Lane 3 is always good news

1. Home in the Valley, after more bus than... any metaphor will do. Too much bus. The day went like this:

• 10 am: got up, went to bus station an hour early to get a bus ticket to beat the worst of the lines of students.
• 10:45: went to Tim's with Sean for a coffee; won a Please Play Again. Damn.
• 11:15: got in line for the boarding, and then was promptly assaulted by a grouchy girl with too much luggage, who whacked me with a bookbag for being in front of her, and then kept swinging it around as she shuffled her bags around, whacking me in a way that she really ought to have noticed at least twice.
• 11:20: got onto the bus, which was full to capacity, and then sat for forty-five minutes, knitting my sock, while Acadian Lines came to the realization that it is March Break and there are way too many students, and then shuffled people and buses for a while.
• reason #133 why my iPod is awesome: the "Notes" section can be used to store knitting patterns in text format.
• 12:15 pm: got underway; the bus driver told us we would be switching onto Halifax and Truro express buses in Moncton. Kept knitting.
• 2ish pm: arrived in Moncton. Was informed that this was now the express bus to Truro, where we would be switched to a Halifax express bus, and also that no one but the driver was allowed off the bus because the terminal was swamped. Kept knitting.
• 2:15ish: the bus driver was replaced and the new guy took the next set of tickets, while an official fellow came aboard and appeared to do a head count; despite the protest of frosh who didn't want to use the icky bus bathroom, we departed Moncton without a break and left town. As we were pulling away, the driver came back on the loudspeaker to say the extra guy had been a narcotics agent, "And I'm pleased to inform you that you all passed." There were cheers. I kept knitting.
  
• 3:30ish: frantic stop in Amherst. Got some coffee, and then kept knitting.
• 4:00ish: as we pulled into Truro, the driver came on to inform us that those passengers going East were to collect their things and wait for the bus, and gave them directions to the nearest Tim's, then told us we were going to stop for fifteen minutes. He crackled off, then came back to tell us (probably unnecessarily, because we were the only bus there) that we had been assigned Lane 3. Someone in the back yelled "YES! Lane 3!". Laughter, knitting.
• 5:00: pulled into Hali, early. I sighted the first snowflakes at the Dartmouth stop, though it was already snowing in both Freddy and the Valley. I put away the knitting and went to the nearest Tim's for some chili and another Please Play Again. Damn.
  
• fun fact: the nearer you get to Kentville, the closer the bus station is to Tim's. At Truro it's two blocks; at Hali, it's just about one. In Kentville, the epicenter of bus Tim Horton's, you can see two Tim's from from the bus station, each less than a block away. Kingston, it's more like three blocks, if you can measure Kingston in something so urban as blocks.
• 6:45: reported back to the bus. It was too dark to knit, so I listened to two CDs of Feist instead.
• 7:00ish: pulled up to the Dartmouth stop to rendezvous with the other Valley bus and shuffle some students.
• 8:00ish: pulled away from the Dartmouth stop. Why did it take so long? I don't know. I fell asleep.
• 10:30ish: pulled up to Kingston, late, with snow covering the highway and about twenty students left on the bus, most having bailed at Acadia. Dad picked me up, and then we picked up a pizza and went home.

In summary: at least two cumulative hours of sitting in a motionless bus, three different seat partners, two albums of Feist, one of the Arctic Monkeys, one of Steve MacDougall, the rest of a foot and half a heel of a sock, and two Please Play Agains. A long day.

2. I've been pretty lucky in the grandparent department; though my grandmother died when I was little, my other grandparents have been pretty healthy, despite diabetes and what have you. Until this week, when both my grandfathers have fallen ill. I won't go into detail, mainly because I don't really know the details well enough to relate, but Papa Frank in Ottawa is in the hospital with a virus and chemo, and Papa Ernie is in the hospital here with an infection in his knee. I'm told everything will be fine.

3. In more cheerful news, despite years of applications and tests and dumb recruiters that seemed they would never end, Darci got the call to get sworn in to the military and go to Basic on the 11th. Then, unrelated, from a different recruiter, Julia got called too! So they're both headed to Basic in just over a week. I'm excited for them; they've been waiting for so long.

4. Right. I'm going to sleep, this time without my face pressed up against a bus window, and tomorrow... I'm on vacation, yo. Who cares what the plan is. All I know is that there's pizza for breakfast.