Grass and Sky

Operation Summer Wardrobe.

Bus leaves Point Breeze at 11:15 am
Go to Macy's, buy shorts and t-shirts
Bus home leaves downtown at 12:45 (or every half hour thereafter)

It's good to have a plan, don't you think? I liked this plan. It gave me plenty of time to sleep in this morning (a key feature of any Saturday plans), and spend a minimally decent amount of time shopping. Macy's was having sales so I was optimistic about prices.

However, even the best-laid plans are only effective until the action starts.

I was up at seven. Four hours between getting up and getting out the door pretty much was a guarantee of getting sidetracked and never leaving, so the whole operation had to be shifted up by a couple of hours. New schedule involved a 9:35 bus.

By 10:10, when the 9:35 bus had still not showed, another woman at the stop consulted her schedule and announced that the next bus was not due until 10:50. So, time to put Plan B into action.

Plan B: Walk into Squirrel Hill and get a 61 downtown. Operation Summer Wardrobe was finally a-go. Arrived in Sq. Hill in plenty of time to stop at a Starbucks (evil corporate entity, yes, but also makers of damn fine iced drinks) and refuel (Mint Mocha Chip Frappucino ftw) before catching a bus heading downtown, at five minutes before eleven. So, pretty much back onto original schedule.

Hit Macy's in a surprise attack, and encounter another snag. Macy's Downtown pretty much only caters to people 50 and up. I do not fall into that category. This makes it much harder to find acceptable clothing there. I did, after much searching, manage to find two pairs of shorts, one pair of capris and two shirts that were passable. But the sales lady was of no use whatsoever.

Back on schedule, summer wardrobe purchased, head out to find bus stop. Which is many blocks away. Arrive shortly after 12:45 bus has left, settle in to wait for 1:15. Which bus shows up ten minutes early and then proceeds to hurtle at close to light speed through downtown, uptown, and Oakland (scaring even the toughest looking passengers into thinking twice about asking to get on or off) before finally being forced to slow down as it approached Squirrel Hill, where it then caught up to and passed the earlier bus.

However, despite very scary hostile bus forces, I prevailed, making Operation Summer Wardrobe a success. And now I'm collapsed on my sofa in gratitude for having survived the bus ride intact - seriously, it was like the bus driver had seen Speed a few times too many and thought that all buses had to go over 50 at all times.