waiting in the rain

Okay. I don't know about you guys, but I find that one of the most consistent themes in my life is that of waiting. And by waiting, I mean literal waiting, usually for a bus or a ride of some sorts (that happens lots because I don't live in Hamilton, nor do I drive a car to Hamilton.) And usually accompanying the waiting is the feeling of uncertainty, ie. "where is my ride?" "am I waiting for them in the wrong spot?" "should I wander about and see if i can find them or just stay put and... well, wait?"

Anyhow, I had the brilliant idea today that after Campus for Christ weekly meeting I would catch the 8:15 bus back to Square One shopping centre in Mississauga, theoretically arriving at 9:00. My friend Aaron gets off work at 9 and is right around the corner for Square One, so I e-mail him and ask him if he was planning on going north to Central Pentecostal Church where the Youth Group meets, and if so, if he could give me a lift up there, as I hadn't seen them in a while and wanted to pay a visit. He e-mails me back and we agree to meet for 9:00.

So weekly meeting goes very well. Alan Self, McMaster alumni and staff at Waterloo, preached an awesome sermon (if that's what you call those teaching sessions during weekly meetings) on God's heart for missions. Definitely enjoyed that. Anyway, 8:05 rolls around, and I make a rapid escape from the lecture hall and boot it towards the bus stop. It is pouring rain outside, and my skateboard shoes are soaking up the water like parched land. I get there around 8:10 and wait. It's always slightly unnerving when you see a bus pulling away and aren't sure if that is the bus you want to catch, because you don't know EXACTLY at what time the bus you want to catch will be coming. Turns out, it wasn't my bus. The bus I wanted ended up coming at what must have been closer to 8:25, which meant, consequently, that I didn't arrive at Square One until 9:10. I look for Aaron's car in the parking lot, don't see it. Realizing that I had agreed to call my mom before 9:15 to confirm whether or not I would be needing a ride home (otherwise, the plan was that I would be picked up at 10pm), I telephoned home and said "don't worry, Aaron is gonna pick me up," being confident that he must simply be late getting off work.

Okay, this is where the common sense part kicks it. Why didn't I just call Aaron's cell phone and find out where he was? Well, partly cause I didn't have his cell number handy, but I could've made a few extra calls to work that out. No, instead I make the assumption that he hadn't actually come already and left but was really just on his way and would be there in short order.

Anyways, to make an already long story shorter, I ended up loitering around Square One bus terminal for a good hour, calling my mom later on and telling her that, contrary to what I had told her earlier, I really did need a ride home. To complicate matters more, she ends up parking and waiting for me in the parking lot across the street, not at all in the location I was expecting her to meet me. Thus, she ended up waiting around for me 15 minutes and then had to come hunt me down, because I decided that I had done enough pacing about and searching for cars and friends and family that evening and was going to stay put and let them find me.

The irony is, i would've got home much earlier if I had just gone with the usual plans of being picked up at 10pm, and I would've spent that extra hour with C4C friends and family, instead of by myself in a lonely (though heated) bus shelter, in sopping wet shoes, granted, with a good book to keep myself in deep though (the 7 habits of highly effective people).

I'm glad to say my feet are nice and dry now, and I think I will retire to bed. I hope you have found this somewhat amusing and that it wasn't a waste of my time in writing it (I have wasted... rather, spent enough time unproductively already today... lol)

Bonne nuit tout le monde.