlaki supplies, kindly ask Gill to go home and make the chicken souvlaki so it will be ready when I finish work at 6. Promise to do dishes. Come up with great idea for a new song for The Miss Bennets. Sketch out some lyrics. When Claire comes over to buy candy, give her the lyrics so she can go home and start working on a melody. See?? SO CONVENIENT.

Flash forward to today and my commute is no longer 30 seconds (or 10 minutes to Queen's Campus.) Suddenly, I am faced with the epic cross- Toronto journey to YorkU. Perhaps this undertaking of public transit would be less aggravating if I hadn't spent the last 5 years living in quaint walkable places (rural England, Kingston and Halifax.) The thing is, I don't mind walking at all, there is fresh air, there are sights and sounds, there are no triggers for my claustrophobia. Oh yeah, and its free of charge.

From High Park to York takes approximately an hour on the TTC. Or, that's what the TTC website tells me. Sometimes it takes 50min, but to ensure you are punctual, add a buffer zone of at least half an hour. If you have an important meeting or exam make sure you have a full two hours to do the trip, just in case.

The return journey is less convenient. Expect a 40min wait for a bus if you are leaving York Campus around 5:30. The lines extend forever and then double back on themselves in a laughably horrifying way. You look at a depressingly long line for the "express" bus only to realize that what you thought was the end of a line for another bus is actually the line you need which has wound itself in several directions in a stupidly serpentine manner. At this point, you must decided if you will suppress your sobs or simply cry openly knowing that it could be almost two hours before you make it home. If it is raining and you forgot your umbrella (as I did today) feel free to cry openly and pretend it is just raining on your face.

However, it is not just sheer volume of transit users that slow your progress home. Any number of other delays can crop up. Construction for one (never take the 41 down Keele,) mechanical delays, mystery delays and raving lunatics.

Today at Bathurst our train sat for 20min because of a "security issue" with a passenger. We all stared at the raving lunatic as he was carried off by TTC officials. While we all gawked at him like he was a nut-job freak, secretly I thought, maybe he was just sick of commuting? The only difference between him and I, is that I just haven't started yelling out loud about it yet.

So, the conclusion is, I have been grossly spoiled by my previous commutes. Perhaps I need to purchase a kindle to pass the time. Perhaps I need to remember to charge my ipod. Perhaps I need to move to an olden time Wild West town where everything you need is located on one block. Perhaps I need to lower my expectations of convenience. Perhaps I need to get my driver's license. Regardless, you'll soon know if I've sorted out my extraordinary commuters rage. If I don't get over it, it will only be a matter of time before I am the screaming scene- maker who causes the huge delay that makes you late for that very important thing you had to get to.

Frustratedly Yours,
A.W.


ps. suggested reading to pass the time on an epic commute: Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, The Pilgrim's Progress, HP7 and A Journey to the Center of the Earth. These six should be enough to last your as far as YorkU if there are no lunatic delays.