Irrational bus stop anxiety - it's there for a reason!

You all know we've been riding the bus for awhile now - definitely used to the schedule, always have money/bus pass ready - we know the drill. I always harbor some mild bus anxiety - 'what if the bus doesn't come? what if the bike racks are full? then what would I do?' - and I think that's normal when you're putting your transportation needs in the hands of others. But what's kind of irrational - I harbor a ton of anxiety about missing my stop - which, ps - has been my stop for, oh, a year and 8 months. All my stuff - my phone, my water bottle, the latest issue of Crains Detroit Business - has to be put away literally a mile before the stop. I'm watching and thinking - 'do I press the 'stop requested' button now? Or....now?' and I've been known to hit it too early (a condition called 'premature bus stop requesting' or PBSR - talk to your doctor if you think you have this problem). Until today. Today I got a little loose with my bus stop monitoring, and man, I paid the price.

I'm messing around on my phone, tweeting away, whatever. All of the sudden, my head snaps up and it's my STOP. AH! We are already stopped, people are getting off the bus, so I book it to the front, wish the bus driver a nice day, and I'm off. There's like three ambulances wailing at a building right by the stop and all of the sudden the bus driver starts honking like crazy. I'm literally like 2 feet from that horn and with the medical drama nearby - some serious olfactory overload and major confusion. I see she's yelling at me that I forgot something (omg the TERROR - my stuff is normally so well-managed!!) so I go back on the bus, and some guy is trying to hand me some Craisins that were left under my seat by other bus rider. Thanks but not mine. Lord. All this stress for some half-eaten Craisins. So I get my bike, ready to roll. The driver pulls up next to me, and kinda yells at me for how slow I took my bike off the rack, offers me tips on how to do it faster and before shutting the door - "you know, people are waiting here". Oh, SNAP.

I'm gonna be ready for my stop TWO miles ahead of time from now on. #lessonlearned