I’m just going to come right out and say this. I’ve been on the computer for the better part of the day sending emails, writing stories, printing those stories and just recently, venting my frustration over my financial problems. If anybody can believe it, there is something that bothers me even more than money does sometimes and this is traveling, not to a different city or country, not even a plane, on para. Though this is supposed to be a bus company, I can’t really refer to it as such as I get taxis more often than not but that’s not the issue. The issue to me is obtaining service and those god darn long hours you spend on hold with them just to ask for a ride. I remember before they had the para transpo app, I had to wait upwards of three hours to make one trip having pretty much drained my cell phone battery on busy signals prior to this. This would take up half my day and I couldn’t get anything else done. I began to question why I even go out sometimes. As it usually does, the long waits used to give me headaches and spike my anxiety which caused me to go into fits of anger where I would scream, swear and make up scenarios where I would demand a ride from mom to go where I’m going.

To say I used to pull my hair out over stress would be an understatement. Most mornings were a war zone for me before the app came along. The problem is though that even though it is here, it comes with it’s own set of problems.

Though it’s a relief not to have to spend the remainder of my natural born existence on hold with them anymore, there are times when it appears as though I may have to. You see once or twice a month on a different date, the app shuts down for maintenance where it’s unavailable to customers until the next morning. When this started happening, like everything else, it stressed me out because I knew I would have to pull my hair out until I was bald trying to reach them if I couldn’t use the app. I had been unaware that once the maintenance was finished, all it took was for me to refresh the page and the app would restart like normal again. This provided me some relief, who am I kidding? When your name is Jeff Landry, there’s no such thing as relief. The unknown factor of when a maintenance session is to take place combined with how many times I need to login and refresh the page until it starts again creates a situation similar to the one with my money where I stay up until it starts working as I cannot fall asleep until I know it does since I fear yet another breakdown if I wake up and have to call them again. I remember the last time it went on maintenance. After supposedly being tired enough to go to bed right after midnight, the app’s failure to work kept me up and stressed for at least two more hours similarly to what happens when we are supposed to get paid only for the cheque to not be deposited right away. I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep that night and there was something I had to do that day. I can’t remember what it was but I think I had to cancel due to the lack of sleep. Why can’t anything just be easy?

One of the most annoying things mom does actually involves this service. Most weekends when Chris and I are to see them, either for a weekend or a day long trip, they will ask me to go to Chris’ house on para for them to pick us both up there as we both live in two areas of the city. It makes it easier on them if one of us goes to the other’s house so they can pick us up at the same place. The issue lies with the fact that it’s always me having to make the trip to Chris’ house and never him. This is despite the fact that it logically works the same way if Chris comes to my house or I go to his house. Most of the time when these situations occur, an argument breaks out where I try to convince mom of this unsuccessfully while telling her that it appears she doesn’t like this place as much as she says she does citing the amount of times she actually comes to this building. However, realistically speaking, it doesn’t matter if I make the trip or Chris does. They’re still getting what they want….to pick us up at one house. Therefore it doesn’t make sense for me to have to deal with them being late and having other pick ups/drop offs and worrying that mom will get there and leave without me if the bus takes too long, I can’t get an answer from her…..the list goes on and on as it relates to what stresses me out in these situations and sometimes, if the ride was rough, it may put me in a bad mood where the actual outing is concerned which will in turn result in mom getting angry with me for something she set up. The way I look at it, it’s a lose lose situation. I don’t get any relaxation at all.

As much as this post was dramatic, I will try to end on a high note. While I still have the same problem, I have since seen the movie “Planes Trains and Automobiles” where Steve Martin has his own travel issues but what’s different is the way he handles the issue when faced with it vs the way I do. He handles it in a goofy comical sort of way and for the most part, doesn’t get mad. In my case, I still get mad but I am able to imagine him in the same situation…..with the bus being late, having a hard time obtaining service, ETC. When I do this, it calms me down and enables me to face the situation in the same way he does. Calm, cool and collected despite some annoyance. I must stress though that this happens sometimes and there are just an many times where annoyance turns to anger and I cannot channel my inner Steve Martin as my emotions get the better of me. It’s nice to know that I have at least found some relief to my stress though.