Mike's Grand World

So, after I left the Progressive Nation 2009 show last night and got on the MARTA train NORTHBOUND, I heard the nice voice come over the speaker say “This train is bound for North Springs Station.”  Well, hot damn, that doesn’t happen often to get a North Springs train at 5 points that late at night…

Well, as it turns out, the train LIED to me.  It was actually bound for Doraville… I only realized this after noticing the train stopped at the Lenox station… Of course, I (i was reading the booklet inside the new CD I purchased… CD’s are awesome, btw) wasn’t paying much attention to this until it dawned on me that Lenox is on the NE bound train to Doraville… and I missed getting off, so I had to stay on until the Brookhaven station (I was not the only one, thank God…).

Getting off at Brookhaven to go back south to the Lindbergh station where I can catch a North Springs bound train… About 10 minutes later, the train arrived and 20 minutes later, I was on a North Springs bound train… so, all-in-all, thanks MARTA for wasting 30 minutes of my time.  No, I didn’t need to sleep…

I will say that… I have ridden the MARTA enough to know that, to that point, there are no North Springs bound trains that run out of 5 points… Every train is Doraville bound and one has to get off at Lindbergh and wait for a North Springs bound train… I allowed myself to be fooled by the nice voice on the train that kept reassuring me that it was “North Springs bound.”   So, was it my fault or was it MARTA’s?

I was upset, but what could I do but get back to Lindbergh and then to North Springs as best I could… getting pissed off would have not changed the fact that I wound up on a train going somewhere I didn’t want to go… So, lesson learned.  I did get home and I did get sleep and I did make it to work (albeit, a little late)… Life goes on.

I have had 6 trips to Huntsville in the past 9 weeks since Mother’s Day in May… plus 2 weddings, a baseball game (in a 3-day stretch), a trip to Cartersville (and Adairsville to Barnsley Gardens) on another weekend, and a trip to Mentone over Memorial Day weekend (where I got engaged).  This is a very busy and tiring nine week stretch…

After the trip this past weekend, I felt “beaten, broken, and tired.”  So much so, that I had to take a sick day on Monday because I think I made myself sick… I just need to rest (the second straight Monday I have done so).  I have taken time off of the gym to rest.  I got some rest on my sick day but not as much as I need… so this weekend, there will be a bit of rest but so much to do at home, probably not as much as I would like.

The trip home on Sunday was almost entirely in the rain… much of it heavy.  It really started to wear on me.  Seemed like I was never  going to get home.  And then, on GA 9 (North Main Street in Alpharetta), I had just passed a car and got back in the right-hand lane when I noticed a truck in the left lane facing me with a turning signal on… as if the driver thought they were in a turning lane… but it wasn’t.  Another time, I really feel like God was protecting me.   This is the third time I have felt this way.

[The first time, I was like 19 or 20 in my old Ford truck… sitting at the red light to exit my (then) neighborhood in Huntsville… as the light turned green, I hit the gas but the truck stalled… as I started the truck, a vehicle ran the red light right in front of my eyes…

The second time was when I did wreck my truck, but the car swerved just in time to not hit me directly in the driver’s side door… though the truck was totalled, I was only in shock.  Not hurt.  Not even a scratch.  But if the other vehicle hadn’t have swerved in time, I would have been crushed.  (By the way, another car that ran a red light… this time, the truck didn’t stall but got hit…).

Maybe I have nine lives like a cat… I am on my fourth now… only five more to go ;)]

After I got home, I didn’t bother to unpack the truck and just got inside and got a hug from my fiancee and just wanted to sink into the couch… after doing some thinking, I feel like God saved me because it is my purpose to marry Dana… to be her partner for life… and that’s exactly what we are going to be doing next May… 🙂