second attempt at public transit

i forgot to add to my last post that this week i shall attempt to get to work using public transportation - MARTA. for those of you who don't know, MARTA is quite possibly the world's worst public transportation system ever. without going into extreme detail let's just say it's inefficient. my new job is located in midtown - right by georgia tech. my house is located right by spaghetti junction. by car, my morning commute (if i leave before 8 am) is less than 30 minutes. i used MARTA's website to "calculate" my commute - and it turns out that I will have to take one train, two busses and walk almost a mile to get to work. oh, and it will take an hour if I leave my house by 7:30. all that for a $1.75 one way. so either i can leave my house at 8 am, listen to the bert show and drive my big ole honkin minivan that gets about 25mpg and arrive at work by 8:30 am OR I can leave my house at 7:20; hop a train, two buses, walk a mile and pay $1.75 and get to work at 8:30-ish. i want a freakin badge for choosing the latter. my hopes are to lose some weight and have a happier conscious by taking MARTA (it's smarta!) but I have a feeling I am going to end up cold, tired, pissed off and stranded. Here's a little history of me and MARTA:

A few years ago, when I gave up all that I knew and decided to live near ansley mall amongst the gay, tattooed & pierced artists I was happily self-sufficient. Yes, I made $9/hr working at the dentist office behind my apartment complex, and yes, I could only afford to get one foot-long sandwich from publix for lunch and dinner per day. I attempted to take MARTA for the first time to go visit a friend who was only a few miles away. I should have walked but I figured I should learn to use PT. so, I packed my satchel and wore an old tshit and my army-inspired wrap skirt and headed off to the front of the complex where the bus stop was. I stopped at the mailbox along the way to pick up my mail and saw that the guy who lived in my apt. before me had gotten some cataologs or magazines or something all wrapped up in white plastic.

i stood at the bus stop in the sweltering heat for what seemed like an hour before my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the mysteriously wrapped magazines. of course they turned out to be the most filthiest porn my innocent eyes had ever seen. i quickly stuffed them back into my satchel just in time for a freak rainstorm that only lasted about 10 minutes but completely and totally drenched me. at this point, i am standing in a mud puddle and seriously thinking about going back to my apt when i finally see the damn MARTA bus coming up the street. I quickly got my money and waited for the bus to stop. then i noticed that my tshirt was completely translucent and my bra was showing to the whole world. i got on the bus, arms crossed and put my soggy money into the collection box and walked to the middle of the bus. there were some strange lookin people on the bus but i figured that was probably normal. i sat down and almost relaxed before i thought, how do I get off at the right place? will he just stop there, or did I have to tell him where to stop? In korea there was a button you push when you wanted to get off so I looked everywhere for a button. I found a rope contraption so I hoped that would do the trick. A very short ride later, I see my stop coming up so I yanked on the rope and got up - first mistake. I guess you don't really stand on a moving bus in the states. i was used to korean buses where you can do cartwheels down the middle if you wanted to. I almost busted my ass when he stopped the bus.

then I went up to the middle door and stood there, waiting for the driver to open the door. I looked at him, he looked back at me in the rearview mirror and somebody said "push the door!" feeling totally embarrassed and like a dumbass, i pushed the door open and it gave away, causing me to fly headfirst out of the door and land on my hands and knees in the mud. my pornos went flying everywhere and i flashed everyone on the bus my underwear. the embarrassment was complete and total. i went to my friends house not wanting to talk about it. i swore i would never take public transit ever again. then gas went up to $3.00/gal. and here i am about to take MARTA again. But this time I will not make an ass out of myself. i hope.