All Shook Up!

Wow, what a shaky Tuesday! 


I woke up and did all my normal things, went to check on the still sleeping kids, turned on the TV to watch a little of my "mom-shows" (that's what Logan calls anything that's not a cartoon), checked Facebook, and checked my email. 


I got an email from Kyle's mom that asked if I wanted to meet her at the zoo with the boys. I then checked the weather and saw that it was going to be a gorgeous day, so I thought, "why not?". Well, after we had it all planned (I would ride the Metro into DC and meet her at the main entrance of the zoo), I kind of had second thoughts. This would be my first venture into DC with two kids on the Metro by myself. I called Kyle and asked his opinion. Naturally he said it was a bad idea. This just gave me the fuel I needed to tell myself that I am a strong woman and I can do it all by myself!


So, we're off to the zoo! (First - let me apologize for lack of pictures :( I had forgotten to charge my phone the night before, and leaving the house with less than 20% of battery remaining is NOT a good idea. I decided to save my battery for phone calls). The drive to the Metro station and finding a parking spot were all uneventful. We get our passes and find a seat on the train - again uneventful. As we take off, I say a little prayer that it all goes smoothly. I'm not a very religious person, so I thought that it was a little strange to find myself in prayer, but I thought, "eh... it couldn't hurt.". 


We get to the zoo and waited for Donna to meet up. We finally meet up and take a walk down Asia Trail and go see the much-adored pandas! We're watching one play with his food and eat with crumbs all down his (her?) big belly, then we walk away for a minute to go look at the exhibit they have set up for learning. I glance over at the panda and saw it stop eating, look around, and run. I thought to myself, "how cute, the panda is running!", and then hear a loud noise like a truck is driving over the roof of the exhibit. I know that's not possible, because it's not a road, so I shook it off ( quite literally). Then a few minutes later, Donna gets a call from Kyle's dad who said they just had an earthquake! I then get a text from Kyle asking if I was okay, so I put two and two together in my head a realized that I just experienced it too! 


After a lot of "omg-ing" and "wow, I can't believe it!", we started walking around the zoo again. By that time, all of the buildings were closed, then after about an hour, the police shut the zoo down! This is when I learned that the Metro (the transportation I relied on to get home) was operating at 15mph on all tracks. Ick. I now knew that my commute home would be like Hell. 


Donna & I separated ways (I will note that she offered to drive me to my car, but I declined because I had already purchased my Metro fare - thanks anyway, Donna!), and the boys and I headed toward the Metro station. We waited 30 minutes for our train, and when it came I saw that it was packed and there was NO way I could fit a stroller into that mess, so I waited for the next one to see if it was better. As I was waiting, Dylan became fussy so I fed him a bottle. As I was burping him, he decided to projectile spit-up EVERYWHERE. So, now I'm in a sea of post-earthquake shaken business-people who think that baby spit-up is the grossest thing in the universe, with puke on me, Logan, Dylan, the stoller, my diaper bag/purse for the day, and the ground. I shamefully clean up and walk away to avoid nasty stares. There was NO way I'd be hanging out in a Metro train with these people for the next two hours. 


I find another spot to hang out in and wait for the train. It finally comes and we hop on. There were no available seats, so we just push ourselves in the little spot near the doors that was clear. We start moving (slowly, I might add) and then Dylan becomes fussy. 


Perfect.


I pick him up out of his stroller and thankfully, a kind gentleman offers me his seat. Too bad Logan won't fit in the seat with us, because he now gets upset that he has to stand. At every stop, more and more people jump on, and nobody gets off. So now we're SUPER packed and Logan is almost invisible to all these DC commuters. After about an hour and a half of this, we finally get to breathe as we're nearing the end of the orange line - our final stop. We get off the Metro and walk to our van. Ahhh.


How was your Tuesday?