For many years now I’ve had this fear of missing my stop when riding on public transit because I was asleep. I’ve written about it many times, including the one instance where I actually did miss my stop. Luckily it was a minor inconvenience since I only went to the next station and the two stations are very close together.
Well, about two weeks ago it happened again. I was scheduled to have lunch with some of my former co-workers on a weekday. I wanted to see how they were doing and to discuss how successful we were in launching Halo to the appreciative gaming public (ha!). Unfortunately, the night before I stupidly drank some Coke Zero and had a cup of tea, thereby ingesting a massive amount of caffeine. My body loves to stay up late anyways, so I was wide awake all through the night and early morning despite my attempts to get some rest. I believe I might have procured an hour to possibly an hour and a half of sleep before needing to wake up to make it to lunch. I felt absolutely awful though and was in a zombie like state. I did not want to bail on lunch though so I went.
Lunch was great and I was able to make the best of it. Seeing everyone that I used to work with was awesome. After lunch, I was feeling the lack of sleep so I hopped on the Skytrain to go home. Once onboard, I could tell I was really tired because I couldn’t remember the last time I had this level of exhaustion. I fell asleep very quickly and it was a very deep sleep. Normally, when I fall asleep on public transit it’s a very light sleep where I can usually wake up just enough to see what station I’m at. This time I was in a very deep slumber. I wonder if I snored. Man, that would be embarrassing.
When I finally woke up, it took me about a second to realize that I had missed my station. As I regained my senses, I saw the automated doors were closing and the train was leaving the station after my stop. Then I realized I was on the particular line that takes you over to Surrey, the crime-ridden suburb that you want to avoid if you can. I can’t remember the last time I willingly went to Surrey but here I was, going over the Skybridge to dangers unknown. Of course, I was just going to get off at the next station and take the next train going back. I was just hoping to not get shanked on the platform while I waited for said train. To my delight and relief, as my train was pulling into the station, a train going the other way was doing the same as well. I ran across the platform and into the right train car.
Luckily, I made it home safe and sound. It only took utter and total exhaustion for me to miss my stop by a country mile.