A tale of woe

She awoke with a start as thunder cracked through the sky, shaking her house just a bit. And as she shook away the remnants of sleep, she heard the rain pound upon the ceiling above her head. It was as if God had forgotten His promise to never flood the world again and had turned on His heavenly faucet in order to drown out those of us down on Earth. Then again, she knew that God was faithful to His Word and wouldn't re-flood the Earth, so it was more that her imagination was running amok and her own distaste of the idea that she would have to go out into the downpour as she must make her way to the train station. Resolved not to let the bad weather get the best of her, she hopped out of bed and went about getting herself together in order to face her day head on.

Dressed and ready to go she entered the kitchen. Sighing, she shook her head, set her purse down, and proceeded to clean the crumbs off of the prep table, put jam that should be in the fridge away, and wash the knives that should have been washed. So was her lot in life lately, she thought. Cleaning up after everyone. She sighed again, picked up her purse, and made her way down the 55 stairs, opened her umbrella, and stepped out the door into the cold, driving rain. It seemed to her that it was the kind of rain that couldn't make up its mind as to which way to fall and so, it fell every which way...to the right, to the left, from the front, and from the back. And while she donned her rain-proof jacket, she felt as though she were soaking up each and every tiny rain droplet. And what was worse, she hadn't even made it out of the driveway yet.

She made her way across the tiny river that used to be a road in front of the house towards the bus stop island. Knowing that passing taxis and buses wouldn't give her any thought standing next to the road, she moved towards the back of the island...giving no thought to the cars that would pass along that side of the street. She paid them no heed..that is until a car sped by, its tires flinging dirty, road water her way and soaking the bottom half of her jeans. Thanks, she muttered to herself. This is a great day! she said to herself in her sarcastic inner dialogue as the bus approached her. She hopped onto the bus, thankful that something seemed to be going her way as she was able to get a seat right away. Finally!

The bus continued on its way, stopping and picking up passengers, and still there she sat, content to be out of the rain and cold for just a moment. As the bus approached the part of the bus ride near Porta Pia when it went from being electric to running on gas again, it stopped. And waited. Nobody seemed to know what was going on and became even more confused when the doors opened. Some people got off the bus while the rest waited. So, she sat there, listening to her iPod and waited too. Finally, the bus moved along slowly until it got to Porta Pia where it pulled up behind another 90. And then it happened. The doors opened, the driver announced something, and everyone got off. Ugh. Really? She disembarked and began to walk. And walk. And walk. Along the way, she texted her friend, Joy, to let her know that her awesome day just got more...awesome. "Bus broke down at Porta Pia, everyone had to get off, in the rain, she said as walked to Termini from Porta Pia in the rain." Joy responded with an ever encouraging: "Lol". She had some respite as the rain subsided a bit as she trudged towards Termini. Thankful for small miracles, she came to another bus stop and was able to board a different bus bound for Termini.

Arriving at the station, she made her way through vendors trying to sell her roasted chestnuts, scarves, iPhone covers, and other useless garbage. Thankfully, she had her iPod and could just make her way through the crowd. Entering the station, she weaved through the people towards the Trenitalia counter to take a number. She withdrew her number, A540. Scanning the board for where the A's were at, her eyes landed on....A-4-4-0. Seriously? 100 people were in front of her? This day...no words could describe it.  She wandered through Termini, bought a coffee, went to the grocery store, and returned to...only 50 people in front of her.

She took a seat on the ledge and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, her number was up! She approached the counter, bought her tickets, and left the station in less than 15 minutes after she went to the counter. Yep, it was that kind of day...little did she know when she awoke that morning that it would be, to quote one of her favorite childhood books: "it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."