For whatever reason, 511 told me to walk to a bus stop that's like half a mile away instead of the closest one. The nearby bus stop did show the bus I wanted on the sign, but I was concerned that I was taking some kind of express route or something, so we walked (I walked with my kid in a mei tai on my front) to the far one.
The bus ride was fine. We got off the bus and it was raining again, but fortunately I had packed for that contingency. I popped open my umbrella and walked us the rest of the way.
We had some pizza, hung out a bit, saw some of the folks I'd be missing at the party, and then got ready to go home. Not raining! This plan is genius!
I got to the bus stop in plenty of time, but I was standing in the wrong spot, so the bus passed us by. Totally my fault.
This is where it comes in handy that I have a long history of being a person who runs late and misses buses and boats and airplanes and the like. No worries!
It was almost eight pm and I was on the street with my toddler and absolutely had to take transit home (no car seat). But my phone was fully charged with good reception, I wasn't in an unsafe area by any stretch, and we had toys and diapers and an umbrella and coats and everything. This is fine.
My phone indicated that I was a ten minute walk from a bus leaving in ten minutes. My child indicated that continuing to stand still would be unacceptable. Off we go.
I arrived at the bus stop approximately 90 seconds after the bus was due to have gone by. I couldn't really see by then, because my glasses had fogged up. A bus had been by through the intersection while I was walking, but I couldn't even identify the transit agency.
I texted my husband asking what the odds were that I missed the target bus. He agreed they were low. So, then I stood at a bus stop for twenty minutes breastfeeding my baby in her carrier while a bus failed to appear, because I set my sights on the one bus that ever showed up precisely on time on a busy Friday night. (The one I watched myself miss was more than ten minutes late, for example. I was there with time to spare. It's amazing how badly I messed that up.)
Then we walked over to another stop, not too far away, and actually got on a bus. Texted my husband to tell him we were finally heading home. It was now almost nine pm, and my child was practically asleep.
Then the bus stopped and someone sat down right next to me. I was seriously prepared to get very annoyed because, you know, I was wearing a sleeping-ish baby (and breastfeeding her) and whoever this man is must be a serious creep and I was thinking I was going to have to involve the bus driver when it came to my attention that said creep was actually my husband!
So that woke the kid right up and we all had a lovely time riding the bus home in what is basically the middle of the night when you're fifteen months old. He had partied enough and when the opportunity came to ride the same bus as us, he took it. So great!
And then we all walked home (the adults walked, the baby continued to ride on my front) and I didn't have to turn right around to walk the dog, and the child went to bed and we didn't wake up until nine o'clock the next morning.
It was really a very successful Friday night adventure, on the whole.