Orientation

Posted by Krystyna Hunt in

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Okay. It is Sept 3 11:01 pm by my clock and I just arrived home from Orientation 15 minutes ago. Whatta day, whatta day.

The actual orientation was anti-climactic. They herded us to and fro then sent us in different directions depending on what we applied for or needed. No opportunity to talk to anyone really. I signed up for the "mature students networking club". I managed to get a good locker, close to my class, in the Oklahoma Land Rush they foisted on us in selecting our lockers.

Upon cursory examination none of my profs had a glint of psychosis about their body language, which put me at ease. They all seemed like regular folks. None of them guaranteed they would make us men by the end of the year, thank God. I will have to read 3 daily newspapers each day though. This is the "textbook" for the History of Journalism class.

A couple of the 90 students accepted into what will be 3 classes may have been pushing 30, but that's as close to old as I could see. The Mature Students Get-together wasn't much of a get-together. We sat in a lecture room while two people from "counseling" talked 99 percent of the time. "Counseling" exists for students who may suffer anxiety.

The real drama, and there was drama, happened around my attempts to have a successful day.

I had worked it out that I could take the commuter train from the train station not too far from where I live, and arrive in the College Town in about 20 minutes. The train schedule said the trains arrived about every 10 minutes at rush hour and I showed up and waited. What the schedule doesn't say is that the trains do indeed arrive at those times BUT THEY DON'T STOP AT THAT STATION GOING SOUTH. They only stop going north.

I had to go south. So I jumped onto the subway to catch the next best station I could in the time I had, the last subway stop in my city before the country begins. There was another train stop nearby which would take me to another commuter train station and then I could catch the 24 bus right into the College.

I arrived at the last subway at 9:13am. I had planned to be at the College at 9:30 for the orientation which would begin at 10:00. The last commuter train to leave the last subway would come at 9:20. What I didn't figure on was the shortcut to the train station from the subway closes at 9:00am for some God unknown reason. So I tried to run outside the station, around to the street entrance for the train and buy the ticket, but the 9:20 swished by as I was trying to do so.

I now only had a choice of taking the interconnecting buses across another town (a community that lies between my City and College Town) to get to the College, which would take at least an hour, or I could take a cab.

I knew the cab would be pricey but better for my nerves, so I hailed down a cab with a nice Sikh cabbie and off we went. We got to the College in half an hour but the tab was $60.00 with tip. I paid it with my VISA because I didn't have that much cash with me, and all flustered because I was already late for orientation, I paid and ran out.

When I went to put my VISA away I realized I no longer had my wallet. I dropped the wallet in the cab, which was now gone. I brought almost all my ID in that wallet because I had to present a lot of it to collect my government check, etc. It had my social security card and health card which could be valuable items on the black market.

So with this on my mind I put the VISA away and managed to go through the orientation, speeches, etc. I was glad I at least had the VISA because I could get cash on it. Time for taking our photo ID and I discover I have now lost the VISA card. It was nowhere.

However, at security, bless their hearts, someone did find it and turned it in. For a while they wouldn't give it to me unless I presented identification which of course I did not have, but at the end they relented and gave it to me.

I couldn't collect my government loan check, get a photo ID taken, get my software from the IT department, my additional health and dental coverage because I had NO government issued photo ID, no social security card and no health card to show them. I did still have my passport but that was at home.

I partook of the free lunch and then left, walking down to the nearest bank to get money out of an ATM off my VISA card. At the ATM I realized that it wasn't the VISA I could withdraw money on, it was my MasterCard which was in that wallet.

Turning my cellphone back on (it was off for the orientation and speech making) I heard the wife of the cabbie had called me and said her husband found my wallet and wanted to give it back to me. Nice to see religious people acting like religious people should. They lived in a northern suburb.

However, I had no cash and no way of getting any cash. I was seriously facing either walking home, a long, long way, or getting another cab for $60.00. I comforted myself with a turkey sandwich and beer at a charming Cafe (VISA was good for that at least) and called my friend Paul as he was the only friend I had with a car that I knew I could reach at that time. Dear sweet Paul did jump in his car to come and pick me up.

By this time it was rush hour though, with all cars streaming out of downtown towards the eastern or western suburbs and it took Paul one and a half hours to reach me. He also offered to drive me to pick up my wallet.

We had to go a little way west and then far, far north. But Paul got to yakking so much he missed the turnoff and ended up downtown again. So again, dealing with the traffic we inched our way back east and then drove north, arriving at the cabby's home two hours after we left the Town. Then we went out and had a beer and pizza, and I am now home.

Everything was in my wallet. I am so grateful that I lost it in the company of a decent human being, and that I have a good friend in Paul.

I have ADHD, but this was spectacular even for me.