It was one of the hottest summer days in the hottest summer in London in the last 50 or so years. I decided to leave work a little early so I can spend some quality time with my husband. Leaving work early never works out for me.
At 17:30 I reach the station to catch my train and I hear the words that every commuter hates to hear, “This platform is closed due to an ongoing incident and we don’t know when we will reopen.” Dammit. But a platform at another station might be open. I just have to get to them. So I make my way to that station and find out… They’ve shut the whole line down.
Okay fine. I can take the underground to another station and the bus from there. It will double the commute but what do I have to lose. At this point it is almost 18:30. I should have been home half an hour ago. Naturally half way to my back up station we get an announcement in the carriage that they will not be stopping at that station. And, “We advise you to seek an alternative route where possible.”
At this point I am beyond tired, hungry, thirsty, my feet have really started to swell from the walking back and forth. Have I mentioned I am pregnant as well? So I have to double back. So I take that same line back down to another station so I can switch branches and go all the way back north. I finally reach an area where I can get the bus to go home. It is now around 20:00.
I get out of the station and it starts pour rain for the first time in weeks. I can’t find the bus stop. I try to find an attendant to at least tell me which way the bus stop is because I am not in the frame of mind where I can read the map and understand it. I am exhausted, hungry, hurting and have I mentioned exhausted? The attendant brushes me off with, “Just read the letters on the sign girl.” And walks briskly away.
I go back outside and this whole dratted commute hits me. Traveling for 2.5 hours because of bullshit. Me being drenched. People not being helpful. My feet hurting. And I started crying. I was that pregnant woman crying on the bus station platform. It was the only time I completely lost control of myself while pregnant.
If you ever want to learn something about people this is a sure fire way to make them either feel bad or uncomfortable. When a younger man sees a crying pregnant woman, they react as if they accidentally aggroed an end game boss. They know they are completely unprepared for this kind of situation but need to fight it out anyway.
So yeah. I’ve become an end game boss. But instead of dropping a high quality weapon with +CRIT, +DEX, +ACC and whatever other stats you need, I drop a locked crafting item with negative traits that takes up inventory.
I eventually did make it home around 22:00 that night. A mother ended up helping me find the bus I needed and after a 30 minute wait it arrived. My husband, bless him, immediately made me sit down and put a home cooked meal in front of me and did everything in his power to help me relax. So this story did end well after all.
Digital Herstory 