Cursed Monday
This past Monday is a prime example of why Mondays will do down in history as the suckiest day of the week.
First, it's not fun to have to return to work after a weekend of fun and relaxation. Waking up before it's light out and birds are still asleep is rarely a pleasant experience. I wake up groggy. It's even darker than usual. Rain clouds block the light and pour large droplets on my dampening pants as I trudge to work. The bus is packed. I miss the first one and have to stand on the second one. Despite my raincoat and umbrella my pants are wet around the knees by the time I reach work. I am late.
Work drags on, which isn't unusual in itself. However, I find out during the course of the day that I made a few errors and errors from past week reappear to bite me in the ass. The work days ends I get wet walking to the bus. The bus is so full I have to stand again. Even worse is that the bus comes to a stand-still 5 minutes away from 22nd Street SkyTrain station and we inch the rest of the way. My 35 min. bus ride takes 1 hour.
I arrive late for my 6:30 pm tutoring session. My student looks stunned. He's wearing grey long-johns with a ridiculously droopy crotch. (Does he keep watermelons in there?) My student mutters "oh, didn't you get my message. I don't want study today." Then his house-parent arrived through the front gate and seemed to berate him for about 5 minutes. During this time he mostly sheepishly replied "oh" as his head was turned down or he was turned away from her in his little room.
When she finally left we sat down and I found out he had just been dumped by his girlfriend in China. That's just what he needed after feeling lonely in a foreign country. He had no school because of the strike and no other friends he knows outside of school. Also all of the Vancouver rain was making him a depressed shut-in. The good news is I cheered him up a bit before I departed an hour later.
On my way home I was nearly hit by two cars. The first gunned through a cross walk on Edmonds and the second was inches away from my knee as he turned without looking from Edmonds. I was exhausted and so I irritably saluted both of these fine Vancouver drivers with my one-fingered salute. Sleep that night could not come nearly soon enough.
Thankfully Tuesday was a beautifully sunny day.
First, it's not fun to have to return to work after a weekend of fun and relaxation. Waking up before it's light out and birds are still asleep is rarely a pleasant experience. I wake up groggy. It's even darker than usual. Rain clouds block the light and pour large droplets on my dampening pants as I trudge to work. The bus is packed. I miss the first one and have to stand on the second one. Despite my raincoat and umbrella my pants are wet around the knees by the time I reach work. I am late.
Work drags on, which isn't unusual in itself. However, I find out during the course of the day that I made a few errors and errors from past week reappear to bite me in the ass. The work days ends I get wet walking to the bus. The bus is so full I have to stand again. Even worse is that the bus comes to a stand-still 5 minutes away from 22nd Street SkyTrain station and we inch the rest of the way. My 35 min. bus ride takes 1 hour.
I arrive late for my 6:30 pm tutoring session. My student looks stunned. He's wearing grey long-johns with a ridiculously droopy crotch. (Does he keep watermelons in there?) My student mutters "oh, didn't you get my message. I don't want study today." Then his house-parent arrived through the front gate and seemed to berate him for about 5 minutes. During this time he mostly sheepishly replied "oh" as his head was turned down or he was turned away from her in his little room.
When she finally left we sat down and I found out he had just been dumped by his girlfriend in China. That's just what he needed after feeling lonely in a foreign country. He had no school because of the strike and no other friends he knows outside of school. Also all of the Vancouver rain was making him a depressed shut-in. The good news is I cheered him up a bit before I departed an hour later.
On my way home I was nearly hit by two cars. The first gunned through a cross walk on Edmonds and the second was inches away from my knee as he turned without looking from Edmonds. I was exhausted and so I irritably saluted both of these fine Vancouver drivers with my one-fingered salute. Sleep that night could not come nearly soon enough.
Thankfully Tuesday was a beautifully sunny day.