let me tell you...

today was one of the longest days I've ever had...


let me let you illustrate my feelings from earlier in the day...

first get out a pen, and a piece of paper.

then draw a squiggly line on the paper.
add two dots above the squiggly line
and now, crumple up the piece of paper...

open it up.

Ya, that was winnie today. the dots are my eyes, the squiggly line is my smile, and the crumples...you get the rest, right?


It was SUCH a long fucking day.

so, here's how it went:

I wake up at 6:45 and check my account (to make sure my direct deposit went through...)
After that, I check a heart-felt "you can do it, winnie! I believe in you" e-mail from my mom (which totally made me cry.)

then I stumble to the shower and get the morning duties (coffee, one-a-day pill, clothes and make up) out of the way.

I head outside and remember, "oh my god, I have to buy a day pass because my ass is going alllllll over san gabriel valley today".
I go into smart and final, purchase some candy and get 5$ cash back so that I can get the day-pass. I really should've just picked up the 5 dollars last night, but I just thought...
I wasn't thinking.

Anyway, right when I exit "smart and final" my bus speeds by.

*my head is already down, and I'm watching the ground as I walk* one of the many bus failures of today.

So, I start walking to my empty bus stop and wait for the next one. On my way there, I think I see another one coming so I start to run. And I was right, it was a bus coming my way, a tour-bus. UGH...so everyone saw me run--for no reason. :(

I'm sitting at the stop--waiting--and jamming to stevie wonder's "living for the city" when i look up and see the bus coming my way.
mini heart attack...
where's the 5 dollars?


frantic
frantic
frantic

oh, it's in my pocket.

I'm on the bus.
This is my first time going this direction via bus, and I happen to get on the bus which doesn't announce every stop, so my eyes are literally like elmo's. FULLY OPEN.

I get off and try to locate the next bus stop so I can catch the "montebello 20."
after crossing a series of wrong streets, I see the montebello pass by.

oh, it was THAT stop, on the opposite side of the world.
great.


I wait at that stop, and the bus doesn't come.
5 minutes pass...(still smiling)
10 minutes pass...(eyes darting--lips cracking)
25 minutes pass...(eyes watering--frowning)

Was that the last bus for the morning?

I call reimz...it wasn't.
the montebello comes once every hour.

time to fry in the california sun for 40 minutes. ^_^

the montebello comes at 9:22,
my interview is at 10. cutting it close??? a little.
I try to use my 5 dollar day pass, the one that started the whole morning off wrong, and guess what? the montebello 20 doesn't honor metro passes.

there goes another dollar.

sitting comfortably on the nice air-condition bus, I check the stops coming up. There is a train of people waiting at one of the stops------a train of retards.
I think it was "special-field-trip" day, or something?

so all of these crazies get on the bus. no biggie.
but,
of course...
of course...
of course,
the loudest, most vocal crazy sits by....
did you guess?

me.

his face is literally on my shoulder, and he makes an audible sound, so I turn towards him.
face to face...eyelash-to-eyelash, he smiles and says...asldkfjh;asl

I smile back because that's all I can do.

the whole ride he's making high pitch/low pitch sounds, and I'm thinking, "oh my god, this is the only person who can audibly illustrate the sounds that are going through my tiny-ass brain" it was like he was a hologram of winnie's insides.
"hhheeeeeeeeehop" "BOO-RAHHHH EHeHe" "yipyipyipyipyip" and my favorite, "peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" (imagine that in the highest pitch EVER)

they get off, the whole traveling troop. and i'm alone on the bus.

I get to the place just fine.
I open the door and walk into someone's interview.
no biggie, i'm already feeling like a loser, so this incident of the uncomfortable "oh, excuse me! I'm sorry" doesn't phase me.

I'm sitting, looking, and liking everything I see.

the interview goes smoothly. She says she'll call me this afternoon...I got it. i knew it.


I head to MONROVIA for the next interview (justincasethingsdon'tworkoutatthisjob)

it's 11:40-ish when the bus comes.
my interview is at 1.
cutting it close?
a little.

I get on the ol' faithful montebello 20, and guess who gets on 2 stops after me?

the train of retards!
the same guy, who this time, was basically sitting on my right lap, is making even MORE sounds.

I turn to him; all I see is a wall of ivory. at least someone's happy to see me.

This time I get off somewhere in pasadena with this other rider who happens to be waiting at the same stop as me.
I ask him, "does this bus go to 'huntington and mrytle'?" (because my next interview is at 121 E Huntington)

"Yes."
"BUT DON'T QUOTE ME ON THAT" laugh laugh laugh.
great. he's crazy too. I notice that he starts talking to himself and then starts to look VERY upset.

I'm too anxious to be scared.

I get onto "the foothill transfer" which also doesn't honor my metro pass (bye-bye dollar-bill), and everything is going okay, until I start to notice that we're on huntington, and wait...121 E Huntington just past. oh no!
pull the cord.
pull the cord.
pull the cord.

I get off and back track, crossing 2 streets to realize that, OH GOD, we're still in ARCADIA.
I need to be in MONROVIA, the next city down.





I have to pee.
my hair is big.
my face is gray--not just because my spirit is the size of a sugar-cube, but because of the dirty ass air.

So, I walk back to the stop I got off at and....wait.
a guy sits next to me, and I ask him (just to confirm)...are we in arcadia or in monrovia?
he looks around and says (louder than necessary) "we're on 2nd avenue and huntington, not arcadia and monrovee" (monrovia?)

:)

So I sit with the new crazy and wait for the foothill transfer (sayonara dollar bill!)
and get on. I find "Montecito's College of Fine Art and Design" and wait for my interview. This one doesn't go as good.

by now it's 1pm and i haven't consumed anything (food or liquid) since 6:45. I'm basically hunched over like a wet-noodle when "MR.ED" comes out to greet me.
This old fat man is basically checking me out, grinning like the joker, and asking me questions that have nothing to do with my qualifications: "so, you're from hawaii, eh?" "Do you eat pineapples?" "How do you like it out here, the air's real dry, huh?"

...



...
...
...




he seems satisfied with my answers and directs me to a second interview with the school's plain-jane principal. Hi, it's an art school...can you dress like it?
anyway. the interview is a flop because: ding, ding, ding...I'm not qualified.
she sees that after about 3 seconds and is trying to find ways of wrapping it up.
in my mind, I'm thinking, just shake my hand and send me on my stupid way, please.

so she does.

and then comes the big task of trying to get home.

Where is my bus stop? where am I? what is monrovia, and will this bus that says "monrovia" take me where I need to go? afterall, the number is the same as the one I wrote down on my "bus-info-cue-cards" (I wrote down all of the bus numbers and stops on these index cards so I wouldn't have to carry a huge map/bus schedule in my bag)

I get on. this bus, finally, finally, finally honors my metro pass.
the bus ride is sweet and I get off on "peck rd and live oak ave"
and wait.

In case you're wondering, which i'm sure you're not, Live Oak is located on the sun. it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot there. It was to the point where I started to get sleepy because it was so hot. I wondered, "is this what it's like to die? "
My body was pulsating from all of the heat, and my once human form transformed into a lower-case n.



where was the 78
seventy eight
seven
e...i..g...h....t


I waited for 35 minutes on the grill until FINALLY the 78 came. by that time I was 1/4 of a person.

I didn't get home until 3:30 (closer to 4, actually)

but, as I mentioned, it was all well worth it because, I got the job.

THANK GOD, because if I didn't get it the WHOLE day would've been in vain.

:)
love
winnie.