“Oh, Jesus Christ!”
I never thought I would be one of those people who have sudden, inappropriate outbursts in public. In front of children. Early in the morning.
Apparently, I don’t know myself very well.
There is a specific route I like to take to work, which involves walking down a narrow pathway created by the construction crew that inhabits part of the block. In the walkway, there is barely room for two lanes of walking traffic. If an individual in either lane has a bag or “wide load”, you run the risk of being checked into the cement barrier, which at this time is covered by a thick layer of frozen traffic grime. Lovely.
This particular morning, I have not one bag, but three, having just purchased the $183.25 textbook for a community college class starting on Saturday. The mere existence of textbook in question has also worsened my already sour morning mood, for obvious financial reasons.
I came to the beginning of the construction-made walkway just in time to see a youngish woman coming out followed by a trail of elementary school children, two-by-two. And they just kept coming. I was trying to wait patiently as they exited, but children walk very slowly and so when I saw a small gap in the line, I jumped in. Unfortunately, I jumped awkwardly into the middle of the two-by-twos at which point I saw that the line was much, much longer than I had anticipated. It was a tunnel of animated, bundled, field-tripping children only slightly shorter than I.
Frustrated, I said, rather loudly, “Oh Jesus Christ!” Then I attempted to run down the center of the pairs, unsuccessfully trying to avoid hitting them with my textbook, purse and gym shoes. I just hope no one will be bruised.
Am I a terrible person? Sometimes I think events like these are so rare and unexpected that I can’t be held accountable for my actions. Then I also think these are the difficult moments when our true selves shine through. Yikes.
