delayed reaction (i was just too exhausted last night).

weird, but true: although i do stop short of tying myself to a tree to prevent somebody from cutting it, i'm really one of those hippie-granola-let's-love-mother-nature-peace-on-earth-man-peace-on-earth-and-oh-wow-goodwill-to-men people at heart.

i don't nag people about recycling, but i sometimes go through their trash, and segregate and recycle like a maniac once they turn their backs (see? i'm really meant to be a bag lady.). as much as i love the place, i almost wept when i saw the humongous trash cans in san diego and learned that they don't really have citywide recycling programs (at least, that's the impression i got).

so, i've always been a big supporter of public transportation. because i agree that it's probably better for the environment, for the economy, etc.

and it saves the general public from drivers like me, whose cars seem to be magically drawn to benches, and fences, and gates, and well-manicured lawns when they're at the wheel.

such is my appreciation for the system that when its workers conducted that illegal strike that made mondays even more of a let-down for the thousands of unsuspecting people it left stranded and stunned, i was surprisingly cool about it. while everybody around me griped about the traffic and all that walking they had to do, i went on my very first go train ride (it's ridiculous how much i enjoyed it. subway cars have nothing on go trains, i tell you.), grabbed a banana creme frap (not really a big fan of bananas, but i was feeling so cheery about things that i decided to try it. it was ok, but nope, still not a big fan of bananas), and enjoyed the fact that it was sunny and i was outside and i had a legit excuse for being late.

i was even tempted to take the streets along with the strikers (despite the fact that even now they probably earn four times as much as i do and get more benefits) just because i never did when i was in school, and it seems to be a law that you have to join at least one protest before you could call yourself an honest-to-goodness isko/a.

oh, but yesterday changed all that.

i do realize that there are things that just cannot be controlled. and that accidents do happen even with the best precautionary measures. i get that.

i do realize that sometimes certain incidents would make you stop a subway train and ask everybody to take shuttle buses to another station where they could hop on the train again, go on their merry or miserable lives, and hie off to play or work. i get that, too.

what i don't get is how you could fail to tell all these people exactly where the buses would be once they get off the train. and how all the TTC workers who have been busy making their presence felt and voices heard two days before suddenly become inexistent and unavailable. and how you expect hundreds of people to fit in the four shuttle buses, already full of people, that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

i'm sorry, but only kindergarten kids are exempt from knowing grade one math. even i, considered the world's biggest math dunce (well, at least up until now) could at least remember up to second-grade arithmetic.

i'm sorrier, because i was actually on time yesterday and was even successful in giving myself an extra half an hour. sadly -brace yourself now, i'm going to talk about some math again - that thirty minutes wasn't enough to make up for an hour-long delay.

i'm sorriest, because you made me miss what could've been one of the most important things in my life.

now, i feel like i have no choice but to forget about the environment and public safety.

and if that bench, or that fence, or that gate, or that well-manicured lawn turns out to be yours, just remember you brought it all upon yourself.