Saturday, November 18, 2006

True Cost of Time = More Time

Today was one of those days that timing really screwed with me...

Morning sun made its way through my windows to conspire with my bladder to wake me up from my slumber. It was 8 am. I turned on my celly to hear the voicemail of a friend that today's meetup is on. Since it looked like a clear, sunny, but brisk day out, I thought a walk to the post office to pickup my certified mail would be a good idea. Then I can come back and catch the 9:35 am train into the city.

Mistake #1. I got there around 8:30 am only to find that the post office does not open until 9. What to do, what to do.. do I run back or just hang around the empty parking lot until the gates are lifted? I opted to head home to shower and then drive back. Mistake #2.

Although my friend would appreciated my clean scent, it sure did cut things tight. By the time I drove back to the post office, it was already 9:17 am. As soon as I stepped in, I silently cursed, "Are you F* kidding me?" To my horror, there's already a line with at least 5 people in front of me and 2 of which had at least 6 boxes to ship out. So I thought to myself, "Okay, let's see the man is going to the back room, maybe to ask for a 3rd person to help in the front."

Noooooooo........ instead of putting another man up to the front desk to help with other customers, yes, customers, the long line continues to accrue more and more people as we watch the 2 front desk people manage each box. Let's just say 5 minutes per box X 6 = 30 minutes at least. That's 30 minutes at least of waiting time for the rest of us.

Inefficiencies... a good business manager would've put another person to help out with a line that has 8+ people in it. Do you think Kinkos would let a line get 8 people long when there's others around to help? Most likely not! Perhaps this says something about the efficiency within the US government.

When my brain finally gave in to the idea that I am not going to get my mail today, it was already 9:25 am. Due to no parking is available near the train station without permit, I had to park on residential streets. By the time I ran down the hill, my train was whizzing by. "Great, F* great." To catch the next train, I ran back to my car to drive it to the next train station hoping to beat the train.

I finally released a sigh of relief as I stood on the platform, ticket in hand, waiting for my 10:10 am train to pull in.

10:05 am - whohoooo my train arrives!!! Mistake #3.

It was not my train. Yes, unfortunately I found out only after I heard the announcement WHILE sitting on the train which is now taking me further away from the city. Great, this is turning out to be a nightmarish day.

That one I had no one to blame but myself.

I made the best of my time as I waited at the next station to catch the city bound train this time. At 10:36 am. The train finally came. The old lady confirmed that this is the train to get on. Thank goodness for old ladies. They don't judge.

Finally, I made it to the city and just in time to submit my name in the lottery drawings for Wicked and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This would be my 3rd attempt to get lottery tickets for Wicked. Long behold, I wasn't surprised when my name wasn't called for Wicked. Still we had one more chance at getting cheap tickets. After spending 30 minutes at Cosi's for lunch, we were back in front of the door for the drawing. Names after names were announced, sorely defeated I was ready to walk away when my name was called out!! Whooo!!! I did a little hop "that's me!" yeaaaaaahhh... finally I won something!

See that little pin? Each of the lottery winners gets one for keepsake. Aww......


One word to describe the show - cozy. It was a small theater staged as a school's stadium which is really great cuz I hate it when big head sit right in front of me. Not that I would have problem this time because as lottery winners, some gets front center, others get first row on the sides.

For $25, I can't complain about seeing mostly the side profile of the actors.

Fun show to go and if you go for the lottery, you have a really good chance of getting picked due to the small number of people that actually show up for the lottery. Dunno why.


Even though I wasted a lot of time waiting this morning to get to my final destination, the day turned out pretty good. Saw a show, spent time with 2 friends, and had a filling dinner in Chinatown.

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