Or was it, I ask myself.
It ended with two beautiful things....
One, is this sky that greeted me while driving home. So, when I saw THAT I thought, "Hey, someone is trying to tell me something about my wasted day."
THEN....I opened up my mail on the computer and I got the most wonderful message from one of my closes friends, a friend from my past, let's say a friend who is more like family to me.
It was a wonderful short but to the point message and made me feel just great.
These two things, that were extraordinary happened after an incredibly tiring, trying, hot, strange, and even costly (not much, but something) day. And not only that, I have to REPEAT this day in another day or so, doing basically what I did today, without getting any results, but hopefully will get results next time.
Eight hours of my time, down the drain.
This is what I did:
Took the train to Rome. Train riding is not romantic, not on this local train.
Everytime you go through a tunnel, or pass another train, it sounds like (and I was trying to think about what that sound DOES sound like), well, perhaps very metalic drums, or some kind of warehouse with loud machinery, and it goes on and on until the tunnel ends, and then begins with the next tunnel. OR you pass another train which, if you are looking out the window, gives you a good scare, visually it is a shock, and then, listening to it is frightening, not a pleasant sound at all. The windows rattle, and I heard something UNDER the train everytime we went thru a tunnel, I don't know what it was, but it was strange and not a nice sound to hear.
I'm SHARING this day with you, whoever you are, because I need to get it off my chest! I have to repeat the day again, and so perhaps it will lessen my thoughts, take the harshness out of the day, and put some..."every cloud has a silver lining" into it...
WELL...............what happened is that I got on the train. It was a quieter time of day, at 11am so it wasn't too bad. But it was hot and stuffy. No windows were open, and I went around trying to see if there was a restroom open on the train (last time, last week, they had problems!!). Not one of the four toilets was open, and one had a sign "Out of service". I went out of the train and talked to one of the employees...
well, that problem got fixed when one of them came by assuring me that they would be open when the train started. And thus it was. No soap, and not a full role of toilet paper, but they were working (one door didn't shut) but they were, as I said, in order (sort of).
Then......................I felt hot and stuffy. No windows were open, no air conditioning I thought, this is not good for me. So, I went to the next compartment. It was freezing. No, no good for me here either. I asked the train employee what he could do about it, he turned off the air conditioning. For ten minutes. I left that cabin when they turned it back on, back to the hotter one.
Then, the train started to get filled up, and eventually we got to Rome.
To make a long story not too long, I went to get a VISA FOR CHINA. Yes, that is correct. It should have been ready. But surprise surprise, it wasn't! I came all the way to Rome (second time in a week) and it was not ready due to "the system", the Chinese girl told me. She said they would talk to the embassy.
Long story getting longer.....they could NOT do it. I have to return to Rome again.
But actually, the story didn't end here. I looked at my watch, wanting to get out of Rome fast. I had about 40 minutes to get my train.....I started to do POWER WALKING. Really really fast walking, I even walked in the street to avoid people on the sidewalk. I took the right streets but then, after a good 30 some minutes of heavy walking and sweating, I realized that I had better start running to get to the out of the way tracks for my particular train (it is a long long walk from the front of the station to get there). I started to run and run, and then realized I had not gotten my ticket stamped in the machine, if you don't do it you can be fined. I ran in the other direction. I then thought that I was going to kill myself if I continued running, spoke to one of the station employees and he said "Hey you have four minutes, you can probably do it". I continued running, go onto the train, hot, sticky and sweating. I was out of breath. I sat and smiled at the perhaps Pakistanian man in front of me (his daughter probably, spoke on the phone for the next twenty minutes and talked non stop the whole trip) and luckily the train left. If I had been just one minute later, I wouldn't have made it.
So......................are you still with me? And who are you???
IF I hadn't had such an unsuccessful day, probably I wouldn't have realized something that magnificent sky was trying to tell me (about being positive, learning that not everything can go our way) and the words of my dear friend wouldn't have been such a relief after a bad day as they were to me today.
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