First, let me apologise once again for the tardiness of this post. It seems that the computer gets incredibly grumpy if woken up from a nice, relaxing weekend of being turned off.
The 4th Annual Stellar Literary Festival was held in Oshawa this past weekend. It is one day, free of charge to any and all. I was given the opportunity to read from my short story River Woman. It was my first reading ever, and I was absolutely terrified.
Nonetheless, I booked the train ticket, I booked a room, I packed my bags and I went. It was a great experience. The start was a little rocky. What is it with me and the start of journeys?
*harp music*
Saturday, 26 June, 2010.
The train was not scheduled to leave until 12:23pm, so I relaxed at home in the morning and cuddled my cats as much as humanly possible. They weren't in a cuddly mood, so really I irritated my cats as much as humanly possible. I had it all planned out. At around about 11:15am, I'd jump on Skype and call a taxi. That should give me plenty of time to get to the train.
Disaster strikes.
That day, of all days, the microphone on the computer decided to cease functioning. I called the taxi company, only to find that they could not hear me on the other end. I checked the sound coming from the microphone. Nothing. I had spent close to 20 minutes trying to get the damned thing to work. All to no avail.
Swearing, I quickly looked up OCTranspo to see which bus would get me to the station on time. I had missed it. I should have been at Heron bus station at 11:14am if I wanted to make it. There was another bus, but that would get me to the train station with barely 5 minutes to spare - and I still had to swap my proof of purchase for actual tickets.
Swearing louder, I filled up the cats' dishes, put the house key in an envelope for the cat-sitter (or check-er-in-er), and ran out the door with my luggage. I was late leaving, and it would take a great deal of luck for me to catch this late bus on time. At the end of the driveway, I lost my footing, slipped and hit the ground hard with my left knee. Ouch.
I managed to get a lovely graze on said knee, and aggravate the stress fracture in my left foot I acquired when trying to run a couple of months ago. I had been holding my glasses in my hand at that point (having grabbed them off the table as I sprinted out the door). I managed to twist the frames and scratch the hell out of the right lens while trying to break my fall. Lovely.
No time to do anything but curse, and limped as fast as I could to Heron Station, dragging my luggage behind me.
The wind must have been at my back, because I managed to catch the late bus. The driver even told me of the bus numbers that went to the train station at the transfer - many more options than OCTranspo had provided on their site. The result - I made it to the train station with time to spare. Phew!
I exchanged the proof of purchase for actual train tickets and queued for the train. No. 045 left on time, and I was filled with excited anticipation as it careened down the tracks towards Oshawa.
Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment