This city plain and simply was not built for the ease of public transportation. It has improved vastly in the last couple of years. However it is not conducive to work with a schedule of a single mother of two who's normal commute to work is an hour each way on a normal day, without having to take a bus. In order to get to work I was having to get up at an ungodly hour, schlep myself to a bus stop, wait in the darkness of the morning, take three buses only to end up 20 minutes from my start time. Two hours of commuting, if I was lucky to catch the bus on time. *SIGH*
I have missed a bus and by missed I mean TOTALLY missed it. I got home at 8. Just enough time to pick the kids up, bathe them and put them to sleep. I cried that night. Big Cheese has been more of a hindering factor than a helping one in all this. I asked for help and I got the "I am busy with my life, it's not my weekend, you deal with it" speech. It was actually an angry tirade that set me back. I felt alone and just defeated. I did a lot of crying, a lot of praying. I had to figure out life, how to get me and The Things to and from all of our various activities, how I was going to come up with some reliable transportation.
It is in the moments like this that you know who is really there for you. I had a car for a few weeks from a family friend that is like a big brother. He was going through his own set of difficulties and yet he helped me out. He had gone to Mexico with a friend to visit his wife and young child, only to find his wife sick. Turns out she has leukemia and he was staying longer to take care of her. He saved me a couple of weeks of grief from riding the metal monster of the bus. I have had a co-worker help me get home at a decent time occasionally. She has a son and is a single mom and knows all to well how I was missing my babies. Then there is the friend from Facebook who I know through her brother and mostly through posts and comments on each other's status. She saw the post where I was on the bus and how I was people watching. She sent me a message "I do nothing all day, I can give you a ride". Raw in delivery but the sentiment was felt deeply.
Then there is T. T is my source of support, my spouse in a spouse less relationship. She made arrangements as much as she could so I wouldn't be on the bus all the time. Then there was the slew of people keeping an eye open for a newer used car on sale. Like Pretty Eyes, who gave me her dad's number and now I am a day closer to a newer set of wheels.
I have been humbled, brought to tears, and then redeemed by the love of friends and family. Life's lessons are hard to swallow, especially when there are little ones involved. I am just glad I am seeing the light of day finally and that the Things and I will be off to new adventures again. Minus a bus. :)
What challenges have you had as a parent? What or who saved your sanity during that trying moment?
