Ahlan Wa Sahlan

Ahlan Wa Sahlan

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Dooooooooooooooowntown

You can always get it dooooooooowntown.

I started my new job yesterday (btw people I'm not that flaky on jobs I'm just a temp worker) and it is immensely better than my last position. And even cooler I'm working DOWNTOWN Minneapolis which is a pain to get to in the morning, but oh so worth it. My last position was also in Minneapolis, but in the ghetto and not near anything cool. Here I'm in the thick of things, surrounded by cool bistros and sky scrapers with endless possibility of fun times. If only my husband were here and working in the same area, so many places for us to explore. I even have a Starbucks on my walk from the bus stop to my work, which is a blessing and a curse all at the same time.

But really, really? I went last night to buy a bus pass thinking its gotta be cheaper than paying cash each time I got on, only to drop $76 for a 31-day pass. Sweet mother of Daisy! I sucked it up and figured it was cheaper than driving (definately cheaper than parking downtown) and good for the earth. Whats $76 when you're cutting your carbon emissions?

Only to get on the bus this morning and be told I need to pay 75 cents extra because its an EXPRESS bus.

....

I was pissed. Luckily I walk right past a transit office on my way to work as well so I slipped in there only to find that if I wanted to by a 31-day for the express bus I needed to cough up $104 not $76.

I might have turned purple at this point. I'm not sure.

$104 for 30 days. Are you serious? That comes to about $4.52 each day (weekdays yo, I ain't about to come down here on the weekends on the bus) which ok, so thats an average of $1 less a day. Still.

My pocketbook hurts.

And, just to add some insult to this injury, prior to this job starting I was thinking that if I was going to ride the bus at least this position would be spring and summer so I'd have some beautiful weather to be tromping around the bus stops in.

Yea. Yesterday we had a freak snowstorm that dumped six inches of snow on us. Snow (mixed with sleet as the temp hovered at 32/0C all day) and slush I had to slosh through- in my inadequate mary janes- to get to the bus yesterday evening and dig my car out of.

Not cool. But, the upside was that I was not the one driving through the slush and traffic to get home. Nope, I had an insane bus driver to do that. And now, I know that buses are (almost) the biggest thing on the road, but the way the driver drove made me think he considered himself the godzilla of 35W. He was driving one of those accordian buses and as he flew past a tiny two-door car (who was driving quite sanely for the condition- blinding sleet/blizzard) he cut over in front of them so close that I could almost imagine the tail end flinging that little car off the road behind him. Around about the time he played chicken with a semi and dropped one side of the bus off the road I just closed my eyes, turned up my ipod, and imagined I was someplace else.

It was an adventure.

If only I could figure out a way to drop down the price of riding the bus.

And hey, I just want to put a proposition out there for the powers that be:

If you're gonna raise gas prices and thereby raise the price of EVERY OTHER THING ON EARTH, do us a favor and raise our salaries as well.

kthanxbye.

11 comments:

UmmSqueakster said...

Heh. I was all reved up to go to the gym this morning before work, only to find that it took me half an hour to dig out my car and then that my gas cap was frozen shut. Not enough gas to get to the gym. grrr.

Are you with a temp agency? Some give you bus passes for a discount.

Yup, downtown is great. I'm on my way to target to get a little can of de-icer so that I'll never be stuck with no gas again

Anonymous said...

Molly i told you, since Wednesday is Random Wednesdays, then you need to make Thursdays..Bus adventures Thursdays ! hehe

Sorry to hear about the snow... I will be thinking about you in the sunny Arizona weather heheh yeah im being a snot :P

Safiyyah said...

Salaams:

I'm glad I'm retired :)

On the other hand, I'm from New York City and needless to say, I LOVE the city.

Mona Zenhom said...

Oh cities are so exiting...hope you do some exploring!

Kris said...

LOL to the bus adventures.. I used to ride them when I first moved here (San Antonio)... would still but my husband doesn't like the idea of me taking our little one on em. I don't need to go far often anyway... I def have some interesting memories anyway.

Yasmine said...

cool bus adventure. he he. I remeber when I had to take the bus for the first time. It was scary. I am a really sheltered child... :(

Molly said...

buses are scary, the only good thing about this bus is that its the express from a park and ride so its nothing but business people working in downtown.

I also can't wait until the farmers market opens up down here.

woooooord. who needs a co-op when you have local farmers yo?

Molly said...

Mama kalila- I love San An. I'd live there. But I can imagine how chancy some of those bus rides got.

You know one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten in was a hole in the wall tex mex place south of the downtown. Called Earnie's or something like that. I loved it. good good food. My mom and I stayed at a B&B down there a couple of years ago. What a city. The only thing that would make it paradise for me would be if it had palm trees.

Molly said...

Safiyyah- so you know whats its like to have everything at your fingertips. If only it didn't cost a million to live down here. *sigh*

Molly said...

Mona- I will definitely try. I wish I had someone to explore with.

Carrie- brat. :P

UmmSqueakster said...

Are you busing from Rosedale? I did that this morning (go me, got up and went to the gym before work, inshaallah plan on doing that Tuesdays and Thursdays from here on out, barring any more natural disasters).

I will admit, taking the 64 is a wee bit dicey, depending on how many young houligans decide to ride that day.