Ashley´s Coming!

After my Red Cross déjà vu, I made my way home to make space for Ashley. My room has a huge bed, but not much floor or storage space. I was able to easily clean up and prepare for her.
Mabel had been so excited in January when I told her that Ashley would be visiting that I assumed she would want to pick her up from the airport, so when Iván offered at the Superbowl party to go with me to pick her up, I told him I’d have to check with Mabel. It turned out Mabel had a meeting or some other conflict, so I texted Iván on Wednesday and we made plans to meet up. Since we don’t live on the same side of town, I asked him where he wanted me to meet him to avoid his having to drive across town 4 times in total. The bus station is about the only place I know how to get to other than downtown and school, so the bus station it was.
To get to the bus station, I was pretty sure there was a bus that would go form a street near my house non-stop there. However, I’d never taken it before, and the day Ashley arrived would not be the day I found out I was poorly mistaken! I took my tried and true route of Canal 3 downtown and walked to where I knew a bus called Toledo would take me to the station. This was the bus Martha (favorite 1st grade teacher) had shown me and ridden with me back in September when I went to Tucson the first time. However, between my Canal 3 stop and the stop were I would catch the Toledo bus, I saw a bus called Centro-Central (downtown to bus station). I figured I couldn’t go wrong with this one!
I asked the driver if he went to the bus station. He said yes. Then I asked if he was on his way there now (I also learned a valuable lesson on the way back form Tucson the second time. I got on a bus that said downtown, but it wasn’t the one I had ridden before, so it bypassed all the things that looked to me like downtown. I figured it out quickly, but it took me a long time to get home that morning. Also, bus drivers will tell you that they go to a certain place when you ask, even if they just came from there. Sometimes it will take over an hour to get to your stop because you have to ride the bus route from where you are, all the way back to where you are, and then to your destination. I wanted to clarify that before we got going. I felt good about it.). It was about 4:40 and I was supposed to meet Iván at 5:30 at the bus station. I had given myself (as usual) too much leeway, but again, on an important day like the arrival of your best friend, you want to make sure you’re too early instead of too late.
Around 5:15, I noticed we were near my house again and got a really nervous feeling in my stomach. I was going to miss Ashley’s arrival!
I was prepared to call Iván, tell him I’d goofed, and start explaining my surroundings, hoping he’d know where I was and come pick me up! Luckily, I saw some things I recognized as on the way to the bus station. Phew! I pulled into the bus station at the stroke of 5:30 just as Iván was pulling up. I explained the situation about taking the longest bus ever which he found funny. I was not amused. Then he laughed at how American I was to arrive at 5:30, our designated time, even after taking the wrong, longer bus! He had a good point.