Hit and run

I pick up the bus at 7th Ave. and Camelback.

... There just happened to be a fatal accident at 7th Ave. and Camelback.

A pedestrian was hit by a car driving 90 miles an hour on Tuesday night (which hit two other cars and the side of a building before stopping). I'll skip the gruesome details but it basically resulted in them closing down 7th Ave. and Camelback from 10 p.m. Tuesday morning till about 11 a.m. Wednesday morning. Except nobody bothered to tell me. Sometimes I wonder if it's really a good thing not to have a well-functioning television in the house. It's nice because it's not an easy distraction, but it probably would have been beneficial to watch the news Wednesday morning.

Anyway, I walk about 1 mile every morning to get to the 7th Ave. and Camelback bus stop. On Wednesday, I walked that 1 mile, only to find that the street was completely blocked off by barricades and police vehicles. As I stared down the street trying to figure out what was going on, a man came up to me.

"There ain't no buses running," he said.

I noticed.

After excitedly pointing out the blue tarp in the middle of the road, something I found to be quite morbid, he then tried to direct me to the nearest bus stop  for any bus that would travel north. He recommended I go all the way back to 15th or 11th Ave., which isn't particularly close.

So, I called my boss to tell him that I was going to be late -- on the third day of work. I feel like that has to be a mark against me of some kind, even if the roads were blocked, there weren't any buses, and I have no idea how to get around in this city. It was still the third day of work. And I was going to be late. Fail.

I started desperately racking my brain to see if I could remember what our tour guide said on Friday about the grid system of the city and how the street numbers worked. I finally decided the best option was to backtrack a street to avoid the road block and then just walk north a few blocks to get around the police barricade -- somehow get back to 7th Ave. and another bus stop that was on the route I usually took.

Turns out, I ended up walking about three miles in order to find said bus stop.

I started off my morning with some intense exercise. And I only managed to be about 20 minutes late. Semi-impressive, right? But three miles in 103 degree weather was brutal (and nastily sweaty). I walked into work and immediately needed to use the bathroom in order to clean myself up a little bit.

We also had our first house "Spirituality Night" yesterday. I led Mandala's for the house, which started as very insightful and then turned quickly into a conversation about Disney, its disgusting empire and how it copies its own stuff. It then evolved into a heated discussion about old-school Disney Channel and about how awesomely awful all those shows were -- Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens. We started comparing our resume of watched Disney Channel Original Movies.

So much for an insightful reflection period.

So that was yesterday...
*****

Today went much better transportation wise, aside from the bus being about 10 minutes late.

But the day quickly turned really interesting.

I received a tour of the apartments finally, and got to see the digs all of the clients are living in. They're nicer than 1130 Alviso Street, and I think the "landlord" is a little bit more accomodating... just sayin'.

But things got REALLY interesting when Stephanie and Mike accidentally scheduled their own individual appointments at the same time. Awesome, let's leave the new girl alone so she can accidentally torch the building. I'm currently sitting alone in the office and it's been absolute madness (and yes, this is Sparta).

I'm not sure why it's Murphy's Law that everything starts to pick up immediately as Mike took one step out the door, but it did. Crazily. And I'm a total newb. I filled out a series of referalls (and don't worry, I don't know what those are either, and I was the one who was supposed to be filling them out). I ran around with a broken walkie-talkie on my belt, telling me every two seconds that "Mike (or Stephanie), you have a client." I struggled to figure out how to use the fax machine for a client (it was my first time using it ever and probably not the best time for me to learn). I made out money orders (something Stephanie had showed me the abbreviated version of right before she left). I told several people over the phone that we were completely filled to capacity and then listened to their hearts sink when they learned there was no room. I tried to geographically direct a potential client across a city I don't know. And... all around ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

I guess that's ONE way to learn.

But now things have started to calm down a little and I have had time to write a quick blog. Yep, things are slowing down.

... Oh look! There's Mike. And Mr. Murphy with his law.