Okay, my mom would KILL me for this, but I have to share my mistake so no one else makes it... Disclaimer, this is a story for dumb people, and this night, I was a dumb people :/
So on Monday night, I was feeling a bit down and just needed to get out of Orchard Park, I've been feeling a lot of that lately, so I guess it's a good thing I'm getting out for good soon. Anyway, I just wanted to do something, so I asked Ashley if she wanted to catch a movie at 8:30 that night. We ended up going to see Pitch Perfect, which was completely ridiculous (at times annoyingly so), but in a way was kind of my life and I so would have been one of those kids had I gone to a mainland university that had a glee and or a capella club. Even though I probably would not watch it again unless it were free or maybe at the $1 theatre, the movie put me in a good mood, which was just what I needed that night.
Now, just so we're clear, I DID check google maps for the bus schedule thinking that there was a potential for no buses to be leaving the Chartwell cinema after 10pm and it SAID that there would be an Orbiter leaving Chartwell after 11 going clockwise. I saw it, it was there, I swear. Obviously, I misread this. And again, I admit, I was a DUMB PEOPLE this night.
As we were leaving the theatre, I jokingly made a comment to Ashley that "wouldn't it be stupid if I didn't check the bus schedule and there were no buses going back to town?" HAHAHAHAHA, so funny right? I think you can all see where this story is going.
We went to the bus stop and I checked the electronic sign to see the status of the bus services. The sign read something like
54 ORBITER CW - SERVI
Okay... at first I thought the number had something to do with the bus number, but then I thought, but the Orbiter is just the Orbiter right? So I convinced myself that it must mean the next bus is going to be here in 54minutes. It was a long wait, but the night was nice and I though I wouldn't mind the fresh air, so we just decided to wait. After about 25 minutes of talking shit and doing nothing we realized that we hadn't seen any buses pass by the whole time we were waiting, so I went across the street to the other bus stop just to double check. I hit the button on the electronic bus schedule and F^CK me! The "SERVI" part of the sign that I read earlier was to indicate "SERVICE ENDED" so we had been sitting there for almost a half an hour for no good reason. It was at this moment that we also realized that we had no phone to call a cab since Ashley left her phone at home thinking she wouldn't need it and I stopped topping up my phone service a few months ago and had no internet connection to top it up then and there. There was a pay phone at the bus stop, but being the geniuses that we were that night, we though, well maybe the Nightrider just doesn't stop in the mall stop, but only on the main road. So, we walked to the main road and found a Nightrider stop to wait at. After another few minutes of waiting we wondered out loud whether or not the Nightrider runs on weekdays or just weekends. Seeing no buses pass for a total of about 45minutes we then decided to walk. It couldn't be that far to town could it? Then we could catch a cab from town and it wouldn't be as expensive as a cab from Chartwell.
DUMB PEOPLE! Chartwell is "hella" far from town and from Uni. Why the hell would we think it was a good idea to walk?!?
So we're walking, it's 11:30pm at least, we have no idea where we are going, no phone, just dumb. At this point I can't even access google maps because I have no internet connection, so we are just walking in the direction we think is going toward town with no idea how far it will be. This was all fine and dandy until we got to a roundabout and had no idea which direction to take. Needless to say, we picked one and kept walking. I don't even want to admit how long we were walking before we even saw any signs that were pointing us in the direction of the city center.
Things going through my mind:
Why the f^ck do all of the bus services stop before midnight (especially in a college town at a movie theatre that's still playing movies after 10)?
Why aren't there any emergency phones in an area that is clearly made for pedestrian use?
Would it be safer to keep walking in the dark not knowing where I am, or would it be safer to hitchhike?
It's a good thing New Zealand is a pretty safe country, because if this were happening in LA, we'd be f^cked.
WHY AM I SO DUMB?
We totally should have just called a cab from the phone booth? Even though neither of us had the number anyway, I'm sure there was a phone book or something we could have figured out.
DUMB
When we finally passed a roundabout that suggested a direction to the city center, we began walking through a residential area, so I was checking my phone hoping to catch someone's wifi network so I could at least load the google map and see where the hell we were. When I finally did get a connection, we were still 4.9 miles away from Uni. As we discussed whether I should top up while I had the internet connection or just keep walking, a cab just so happened to be driving by off duty and on his way home. He was driving in the opposite direction and we waved him down and lucky for us he turned around and picked us up.
When we told him where we were going he said we were at least another hours walk from our destination. He also told us that he and one other cab were the only two taxis on duty in Hamilton, and that he was just going off duty, so really there was only one. He said that he usually would not have stopped for two people walking in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night since most of them are trouble makers and dont actually have money to pay for the fair. We were really lucky to have spotted the cab and that he stopped for us.
This night was surely one of my dumbest, but for some reason, I was in a pretty good mood the whole time. Maybe I just needed the fresh air and a little nighttime stroll, maybe I was just trying to balance the mood since two upset people would not do us any good. I really have no idea what was up with my mood, but I think it was just one of those situations that was just so stupid that I had nothing to do but laugh.
Here's the route we should have taken:
View Larger Map
We got picked up by the cab on Fairfield and River Road, clearly going in the direction away from our final destination, but we though we should head to Victoria Street since it was the nearest place we knew of this city.
Lesson learned. Never go to the movies in Hamilton past 8pm with no car.
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