Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Sushi, Buses, and McDonald's

What. A. Day.

I don't mean that in a good "what an amazing day" way. "Most days of the year are unremarkable. They begin, and they end, with no lasting memories made in between." Sure enough, this day was one to remember, no matter how frustrating it was.

I was supposed to meet up with my friends to go eat at a sushi buffet at 12 PM in Flushing. Normally, it takes me about an hour on the bus to get there. Silly me for not taking into account New York City doesn't care if there's two feet of snow on every street.

I walk to the bus stop around 11:10 PM. I'm the second one there so I assumed that a bus just left. I thought to myself that one will come in give or take ten minutes. Ha! I watched as the group of people waiting for the bus stretched to the end of the block. Fifty two minutes. 52! That's how long it took for a bus to finally arrive. To top it off...my stop is the first stop on the route. The only other Asian in this mass of people was this Chinese lady who ninja-ed her way to the front of the line. Needless to say, she threw a fit at the driver screaming that she waited an hour for the bus (when in actuality, she came like ten minutes after I did) and that she refused to pay. She managed to rally a few other middle-aged women to join her outburst. I just wanted to reach my destination in peace.

Once I finally reached Flushing about an hour and a half later, I walked to the next destination: another bus stop to wait for a bus to bring me to the sushi buffet. As I made my way to the bus stop, I saw the bus start to leave. I gave chase. For over five blocks. I lost count at five. Surprising enough, even with all the snow people neglected to shovel and the slippery ground, I was very close to catching the bus. That was until I was stopped by a red light and oncoming traffic. Good try, Stanley. I decided to wait for the next bus for over half an hour. One came, but ignored me and zoomed right by because the bus was "packed". I'm one person. I could have easily fit. I struck up some conversations with other people waiting for the bus. Interesting characters you meet in the city that never shovels, I mean sleep.

I gave up and told my friends to finish their sushi without me when the bus never showed up. I walked back to McDonald's and waited for my friends to come to me. As I walked back, I looked at the first bus stop on the route I was gonna take.

That explains why there were no buses coming my way. The line extended further.

Well, I had hopes of some good sushi. All I can eat sushi might I add. My lunch turned from:

to this

First time ever ordering something from the McCafe. I only got it because I was cold and there was a giant poster advertising the caramel mocha. Not bad.

In a nutshell, the New York City public transportation ruined my potential lunch as it took me 3-4 hours to reach my destination (actually, I didn't even reach it). A sushi buffet lunch turned into a Big Mac, snack wrap, and a caramel mocha.

But the day ended on a much higher note. I got to see friends I haven't seen since the summer. It was good catching up. It always ends up with us having our girly guy talk until however late it gets. At least the train ride home didn't completely screw me over like the buses.

3 comments:

  1. McD's are good anytime anywhere anyday

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  2. hahaha quite entertaining story to read, but i'm sure it was a horrible experience. i have no idea what it would be like to get around through buses but it sounds like i would hate it in the winter.

    the good news it that you saved money by downgrading from sushi to mcdonalds :)

    btw, i finally read your a-line article. well written!

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  3. NYC = fail at cleaning snow
    they need to learn a thing or two from Cuse

    ReplyDelete