When I went to a party at my sister’s place recently I took public transit. My route included taking the subway train, which doesn’t run all night. So before I left my place I checked the schedule and told myself what time I should leave the party by, in order to catch the train.
If I did end up missing the last one it was no big deal as there was an alternate route available but it would have involved waiting outside on the street for a bus. Plus there was always the (much more expensive) option of taking a taxi.
Anyway, I had planned to leave myself plenty of time to catch the train, thinking I would leave the party at 12:30. That would have given me 3 hours of enjoyment, but damn if I wasn’t having so much fun that I jumped when I checked my watch and saw that it was suddenly ten past one. I high tailed it out of there, and as the title says, made it for the very last train going downtown.
The whole experience brought me back to my teenage years and the times when we regularly rushed to catch the last public transit vehicle home. Except back then, based on our suburban destination, there was no alternative bus to take, so if we missed it we were done for. It meant that someone’s parent had to be called out of bed to come and fetch us. But there was that time that a gang of us were able to convince a kind taxi driver to take us to the very edge of our sub-division at the deeply discounted fare of the amount we had set aside to take public transit, after having spent all the rest of our money having fun in the city.
For this recent ride, there was nobody else waiting on the platform, and only one other person on the train with me. I know this is because I was going back downtown and that the last trains going the other way, leaving the city core, at this time were likely packed to the rafters.
Hope you have a great Monday. It’s a holiday here called ‘Family Day’. It is sunny outside but very very cold. I’m sure the tobogganing hills and skating rinks are filled with rosy-cheeked little ones. I’m not sure what I’ll do yet but I think it will include some crocheting in a sunbeam and a walk outside with my camera.
xo loulou
