bitch and moan

let me preface this whole blog by saying that the shuttle i ride every morning to work is free. it doesn't cost me a dime. gratis.

HOWEVER.

hopkins has made it so impossible to drive to any of their campuses--there's practically no parking at homewood, and parking at hopkins med costs a hundred bucks a month--that they've forced people to rely on their shuttle. nearly every morning since school started i've had to wait fifteen minutes for a shuttle then barely squeezed myself on. i think that i've gotten to sit down for the ride to work twice since the beginning of the school year.

this morning things just went CRAZY. it was worse than ever. first of all, it's pouring rain here in dear old baltimore. baltimore's fucking ugly when it's nice weather; when it's raining it looks like a cross between post-WWII east berlin and hell. rain drips from soggy, crumbling crackhouse doorways and cockroaches scurry to get out of the downpour. seriously.

on top of the third day of pouring rain, i had to watch three shuttles drive by, filled, before i got onto one. i got out to the shuttle line at 8.15 and stood there until nine o'clock. mind you, i have to be in the fucking clinic at 9:30. since i got here late, i ordered the study participant's cab late, which means they'll be here late, which means that i don't get a lunchbreak between four-hour visits today. that means i'll be in the clinic from 9:30-5 straight through.

as i was waiting in the shuttle line, standing behind a nice girl that looks bizarrely like naomi watts, i said to her, "i already didn't want to go to work today, and now it's impossible for me to even get there." it did seem so strange to me--having to drag myself out of bed to do this job and then having to fight to even get in.

then again, the shuttle's free. gratis.