On the Stupidity Scale

If I were to rank my daily stupidity on a scale of 1 to 10, today would be at least an 8 or thereabouts. You know how some days you just start out stupid and keep it going right on through? This was one of those days.

My first mistake was deciding I didn't need socks or stockings today. Not like it was well below freezing or anything. I was only moderately cold on the 4 block walk to the subway. And then I go to my building through a tunnel and stay in the building all day. So if I'd been going straight home from work I'd have been in good shape. Until my cats tried to murder me in my sleep for failing to buy them wet food.

So, off I go to PETCO at Union Square after work. And the fun really begins. First I miss the subway stop. So I switch to the uptown train ride one stop and then walk two blocks to PETCO. At this point I was kind of regretting the whole no socks thing, but not a big deal. It was after PETCO that I made my big mistake. You see, what with the awful cold, I figured, hey, I'll take the bus. There are two M14s, one that goes across town and down Ave A and one that goes across town and down Ave D. I can probably count the number of times I've taken the bus on my fingers, despite living in the city for 5 years. So perhaps it isn't surprising that I took the wrong bus.

I realized I was on the wrong bus soon enough, but figured I'd stay on it and maybe it would loop back around to where I needed to be. Then, deciding that seemed likely to take awhile, I decided that I might as well just walk home. At this point I was on FDR drive which is not all that near my home, and I was quite cold so I figured I'd cut through the apartment complex near me. All by myself. In the dark. With not a person in sight. Because this is what smart people who know how to stay safe in a city do. It was simultaneously a relief to come out onto Rivington and an annoyance to realize how damn far I was from my apartment. It would have been shorter for me to just walk home from Union Square in the first place.

I did make it home, obviously. Although not without thoughts like, I wonder if this will turn out to be the stupidest thing I've ever done, would it be ironic if I were assaulted on Attorney Street and had to actually hire myself an attorney, and well this incredible pain in my feet is actually a good thing because it means my toes aren't about to fall off. On the bright side the cats were glad to have the wet food...or at least willing to eat the wet food. It's pretty much one and the same when it comes to cats, no? It's days like today that I miss having a car.