Wednesday, December 25, 2002

 

I am home now, yes, I am. Before I launch into my Greyhound story, which most of you have heard the majority of, I will explain exactly what the plan for getting home was:

Friday morning, December 20th, Derek and I would leave for Springfield. I'd wait at the bus station for however long until Steve and Jill got there at 1pm to go out for lunch. Get back to the bus station sometime after 2pm because the website and the woman at the station had told both Steve and me that the station would be closed (as in, stand-outside-for-an-hour-closed) from 1-2pm. Then I would get on the bus at 3:30pm to Bloomington where I would transfer to a different bus and get to Davenport at 8:30pm. Phil and Jenny would pick me up in Davenport at 8:30, then we would go to Iowa City where I would stay with Jenny Friday and Saturday nights, hang out with Phil Saturday, hang out with Julie Saturday night, then leave IC Sunday morning in time to get to church at Memorial in Ames. This is, in fact, basically what happened, but let me tell you about it.

I ordered my bus ticket on December 3rd. As of Wednesday, December 18th, I still had not received it in the mail. So I called the number Greyhound's website said to if you hadn't gotten your ticket yet. That woman looked up my ticket and had all the information there, then said, "This ticket has been canceled." "Um....what?? I never canceled my ticket." "Are you sure you never canceled it?" "Yes, I'm sure." (No, I'm calling you to ask about my ticket just for fun. :-P) She then had me call customer service. Why Greyhound's customer service number is not toll-free is beyond me. That woman told me the same thing and that my credit card had been refunded the money. Well, great, but I need to travel in two days! She said if I still needed to travel on the 20th, I needed to call the ticketing line and order a new ticket. So I make my third phone call (this one is, as was the first, toll-free) to Greyhound. The woman taking my order tried to tell me that since it was so close to my travel date, I had to actually go down to the bus station in Springfield and buy my ticket there. So I say, as nicely as I could manage at that point :-D, "Can't I just buy it now with my credit card and have them hold the ticket for me at the Springfield station? Because that was an option when I was buying online." "Ooohh....yeah, yeah, you can do that." (Me thinking: Yeah, I know I can!!) Greyhound should expect a nice little letter from me in the next couple weeks.

Derek and I left Greenville around 10:45am and got to the Springfield Greyhound station right around noon. There was a sign in the window that said "Will return at 2:00," then I looked at the permanent hours on the window and it said "Closed daily Noon to 2pm." Well, neat. So Derek and I went to McDonald's so he could get lunch, then killed the other 45 minutes at ShopKo where he convinced me to buy a small train set that was on sale for cheap. We got back to the bus station at 1, transferred my bags over to Jill's car, said goodbye to Derek, then went to Burger King with Steve and Jill. That was great fun. :) Jill and I got back to the station a little after 2 and she stuck around while I made sure I had a ticket and everything. Now the fun experience of actually riding the bus...

The nervous-ish feeling started when, shortly after Jill left, a police officer walked in with a guy who didn't have any luggage, had a black eye, and just didn't look fun to be around. The officer walked up to the counter and said, "we need to get a ticket for this guy on a bus to Chicago." The clerk looked in her computer and said, "ok, he'll be on the bus leaving here at 3:30." The officer thanked her and left. And I was sitting there thinking...."that's my bus. Cool." That Greyhound bus was not fun at all. It was completely full--ZERO empty seats, many of the people didn't look all that fun, and the driver wasn't all that friendly. This was completely opposite of my bus ride this summer. I was lucky to have a seat on that bus, though, because Greyhound had tried to cheat me out of a ticket. The whole hour ride to Bloomington I was basically sitting there praying that we'd get to Bloomington soon so I could get off, and praying that I would get on the bus I was supposed to transfer to and I'd make it to Davenport.

The Bloomington bus station was packed, so much that I eventually stood outside in the snow when it got closer to the time my new bus should be there. The Burlington Trailways bus pulled up, I gave the driver my ticket, and he put my bags under the bus. This driver was much friendlier than the Greyhound driver. I got on the bus and there weren't too many people. I had my own set of two seats--yay! There were a bunch of little old grandmas, and they were showing The Rookie on the TVs. Greyhound didn't even have the ability to show movies. We also watched The Fugitive. That was a much nicer bus ride.

We pulled into Davenport a little after 8:30 and I was promptly greeted by Jenny and Phil, which was extremely happy. :) We didn't really do much, but it was great to see them again. Went to Toys R Us in Moline, then headed to Iowa City where we bummed around Phil's house for a little while (which included watching the Jennies attack Phil), then Jenny and I went to her apartment. Saturday, Phil and I basically just hung out, which was nice. He hit his comic stores, then we went to CoralRidge for a while. Then I went over to Julie's house, had supper, and caught up on the past semester. This was while Phil and Jenny and all them were celebrating Christmas with Phil's dad's side of the family. P & J came to pick me up, so then we sat around talking a little while longer, then Phil dropped us off at Jenny's apartment. We left for Ames a little before 8:30am Sunday and got to church at about 10:40, where Phil and I were promptly attacked by Levi and Jessica, which was an awesome surprise. :-D I got a lot of "how's school going?" "nice to have you back" "good to be home?" "when do you go back?" etc. It was very good to be back at Memorial. I even got to see Nate, who I didn't recognize because he has HAIR! It was very cool. Then my parents took us all out to Hickory Park. Need I say more? I didn't think so. (Those of you who are going, "yes, you need to say more," I cry for you.)

After parting ways with Phil and Jenny, we headed home and all napped, or at least sort of napped. I was waiting for Hilary to call, which she eventually did. She was in town for just a little while before heading back to Omaha, so we got together (with Katie Dilks joining us later) for coffee at Stomping Grounds for a couple hours. It was a good, long, but not long enough, weekend and I crashed after calling and talking to Molly for about an hour. :)

Then (and I promise this is the end ;)) Monday I went in to talk to Jeanne about helping out at church and she told me she had two people that just quit on her. So right now I have two areas: the lounge and stuff (but only for a week, then it's covered) and my old area--and I don't have to make coffee anymore, but I have keys and the church is clean again. And we just got back from the chili Christmas Eve party at the Lotts', so my tummy is happily full of good food and apple cider. Life is good. :-D

Oh yeah...Merry Christmas everybody!! (We may have some snow on the ground in the morning! :)) Thanks for reading all my ramblings if you actually did!

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