I had a nightmare last night. I suppose that most people have nightmares about their biggest fears. For some, it’s speaking in public or being buried alive. For me, apparently, it’s the disruption of the even tenor of my commute.
I dreamed that I had gotten to the metro station to go to work and that there was an unusually large crowd of people for that early in the morning. When I got down to the platform, I discovered that the tracks had been partially ripped up one one side and busses were being used instead. The metro signs that indicate outages said something like, “Due to poor budgeting, and last minute planning, this line will experience major disruptions over the next six months…” I couldn’t believe it. The even tenor of my commute was going to be disrupted for 6 months! Furthermore, no one could tell me how to get down to Arlington. No one seemed to know anything. I went back up to where the station manager’s office is and tried to get answers from them, but they didn’t have any. I went back down to the platform: still no answers.
Then I noticed a bunch of people hurrying upstairs because apparently, you needed a special ticket to ride the new line. I dropped my backpack and laptop case and ran upstairs with everyone else to get my ticket. At this point, a train entered that was going all the way down to Arlington so I raced back downstairs, picked up my backpack and laptop case and pushed my way into the train.
Something still told me things were not right. I opened my backpack and laptop case to discover that in the short time I’d been upstairs, my laptop and iPod had been stolen. This I took with a grain of salt. My laptop was password protected, and I’ve been wanting to get a new one anyway. My iPod I could replace. I was annoyed by the fact that I’d have to file a claim with my insurance company, but at least I was on the train into the office.
Except that we seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. And then it dawned on me that I’d have to be doing this every day for six months!
At that point I woke up and I was never so glad to get to the train station this morning to find the trains running as smoothly as ever.
Talk about a bad dream!