Countdown

Down to the last day before this exam. My memory improved slightly overnight and I've been able to remember the characters as I think of them, which is good. Now I'm trying not to worry that what I do remember will not be enough to pass the exam.

Spent the morning studying and was feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything, so I decided I would take a break (sort of) and go in to school, do some more work there before teaching, then come home and do some more - my theory is that breaks are good and necessary.

Problem is, because of the MBTA's complete and utter inability to adhere to anything remotely approaching their published schedules, it took me over two hours to get to school - thank god I'd left early! But now I've only got a few minutes between now & heading over to start up class. My plan to write out one of the questions before I teach (in about an hour, since that's the time I'll have allocated to do it during the exam) is shot. I studied the whole two hours, but the thing that pisses me off is that had I not left early, I would've been late for wherever I was going.

Riding the bus around here is an absolutely demeaning experience - there seems to be an attitude with the transit company that only low-life losers ride it. Not adhering to published schedules, which means you either wait around a lot, leave early for places because you can't trust that you'll get there in the advertised time, or be late for stuff isn't the only problem. Frankly, I really resent what this implies - that I am not worthy of the respect or consideration of the transit company. As a customer, I'm not important. My time is not important. My comfort is not important. Getting my money's worth is not important.

I've had bus drivers close the door in my face as I run up and refuse to re-open, even though I am right there and they are not moving (what's the rush, you're not on some kind of schedule or something, are you?). I've been on a bus where the air conditioning system leaked all over the rear half of the bus, and continued to leak onto the passengers who were trying to squeeze into the clean spaces - two waiters, in their white shirts who were heading to work had less-than-white crap all over their uniforms before escaping that bus. This doesn't include the countless missed transfers, missed stops, late arrivals, and even non-existent buses.

No wonder this is the land of the car - no one can trust anyone else to get them where they need to go on time.