129. More Patience

The agony of not being entertained.

I did my best to not entertain myself on my commute home yesterday. As soon as I left the office, I put my phone on airplane mode and put it in my bag. I wanted to see if I could make it all the way home without being distracted by constant dings and bright lights of my phone. The last hour of work felt like it was just a constant drone of screen and sound. I wanted to hit refresh and just be for a little bit.

I felt pretty good as a I stood on 9th street in the rain. But then I waited. The Metro Transit says the westbound 649 bus is supposed to stop at 9th and Nicollet at 4:45 p.m. in the afternoons. I didn’t get on the bus until 5 p.m. I was doing pretty good even when we only managed to go two blocks in about 10 minutes. I made the mistake of not getting off at the very first stop in St. Louis Park. (It would take me about the same time to walk from that point as it does for the bus driver to make it down Park Place, a very busy street, and then to my stop.)

I thought I could make it, but i was getting nervous about getting to Yoga class at six and then to a friend’s house afterwards. I made it until 5:23, which is a good 12 minutes after I usually get home. We were still budging along near the West End—literally the worst traffic I had experienced. I finally made it in the door at about 5:35. i went inside, threw on some smelly workout clothes and hopped back in my car to drive the 1.5 miles to the Yoga studio. I made the mistake of trying what I thought would be a shortcut. Note to self—if you’re in a rush, the number of streetlights on a  given road will give you the same number of headaches. It took me thirty minutes to get to the class. Luckily, I had signed up in advance and there was one spot open.

I hate being late to things and I also can’t function at something if I have to go two the bathroom—two things that happened to me in that class. I tried to focus and get in the yoga zone, but it just wasn’t happening. I was thinking about an upcoming trip to IKEA, a meeting I had to lead the next day, and what channel Tottenham would be playing on this weekend. Just not good all around.

I finally made it to my friend’s place. I was smelly. I was frazzled, even with the Yoga. Luckily, my friend’s were extremely generous. They gave me food, beer, and good conversation. When I left their place, I realized i hadn’t been on my phone in about 90 minutes. A small victory, but a nice one.