Since I don't have anyone in my real life to vent to, you, the handful of people who read this dopey blog, get to hear my tale of woe.
I had to go to Newark yesterday for two meetings that could have unquestionably been handled remotely, but the powers that be demanded my presence. Fine. Not ideal, and I had no say in the matter, so I shoved my laptop into a bag, along with a book, a bottle of water, and a piss poor attitude and headed to the NJT station for a day I had already mentally prepared myself was going to be miserable. I should also mention the weather. It was already close to 80 when I left a little before 8 with humidity at "Florida" levels making it feel even worse and I was of course in a suit and tie (although I carried the jacket for obvious reasons).
In fairness, the trip up could not have gone smoother I got a spot in the parking garage and the train was literally on the platform waiting for me, the express that would get me to Newark Penn in 45 minutes. Upon arrival in Newark, I shuffled down to the Light Rail, which was ALSO waiting for me on the tracks. Two stops and a four block walk later, I was at the office. Door to door in a little over an hour.
In the afternoon, I had my eye on the 4:33 train. The problems started as soon as I left the office. What had been uncomfortable but tolerable heat in the morning had turned into sidewalk-melting discomfort that made even the couple of block walk unpleasant and of course I had not refilled my water bottle before I left. This time, I had to sit in the Light Rail for like 10 minutes, a dank, humid wait but nothing compared to the sauna that hit me when I got to Penn Station. To add insult to injury, what should have been a roughly 10 minute wait for the NJT train stretched to close to 30 minutes due to delays, and I just was sitting there, slowly melting, dabbing my forehead to clear off the sweat and really struggling since there is no air conditioning in Penn Station, nowhere to really sit and be comfortable (the benches are literally designed to discourage you to sit on them too long to discourage homeless people to use them), and of course the mass of humanity simply added to the heat and humidity.
When the train finally arrived, there was little relief. The car was of course packed and the air conditioning was not doing much. I tried to stay calm but just felt my energy sapping away, wondering if I was suffering from heat stroke (and of course stressed that poor P and G were waiting patiently at home, no doubt starving even though I'd left a little food for them). After about 20 minutes, I could not read anymore and just basically shut down, the trip interminable. Once I got to my stop, me and what felt like half of Mercer County got out and I had to hump it up 4 levels to get to my car, where I practically collapsed before sitting in full blast A/C for five minutes just to get my energy up a little. A commute that took about an hour and twenty minutes in the morning took twice as long in the afternoon (and with weather about 10x worse).
It took a good 10 minutes just to get out of the lot because so many people were leaving and I got home like 5 minutes before a massive thunderstorm broke out. I guzzled some water and about half a bottle of Liquid IV which helped and I also jumped in the shower, but of course, like two minutes later, yes, reader, the power went out. Thankfully, it was brief, but still, just an awful cap to the day and that isn't even getting into how out of sorts P and G were, how hot the house was because I set the A/C at 76 when I'm not there but when it's 95 degrees out with a "feels like" of 100 plus, it does not do much, so it was several hours before I unwound properly and the house also cooled enough to get to sleep. What a M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E day.
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