Today sucked.

So today sucked. Now, I'm not the kind of person to complain whenever I have a bad day, but some days, so many things go wrong, it becomes almost comical and warrants being documented. Some days you are the dog and some days you are the hydrant, and today I was the hydrant in the worlds biggest dog park. Ironically, it's also worth noting that the entire time I've lived in this city, I've never really struggled with not having a car until I've needed to do things to move out of this city.

I woke up hungover. I went to Napa yesterday and I am well aware that this was completely self inflicted, so I won't dwell on this fact, and only am using it to add additional color to how miserable I was. I had already told work that I was coming in late today because I had a dentist appointment and then had to go to Berkeley for the second time to finish up my medical stuff for my visa because the first time I went, I forgot my passport, and apparently they need that.

So I headed to the dentist office to get two cavities filled. I brush my teeth 7+ times a day so I'm not happy about this but nonetheless, this was something I'd rather handle up front and before I go to Australia. The bad thing about this was the two cavities were on opposite sides of my mouth. One was in the top right, the other was in the bottom left. This meant they had to numb the two sides of my face, and meant I got to spend the rest of my day wandering around looking like a stroke victim.

So at this point, I had to take a bus, then the BART (basically a train) and then another bus to get to the Berkeley Medical Center. I should also note that it was raining all day today. I was wearing my flip flops with virtually no traction and while walking to the bus stop, I slipped pretty badly but somehow managed to not fall and just stubbed my toe. At this point I watched my bus go flying by me about 15 yards away. This was something that later developed into a bit of a pattern. I waited for about 15 more minutes for the next bus and got on. I took a seat next to an older Asian lady who kept looking at me funny. I mentally wrote this off as being a side effect of my stroke face and tried to ignore it. About ten minutes went by and I looked down at my foot and noticed there was a ton of blood dripping off of it. I somehow failed to notice when I stumbled that my foot had begun gushing blood and this Asian lady was terrified of me. Fortunately, I did have a band aid in my purse. This is the last point during the day anything remotely resembling good luck occurred.

I got to BART, bought $8 worth of rides to cover my going and returning trips and headed off to downtown Berkeley. I figured this should be a quick in and out situation. I go in, show them my passport, they do my chest X-ray and we're done. One thing worth mentioning about public transportation that is different than SF transportation is they do not give transfer passes. So it's $2 to ride the bus, and if you get off or switch buses, you're going to have to shell out another $2. So I catch my first bus to the medical center. Total spent on public transportation: $10. Upon arriving, they informed me that they would only give me a piece of paper to go to a different location and get my chest x-ray done, and then I need to bring back my films to this place in Berkeley. This requires me to go down the street into Oakland. This is where I should have seen things going down a bad road. At least the place was located on the same street. I was at 2624 Telegraph Avenue, and the other office was at 3300 Telegraph Avenue. Maybe I should have taken it as a warning sign when the receptionist told me that it was too far to walk and I was going to need to take another bus, even though the addresses would lead me to believe that the new location was only a block or two away.

I hopped on the bus (Total spent on public transportation: $12) and was on my way. I was riding for a bit when I looked out the window and noticed that I was somehow in the 6000 block of Telegraph Avenue. I panicked. How the hell did this happen? I hit the button and jumped off the bus. In the middle of Oakland. Crap. I didn't think that one all the way through. As I start to try to get my bearings and figure out how I ended up over 3000 address numbers away from where I'm supposed to be, I notice that the numbers are now going down. As I walk (in the same direction my bus was headed, mind you), I come upon the 5000's. At this point I realize that some mensa candidate that planned this road has the address numbers going up and then going right back down as you go further along. WTF? Who plans a city like that? I get to the next bus stop just in time to miss that bus, and I wait another 15 minutes to catch the next one. Total spent on public transportation: UGH, $14.

I get to the Oakland radiology center. As I walk to the front door, some guy yells 'Hey there beautiful baby. What you doin'?' Presumably this guy has a thing for women whose faces don't have full mobility. I immediately judge him. I go in for the chest X-ray and the male technician gives me a hospital gown with an open back to put on for the X-ray. I put it on and note that it is about as opaque as tissue paper. Modesty really isn't going to be an option here. I go back out to get the X-ray taken and the technician informs me that I haven't completely filled out some of the paperwork that I need to. I take it from him, put it on the table and lean forward to finish filling it out. Male technician is then treated to a peep show courtesy of the open back on my see-through hospital gown, ya know, just in case it wasn't already see through enough.

So I finally get out of there trying to piece together what's left of my dignity, and hop a bus back to the Berkeley Medical Center (Total spent on public transportation: $16). I drop off my chest X-ray and at this point, am completely out of $1 bills because I've spent so much riding around Berkeley and Oakland. I try to stop by a Subway restaurant, but they apparently also have a shortage of ones and won't break a larger bill for me. I then go to a 7-11, where the guy says he will break it, but I need to buy something for him to be able to open the cash register. I buy a candy bar which at this point, I'm attributing its cost to my total public transportation spend: $19.09.

So I sit at the bus stop waiting for my bus. I see one bus go by in the opposite direction. Then another. Then a third one. I stick my head out from under the bus cover to see if I can spot my bus and BAAM, a bird shits on me. Why not, bird? Everything else has today.

When all is said and done, I finally get to work at 4:05 PM. I'm a little lighter across the board. I have a little less money in my wallet. A little less skin on my foot. A little less dignity. However, I couldn't be happier to be back in SF and I know that even though today sucked, it's going to make tomorrow that much better in comparison. If nothing else, at least tomorrow my face will work better. :)