Memo to self: Do not depend on the 2B Metrobus out of Vienna Metro if you need to be somewhere in a predictable amount of time.

I had to pick up Alberta from the dealer's in Fairfax. I took her in for a 150K mile checkup, as well as to deal with a nasty cough that she'd developed. I didn't mind the engine racing when she started up in the morning, or the occasional stumbling idle at a stop light. No, it's when she stalled turning into Timberwood Avenue by the theatre, leaving me with no power steering—that got my attention. The guy in the opposite lane, waiting to turn into Colesville Road, whom I nearly banged into—it got his attention, too.

I had an hour and a quarter to get from my office in Vienna out to Fairfax so that I had enough time to turn around and run out to Silver Spring for our first tech rehearsal for The Hen Gets a Flag. Sally had given me the cued script and the sound cues CD to bring to rehearsal because she had a callback herself (for Claire in A Delicate Balance) this evening.

Now I could have taken a cab, which would have been about 13 bucks. But, no, I'm sort of weird about cabs (more about that some other time), and I could execute a two-bus-and-subway combo that would get me there in the allotted time for less than three dollars.

Long story short: the 2B was half an hour late, which meant that I was half an hour late to rehearsal, which meant that the cues were half an hour late getting to the tech crew, and a lot of people just hung around waiting for something to happen. The only person who seemed ready to pitch a diva fit was me; everyone else took it in stride.

posted: 11:30:39 PM