10001110100110101
The plan for this evening was for me to go to the bank to get money and pay bills, get gas, meet up with HKL on the subway, and then meet LY down at the theatre. At least that was the plan. The movie started at 9:50, so I figured that getting on the subway at Finch at nine would give me plenty time to make it downtown. So I started playing Settlers of Catan. I continued playing until I got a call from EC telling me that they were coming to pick up the monitor that I had offered to keep at my place for a couple of hours. Oops, I had forgotten about that. Fortunately, I was stuck playing SoC that I was forced to stay at home! Whee! So I waited, and waited, and.. the pickup was around 8:30. It didn't give me a lot of time to get ready and do all of the things I wanted to do, but it would be close.
So I headed down to the mall to do my banking. I got there and parked, only to find out that one of the terminals was out of order. I saw that there was a lineup at the other terminal so I went inside to buy some bubble gum. When I went back, I saw that the lineup had not moved, and the guy at the terminal was STILL updating his bankbook. Argh! This was going to take forever and I was going to be late! Alright, I decided to skip out on the banking thing and went to get gas. I pulled into the station and tried out my nifty new gadget. It worked like a charm, and I was in and out before you could sing.. "Stairway to Heaven". Hey, I had a whole tank to fill okay? Geez..
I continued looking for banks along the way, but I was running out of time, and when I did come across one, I decided to skip on it. It was already past nine. Ironically enough, it started to rain. I decided to head for a closer subway station to save time. So I got to the station, headed down, and went to pay..
*looks in wallet*
Oh shoot, I had forgotten that there weren't any tokens at home, and I only had $1.03 on me. Bus fare was two bucks and that's when I remembered that I spent a buck to buy bubble gum.. Argh! *tugs at hair*
Okay, no problem, no problem. I'll just go and find a bank machine and pull money from it. I headed upstairs into the office building above and hunted around for a bank machine. I found one quickly enough, but it wasn't my bank. After punching in my PIN and selecting my widthdrawal, the machine warned me that it would charge me an extra $1.25 on top of the normal service charges my bank would attach to this transaction for using an ATM that didn't belong to my bank. Great. It's not like I have much of a choice in this. *punches OK button*
So at 9:20 with my new found cash, I headed back down to the ticket booth. Along the way, I called up LY to warn him that I'd be running late. I bought a whole bunch of tokens (so I don't run out next time) and go through the gates. I figure it's now a good time to call HKL to tell him of my impending arrival. I search for his number and.. uh.. oh crap. Since I rarely carry a cell phone with me, I forgot one critical item with these little gadgets: They don't work well underground. Annoyed, I headed back upstairs and realized that the gates were well below the surface and I couldn't get any reception. I headed towards the bus bay thinking that I'll be able to get a clear signal out from there. Walking up the stairs, I was shocked to find out that this terminal was actually underground! Argh! *looks at phone* Ooh! One bar, maybe I can..
<- loses signal.
Curses!! *shakes fist*
Giving up, I rushed back down to the subway platform where I boarded the subway. I thought of using the phone booth, but I didn't have any small change on me, and I didn't want to be caught dailing when the train came in. It was 9:25. I decided to give HKL a call when I reached the station. If I was lucky, he'd be there already.
I arrived at the station a bit after 9:30. I got off the subway and looked around. Nothing. Not good. I called up HKL. Nothing. Not good at all. I went upstairs to the subway entrance. Nothing. Definitely not good. I called again. Again I was met with the machine. I hung around for a few minutes before realizing that I'd be very late if I stayed any longer. I left a messge on HKL's machine, and got on the subway. It was past 9:40.
I gave LY a call for the heads up. He didn't think I'd make it, but I lost contact with him when the subway went underground and couldn't get directions. Fortunately, the guy sitting next to me (well, as close as "next" you could be for someone standing) was listining in on the conversation and gave me directions on where to go. Excellant! I would've been completely lost otherwise.
It was just before 9:50 when I got off the subway. I found my way to street level and began to run. I made it halfway there and slowed down to make yet another call. Apparently LY had returned my tickets and told me to pick up some before I went in. It seems as if there were plenty of tickets available so I wouldn't have to worry about getting one. (Which was also good since I told him to pick up a ticket for HKL also.)
So I jogged the rest of the way to the theatre. I arrived at 9:55, bought my ticket and ran up the stairs. As I looked around for the theatre entrance, I heard a voice calling my name. Whoa.. it was BMH and KW! What the.. weren't they supposed to be inside already? They asked me if I had their tickets. I gave them a slightly stunned look and told them that I had to buy my own.
After a bit of phone play, they were able to track LY down (who I guess had to come out of the theatre) and got their tickets. It was 10:00. My seat was taken so I had to find another spot to sit, which I found a few rows above the group. I sat down next to a Indian fella and some (cute) Chinese girl. I wasn't in the mood for idle chatter, and I felt especially sorry for the people around me since I had just run/jogged a kilometer to the theatre. I have a tendency to sweat profusely when I exercise. This was no exception.
The movie was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it a lot. It was better than Mononoke Hime (IMNSHO) but not as fun as Porco Rosso. Still, it was enjoyable. The trip back was uneventful. I took the subway back to my car and drove home.
For an epilogue, I want to mention that I had forgotten about my movie gift certificate at the house before I left, and that HKL did indeed go to the movie and must've taken the subway right before I did (or the one I got off of). In any case, all of that extra running around I did wasn't very useful except to make me a little more exasparated.
Oh well, there's a lesson learned here folks. Too bad I didn't do any learning.
