In the Nick of Time!

(Picture from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Long_Los_Angeles_Metro_Rapid_Bus_2008-04-17.jpg)

I've heard many people say how Los Angeles is really unfriendly but I think the people here are so nice! I'm guessing that a woman with 3 little kids must bring out the kindness in the average person. So here's my tale....

Around 4 o'clock this afternoon I decided that we would go to church. It takes 2 buses to get down there but I talked with Irish and he said that he was headed home soon and could just meet us after the first bus and ride with us on the 2nd. So, that worked for me and I figured I would venture out with the 3 kids. After looking up bus routes and writing down all of the information, I decided we would leave at 4:45. It usually takes me less than 10 minutes to get to the bus stop but I thought I should add 15 or 20 minutes to allow for the girls walking and any unforeseeable circumstances that might happen with 3 little ones in tow.

It was cold and the monkey backpacks wouldn't fit around their coats, so my kids ended up putting the monkeys on first - wearing coats with little monkey tails protruding out of the bottom. *smile* I headed down the road with Little Man strapped onto me and with a monkey tail in each hand.

Today happened to be one of the most windy days I have EVER experienced in my entire life! Twice there were gusts of wind that were so strong I had to push with all of my might to take a step forward. I don't know how the kids managed to stay upright. Well, we made it to the bus stop and I pulled out my paper to see which number we were taking when, lo and behold, it pulls up! I thought the bus was LEAVING at 6:09 but it was supposed to deposit us at our first stop at 6:09! So, we made it in the nick of time. Seriously, we had less than a minute to spare. Whew!

A young hispanic man waiting for the bus noticed that we were there and stopped by the door, motioning for us to get on in front of all of the other waiting people. He was in his 20s and I found it surprising that he would even notice a woman with her children. As we stepped forward, he reached out and lifted each of the girls over the curb and onto the bus. So sweet. We found 2 empty seats near the front which I'm sure were vacated just for us because the bus was packed full. We road on the rapid bus which, as you can see from the picture, is a double bus smashed together. And yet it was filled to the gills.

The 4 of us sat on the 2 seats and had barely gone a couple of minutes when a young asian man sitting nearby said in broken English, "His nose is bleeding," I say it was broken English because I immediately looked down at Little Man and he was like, "No," and pointed to Bean. I looked down and saw that her hand was covered with blood and it was pouring out of her nose and all over her jacket, etc. I unzipped the diaper bag to grab something for her and a disheveled looking older caucasian man standing down the aisle said, "here" and passed a packet up through the crowd to me - it was a tissue filled with gauze 2x2s. I shouted, "Thank you!" as I grabbed one and put it on her nose. I ended up using quite a few of them and then found some diaper wipes so I could clean her.

Things settled down and the bus emptied to just a few of us. Sissy asked me a question about the bus driver and was so loud that he heard her. So he turned around and kept smiling at the kids and then when he saw that we were ready to exit, he stopped the bus and said in an armenian accent to the people on the sidewalk, that he wanted them to wait to board until we had exited through the front door.

Irish wasn't at the stop so I called him and he said he was on his way. I realized it was 6:18 (our bus dropped us off almost ten minutes late) and our next bus was supposed to leave at 6:19! I called him back and said, "We're going to cross the street because our bus is about to leave!" We headed for the intersection and as we waited for the light to change he appeared. He grabbed up Sissy and Bean in his arms and we hurried across the road. We saw that the bus was coming but we still had another road to cross. Thankfully, there were other people waiting to board so the bus stopped for them and after a sprint across the road, we made it, again, in the nick of time.

This bus driver was one of the most friendly ones I've encountered, along with the first one today, but he did forget to stop where we requested and we had to walk an extra block to church. Oh, well. It was fun and fine and we made it with time to spare and we had an awesome night at church. It was as if it was tailor-made to fit exactly what we are going through in our lives. I guess that's what happens when the Holy Spirit speaks...

A lady who lives near us drove us home so that was nice. Little Man usually goes to bed at 7:30 but he stayed awake until we arrived home at 10:30! At least he was good : )

The girls danced and played and had a great time.

We tried to sleep in this morning but it didn't work.

Until next time....

Liz