"My precious time keeps slippin' past."

Even though parking is free at work, I try to take the bus at least once a week. It's a 5-minute walk from where I get off to the office, and if I'm early I can stop by Whole Paycheck and get a fresh bagel or latte. It's hard to be early, though, when the bus is constantly 20 minutes late. I really don't understand how that works because my bus line only RUNS every 20 minutes... So does another bus show up right after the bus I get on?

This morning I waited patiently for 20 minutes in the freezing cold* and just as my toes became frostbitten and I was about to cross the street, head back to my garage and get into my car... the bus arrived. Environmental duty of the day done.

Speaking of public transport. I fly home Saturday night, and I'd offered to spare my parents the trouble of picking me up at Far Far Away Land Airport in the wee hours of the morning by saying I would take the bus to the Metro and they could pick me up at the stop closest to them around 8:30am. The bus didn't even start running until 7am and this whole process was going to take me about 3 hours. So of course, secretly I was hoping they would say, "oh, nonsense, we'll pick you up at Far Far Away Land Airport, don't be silly," but instead I got "OK sounds good, call us when you're 3 stops away." Guess they finally caught on to all the Guess jeans and video games I insisted on having as a child, and for that I can't blame them.

I got a shocking call from my mom this afternoon. She said, "call your brother, he wants to pick you up at the airport on Sunday morning." I said, "does he know I'm getting in at 5:45am? And that it's Far Far Away Land Airport, not 15 Minutes Away Airport?" She said, "yes he does, now call him and say thank you." I said, "do I really have to call him?"

I never, ever talk to my brother on the phone. Occasionally I get a random email or text message from him, or vice versa, but rarely do we actually have a conversation unless we're in the same room. So I called him, and I said, "hello, this is your sister," and we proceeded to have a hilarious conversation and made plans to play Guitar Hero (awwwwwyeah!) and make homemade pizza while I'm home, and he really truly is going to pick me up on Sunday morning because I'm "already going out of my way to come home, why should it have to involve a bus and the Metro in addition to a six hour flight."

Of course, he is still my brother who has trouble waking up before 10am if his life depends upon it, so I'm taking all the bus-to-Metro info just in case, but still... He really surprises me sometimes.

Happy holidays to you and your crazy families this season.

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* HA! I thought this morning was cold? Wait till I hit 35 degrees on the lovely east coast!