...can be a total nightmare! Most days it's as easy as a wink (although don't take that too literally as I'm on of those people who doesn't poccess a talent for winking, or general ability at all). Other days, however, it's as if the entire city decided taht they don't want you to arrive at any destinatino whether you're tired and sweaty or not.
Here's the story of MY nightmare dealing with public transporation. On Monday (Labor Day) a few girls who are also interns at the Navy Yard and I decided to make a test run from TWC (The Washington Center) to the Yard to see exactly how long it would take us to commute each day. We left at 2:00 and got to Union Sation without a problem--I say without a problem because we got there in ten minutes, but there is also a 1/4 mile long hill I get to conquer each morning. My arms had almost turned to jelly by the time we arrived, but it's also great exercise.
When we got to Union Station is when all the troulbe started... being the "city babies" (unexperienced, impulsive, excitable, and niave) that were at that point, we got on the Circulator--the bus we decided would take us the most direct route without having to make any switches along the way. However, we forgot the little detail of looking on the front of the bus for the destination of the bus and didn't realize until about ten minutes into the ride that it was bound for Georgetown instead of the Navy Yard. So we had to work our way back to Union Station, face the confused looks of all the Circulator employees who had just seen these same four girls twenty or so minutes before, go through the entire boarding process again, and mess up our timing of the commute. Once on the bus we made it to the Yard smoothly, but that wasn't the end of my nightmare.
After browsing the museum for a bit, wee returned to Union Station around 4:30. Two of the girls (Justine and Ellie) decided they wanted to explore some of the shops in the Station while myself and Janice decided we wanted to head back to TWC. It had been a long day, it was hot, humid, and we were exhausted from all of the walking. So, we decided that instead of walking back to the apartment building we would take the shuttle taht comes every fifteen minutes or so to pick up students. Low and behold the shuttle arrived on time, but as luck would have it the wheelchair lift was broken! Greaatttttt..........so, we called the consierge at TWC to see waht we shoud do. He said he would call a cab for me and that it would pick us p and they cover the cost since the incident wasn't my fault. He said he would call when the cab was on it's way. I gratefully agreed to the solution and Janice and I made ourselves as comfortable as we could on the steps of the Postal Museum on the corner of First and M Street as if we were friends wit hthe group of homeless people just several feet away from us.....then we waited. And waited..................and waited...........
Finally, around 4:45 I called them back to see if they had made any progress. Nothing. So we waited some more....... at 5:00 the consierge called to say that they had FOUND a cab service adn that they would call when the cab was actually on its way. At this point, we discussed the idea of forgetting the cab and jsut walking back but decided against it since the cab would probably be there to rescue us within 10 minutes...or so we thought. Once 5:30 rolled around we couldn't take it anymroe and decided to alk back but just as we started walking the cab called and said it was there to pick us up so we hurried back to our spot, but there was no cab. We waited a few minutes and then spotted the cab..........slowly making it's way around the circle in front of Union Station instead of pulling up to the curb of First and M. Street where we said we would wait. We started in that direction, utterly frustrated taht a cab for some unknown reason has such a hard time spotting a girl in a wheelchair axiously awaiting her rescue. Just as we headed that direction, the cab exited the circle and appeared to be headed our direction. We thought that surely it had seen us, but realized we were wrong when it started heading down M Street without a moment of hesitation. We ran after it and nearly caught it while it was stopped at a light, but to no avail.
That was the last straw. We had had it. We walked back to TWC and arrive at 6:45..... four hours and forty-five minutes after our "quick test run" had begun.
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