Monday, June 09, 2008

when it rains...

(Read the post below this first; otherwise my day will make little sense)

I'm actually typing this on my computer on the bus - this company actually has wi-fi, which is great; I didn't have to wait until getting home to catch up on all of my websites. That's pretty much the only break I've gotten today.

While I was melting down on the bus this morning (I got the message just after entering the Lincoln Tunnel, which is kind of the point of no return), my agent went to bat for me. The theater told me that they would videotape my audition for the director, which was a huge relief. Later the theater called and said that they were going to tape all of the auditions for the day.

Meanwhile, on the bus, the passengers were discovering that our driver was noncommunicative and, quite frankly, kind of a dick. We stopped at a rest area where we were informed that "we only had ten minutes". Thirty-five minutes later, we were still sitting there. We finally starting pulling away when a few people realized that an older couple hadn't made it back on the bus. We had to wait another five minutes while someone ran to get them. (They later said that they "lost track of time". How they turned ten minutes into half an hour is beyond me.)

We made another stop about half an hour later - apparently there was a third person who has missed the bus; I think she ended up getting a ride from a Good Samaritan. We ran into construction and traffic shortly after that, which also slowed us down a great deal.

All of these stops and starts meant that our bus, which was supposed to get into Fox City at 2:15, arrived at 4:20.

My audition? Scheduled for 3:10.

I raced over to the space, getting there at 4:45; fortunately, they were running behind and people were still there. The monitor running the audition was very nice and allowed me to go ahead of a bunch of folks, as I was trying to get back to the bus stop to make my 5:45 bus. The audition went ok. I raced towards the subway - 5:15. It would be tight, but I would make it.

Unfortunately for me, there had been a train derailment down the line. Service was moving at a snail's pace. I finally got to the bus stop - at 5:50. The bus was gone.

The only break was that this meant I was able to get some dinner and some water. The bus company got me on to the 7pm bus - which is nearly empty - and now I'm on my home, I hope.

I think that I'm done traveling for a bit.

1 comment:

DH said...

Dude...that sucks. I feel for you though.

Here's my version of Saturday travels (with a tween daughter along for the ride)...this is the extreme Cliff's Notes version.

A. On approach to final destination, find out there's a storm...circle.

B. Learn we're almost out of fuel so have to redirect to a different airport to refuel.

C. New airport is not a Southwest city...so you have to literally pay for the fuel with a credit card. Credit card machine doesn't work, so captain has to go WITH the gas guy to HIS HOUSE to run the card online.

D. Get to destination...baggage jam on the carousel.

E. Get to rental car counter...computers down and have to do paperwork by hand.

F. Get to rental car to leave...exit is blocked while security guard takes a bathroom break...sat there for 10 minutes...at midnight (left home at 2 pm)

It wouldn't have been such a big deal if I was alone...but the kid just isn't used to those curveballs.