Trying to catch the bus in the snow is like...

Last Tuesday, I was planning to catch the 8:41 am bus down to the U. I was ready at 8:18, so I checked the schedule and a bus also came at 8:23 so I decided to try to make that one. I hurried to put on my shoes and coat, refill my Nalgene, and run down the stairs towards the bus stop.

Check time. 8:22.

I live on 15th Ave NE. It's a 4-lane street and during the 8 o'clock hour has a fair amount of traffic coming through. I looked down the street and saw the bus coming. I looked at the bus stop, still a good 2 minute walk including the need to cross the street.

I should mention here that it had snowed the night before. And what we were left with in the morning was snow. And ice. The thing with ice is you can't really see it. And I, still not knowing how to deal with snow, didn't realize it would still be on the ground the next day. I was wearing tennis shoes. Tennis shoes with no traction.

So, I'm looking at the bus barreling down 15th and decide to make a run for it. I run into oncoming traffic, hoping the whole "pedestrian has the right of way" rule will kick in and no one will run over me. HIGHLY stupid choice.

I eat it right there on the 4-lane street of 15th Ave NE. I mean, my right foot slipped on the ice, my right leg went flying up in a Rockettes-like kick, and I went down on my bottom. Hard.

Much more embarrassed than hurt, I picked myself up and continued to cross 15th, still slipping of course. The bus flies past me because I just lost a good 30 seconds to minute and of course had no chance of making it now (as if I ever did).

Then, oh but THEN, a man pulls up and yells out his car window, "Dude, like, you dropped your water bottle back there." Brilliant. My bright yellow Nalgene was 20 yards back on the curb it had rolled to after my fall. So I had to slip 'n' slide back to the scene of the crime, pick up my Nalgene, and resume walking to the bus stop.

The bus I "missed" wasn't even the one I was trying to catch. It was the one before running late because of the weather. The bus I wanted arrived at the stop about 2 minutes after I did. The running, the falling...it was all for naught.