I blame Jane Austen....

Sometimes I am amazed at how I survive on my own...in a big city....


My commute each day consists of a bus ride to the Pentagon where I catch the metro into downtown.  It has been a fairly easy process and has quickly become a routine... so much so that I don't have to think about it anymore....or so I thought.

A few weeks ago I am waiting for the bus home from the Pentagon...and am engrossed in Jane Austen (can you blame me?) and I see the green ART bus pull up and looked up to see that it was #87 which is my bus. 

I did not recognize the bus driver....and I know all the bus drivers for my route..RED FLAG #1: ..but did I question....NO....he must be new right?  So I show him my apt ID (I get free rides through my apt complex)....and he gives me this really confused look...RED FLAG #2....but neither of us say anything...of course...and he just waves me on. A minute or two before the bus pulls away I notice the bus driver talking to a few people outside and I think that I recognize a few as people who usually ride my bus...RED FLAG #3 ...hmmmm...that's weird...back to Jane Austen.....Captain Wentworth....yummm

when....
I look up and notice that instead of continuing into town....the bus is getting on the freeway..
RED FLAG #4.......aka the "Past the point of NO return" flag.... or the "you're so dumb...how many red flags do you need!" flag....
...it is then that I finally pull myself from the pages of "Persuasion" and the dreadful truth sets in.... I am on the wrong bus...the 87 Xpress....and I have absolutely NO clue where I am going to end up!  I try to stay calm as we zoom past my apartment complex on the 395 toward Richmond.  After five minutes or so we get off the freeway and I am frozen...trying to look calm and collected on the outside...while panicking and cursing Jane Austen in my head. 

What do I do?  Stay on for the whole route until it goes back to the pentagon?  That would take hours! What if I get off and catch the 87Xpress that is going in the opposite direction back to the pentagon? 

I am going through different scenarios in my head when I realize that the further I go, the more lost and disoriented I will become....if I am going to act....I need to act now! Before I knew it....I find myself jumping off at the next stop.  As the bus pulls away...I am left speechless as I take in my surroundings. 

There I am in a run-down graffiti covered part of town...the apts and buildings have bars on the windows...and I quickly realize that not only am I the only woman in sight....but the only white person as well. 

I am going to die!!!!!!  and all because of Jane Austen!

I cross the street to wait for the next bus which according to the schedule wasn't due for another 20 minutes.  A lot can happen in 20 minutes....I mean....let's be honest....I watch CSI...20 minutes could be the difference between life and death....

So...what do I do?  I start walking.  I walk back the way the bus came....figuring if anything, I will be walking along the bus route and can get on when it comes but won't have to wait at a stop like a sitting duck.  I remember mom telling me that if I am walking alone to "walk with a purpose" and to not look like easy prey....I had to remind myself that she used the word "walk" and not "run" as I passed bar after bar...with groups of sloshed men gathered outside and rundown warehouses. 

I don't think I have ever "walked" so fast or with so much "purpose" in my life...

Almost an hour later...I found this path that led under the freeway and back into a nearby neighborhood and eventually.... I made it home in one piece.  I walked in...happier than ever to be home!  I sat down, tried to calm my "poor nerves" and mend my ragged confidence....and put my Jane Austen aside as punishment for all the misheif she had caused....