The Case Of The Cart

Of all the amazing days I have had here in Boston thus far, I would like to highlight my most favorite.  Now, by favorite, in no way do I mean because it was filled with love, laughter and joy... but with an absurd amount of unfortunate circumstances, making me question if life in this city was really this inconvenient, or if my welcoming here was just extra special.

Waking up on my first Wednesday off of class, I was feeling very motivated to be productive, explore the city and get errands done.  I was going to pick up some stuff on campus, get odds and ends for the apartment and do some grocery shopping.  The longer it took me to get out of the apartment, the stronger the rain got.  No problem, I will throw on work out gear and good walking shoes, the most water repellent coat I have (made of cotton?) and bring my umbrella, you know, juuust in case.  My roommate offered me her "homeless person" cart, that everyone in the city has, to carry my bags in but I decided since it was raining I would cancel that leg of the journey and wait until it was more convenient.  So off I go.  I swear within the first ten steps I took walking out of my building, it started chucking it down.  Good thing I didn't bring the cart!

By the time I make it down the hill to school, I am completely drenched.  Immediately altering my plans even more.  I leave school and head straight to REI, in the rain, to buy a rain jacket.  Something is backwards here.  After switching into my new waterproof jacket, I decide since I am in the area I might as well do the errands I need to.  I pick up a couple things for the apartment at Bed Bath & Beyond and start walking home.  Passing the grocery store, Stop & Shop, I go back and forth with whether or not I want to carry all the groceries home in the rain.  I've come this far, it may not be easy but I can pull through.  The first thing I see right as I walk in the grocery store is a bin full of carts, just like the one Katie had offered me, that I turned down because I thought I wouldn't need it.  Figures.  So I grab one out to at least use while shopping and would decide at the end if I should buy it or not.

After getting all my groceries, I am rolling my cart full of stuff out of the store and realize, I didn't pay for the cart!  How easy it would be to just keep going because clearly this place is not monitored, but my guilty conscience is too strong.  I go back in line to pay for the cart and tell the guy what happened.  His response? "You should've just kept going, we never would've known!" Silly me, what was I thinking?

Not more than 5 minutes away from the store, pulling this cart FULL of stuff in the rain, drenched, one of the tires falls off.  How embarrassing, first thing I do is look around to make sure no one saw, but plenty did.  So as I am sitting there on the sidewalk trying to re-structure this stupid cart, an older man walks by and says, "ohhh, looks like you got a blow out! Want me to call AAA? HaHaHa!" And proceeds to carry on with his stroll.  Thanks, Sir.  I fix the thing as best I could and keep moving through the Fenway, which is a park with dirt paths and rocks, aka not the best place to take a half crippled cart off-roading.

Making my way up the hill, the cart is getting tougher and tougher to pull so I decide to flip it around and start pushing it instead.  As I reach the final incline, the cart hits a lifted spot on the sidewalk, flips forward, causing me to trip over it and my groceries to fall everywhere.  SERIOUSLY?? At this point I decide to laugh.  As frustrating as this is right now, I asked for a new adventure with new experiences and this is just one of those experiences.  So I pick everything up, check my eggs but could care less about everything else and finally get back to my building.

Standing outside my building I realize, now I have to carry this massive cart up to our apartment, which is on the top floor of our 3-story walk up.  I don't want to do trips because I am not familiar with the tenants yet and don't know if leaving all my stuff is the best idea.  I get the cart inside the building and one step at a time get it up to my apartment, feeling good about at least getting my workout in for the day.  I open my apartment door, aggressively push the stupid cart into my apartment, get in, shut the door and fall to the ground for a solid ten minutes to catch my breath and regroup.  I made it.

Good news is... I have a rain jacket, shower rack and fridge full of groceries.  Bad news is... now we have to make room for not one, but TWO of these stupid "homeless person" carts.

The Culprit.