I am not yet capable of doing things on my own (Day 13)

Today was rather disappointing.

Not the whole day, just the parts of it in which I decided to try to exercise my independence. I was met with a great deal of failure.

I started the day with an attempt to walk to the office on my own. Whitey had mentioned last night to just let him know in the morning if I needed a ride or not and so I thought I would take it upon myself to get to work on my own. And because of my confusion with the public transit system here, I figured I might as well just walk. Four kilometres didn’t seem so bad. In theory.

I’m pretty sure that Google estimate of the distance was inaccurate though. It had to be. Either that or the number of mountainous streets I had to use was just slowing me down. It took me forever and a day to make my way to the office and I was pretty sweaty and tired by the time I did actually get there.

I am not about to complain about the heat, because no matter what it’s better than walking through snow at home. But I must say the hills here are even worse than San Francisco. Although, the only hills I’ve really come across were the ones I had to deal with today.

I wanted to take a picture of a couple of the mountain ranges I was faced with during my journey, but I figured getting my camera out of my backpack would be too much effort and I wasn’t about to spare the energy for that. Maybe another day.  

By the time I had changed my sweaty clothes and made it into the actual office I was pretty exhausted and I’m sure it showed. It didn’t take long for me to spill my guts complaining about my travels and mention that I was probably never going to choose to do that again. If someone offers a ride, I’m likely going to take it in the future. But if I may foreshadow into the later parts of the day here, I didn’t exactly learn my lesson.

At work I tried to help where I could, contributing to a mini-meeting with Whitey, Gonzo and Alan, and then attempting to take at least one task off their hands. We’ve been trying to give out the remaining membership cards and members’ packs at games (I don’t know if I mentioned this before but members are equivalent to season-ticket holders here), but still have a pile of stuff left, so basically that pile is mine to deal with now. I just need to get them to their rightful owners, or call their owners and tell them where to pick them up.

Any attempt to start on this right away was quickly squashed however, as the materials I needed to complete the task happen to be at the RNA Showgrounds. Please note, I have been informed that the acronym stands for the Royal National Agricultural Association, leaving me even more confused than before, because to me that would be RNAA, wouldn’t it? No matter. I will make no more attempts to guess what it means. I was way off.

So until Whitey was heading to the park with me to get the stuff I needed, and then drop me off at home, I pretty much just answered emails and tried to come up with story ideas for at practice tomorrow night. I wasn’t going to say no to a ride home, so I waited.

By the time Whitey was done with all his meetings and wheelings and dealings, we didn’t have time to get to the ballpark before he had to be somewhere, so he dropped me off at home and was on his way. I was grateful for the ride.

Since I didn’t have the memberships to deal with, or really anything work-related at the moment, I thought I would get out and explore the area a little more. I also had to send a package for someone and send some postcards of my own back home. Please note, if you are interested in receiving any mail from me from Australia, just send me your address and I will get right on it.  

After the post office tasks were finished, I was in search of a place to get my nails done. I know that sounds pretty girly, but that was what I was aiming to do. I figured Chinatown would be a good place to start. For all the nail places in Toronto, I haven’t seen once since I’ve been here, so I didn’t even know if there was such a thing. I wandered Chinatown until I realized that it might be easier if I just went into one of the other shops and asked.

I found success doing that. I was directed back to the train station, which I didn’t know was in my neighbourhood, but could prove very helpful in the future. And I accomplished the task I had set out to do. I got my nails done. And that’s enough talking about that.

While I was there Carl, who had been “sick” earlier in the day, asked what I was doing and mentioned that he would be at South Bank later if I was going to be around there. So I continued my journey back to South Bank. More walking.

By the time I got there though, he had already begun his trek back home. He said he didn’t think I was coming because I didn’t call him, but that allegation is false. I did call. No answer. But I wanted to head to his place anyway to watch the first edition of the Brisbane Bandits show, so I figured I could just continue my walk over there. Again, more walking.

I thought that I could find his place on my own. I didn’t think it was going to be overwhelmingly hard. He suggested that I take the bus, but I figured I could just start walking in what I thought to be the right direction and eventually if I gave up, it would just be a cheap cab ride from wherever I’d made it to.

Wrong.

I still can’t be sure, but I am pretty sure I started my walk in the wrong direction in the first place. I ended up walking around the entire outside of a children’s hospital because it didn’t seem right to me, and I kept looking for something that did. Then I somehow managed to get onto a path, enclosed by tall barriers on either side, that was meant for bikes only. By the time I realized this, I figured it would be faster to go forward to find an opening and a way out then to go backward. Probably also wrong.

I’m not sure how long I walked for until I found a way out but it was far too long. In combination with my journey to work in the morning, I was really beginning to regret the idea of independence. I wandered through a neighbourhood (which would be called a suburb here), looking for road signs or street numbers. I knew I couldn’t call a cab unless I knew what suburb I was in.

For a couple of blocks I honestly thought about going into several mail boxes in an attempt to figure out where I was. Finally though, I ran into a guy working on his car in his driveway, so I didn't have to break any federal laws. I politely interrupted him and told him how lost I was, and he felt inclined to help. I asked what suburb I was in and he responded that I was in Woolloongabba and he wondered where I was looking to go.

I knew the Woolloongabba bus station was the closest one to Carl’s place, so I figured I wasn’t as lost as I had suspected. I asked the friendly man to direct me to the bus station and he pointed me back in exactly the direction I had come and then even further. I was way off. He also told me to make a right and pointed left, so I wasn't sure I was in any better shape than when I'd stopped.

With his directions (I followed the direction he'd pointed in), I made it to the bus station and then just called Carl to figure out what was next. There was no chance of me making it any further, and so lucky for me, he came and met me there, directing the way back to his house.

At that point, I am positive I had been walking for a few hours. It was at least a couple. I’d had my share of walking forever I think. The entire time at Carl’s I am pretty sure I was just thinking about not walking home.

It wasn’t long before the Bandits show came on. It’s on a community channel here called Bris31, and unfortunately Erin doesn’t get it at her house. Neither do Whitey and his girlfriend so they came to Carl’s place to check it out too.

The show was actually pretty exciting to watch. It’s a half hour about the Australian Baseball League and about the sport itself. Though it may not be the most highly technical production in the world, I enjoyed it and I think everyone else I was with did too. With a bunch of people watching on one TV though, it’s not like we were spreading the viewership around. But it was good and there is more time to work on the next version of the show, since it airs the Monday after each home series. The next home series isn’t until the second weekend of December, so we’re in good shape.

After the show Whitey and Julie (Wigive and Kleenex) mentioned that they were heading home and I didn’t know how to ask for a ride without being rude. I mostly just ended up hanging out in the hallway with my purse in my hand until Kleenex asked. It worked. No more walking.

No more independence either though. I have come to rely on Whitey and Carl and hopefully they don’t hate it because as I have come to discover, I am not yet capable of doing things on my own.

At home I thought I would try to start the DVD workout program that I’ve wanted for awhile but wasn’t able to find for a long time. It’s similar to P90X I think, but it’s cheaper. It’s called Supreme 90-Day Fitness, but I couldn’t tell you any more about it because I didn’t start it. There wasn’t enough room in my bedroom. I figure (I reckon, if you’re Australian) that I should take my laptop down to the mini gym in the apartment complex and do it down there. So I’m saving it for another day I guess. That’s the idea.

My eight-hour-walk day had pretty much tuckered me out though so it seemed a good time to head to bed. I’ve got to rest the calves.