One bad decision deserves another

Did ya ever notice that when you make a poor choice it often is followed up by a series of bad occurrences?  That upon reflection, if you simply went with your gut instinct things could have been radically different?  One of the tenets of present moment awareness is that it affords you to tap into your inner guidance.  Apparently I tap into it and spit in its face.  Let me tell you about Thursday's commute.

I am quite easily distracted.  Doesn't matter what it is, it'll distract me.  Could be a bug, a piece of paper on the floor, just the sound of the wind whistling through my sometimes vacant head.....On Thursday something minor distracted me and had me leaving the house slightly late. As I ran to the car, I noticed the sky was threatening rain which caused me to run back into the house and grab the first umbrella I saw.  Run back out to the car, started up the Blue Flame and sped through traffic in a panic not wanting to miss my train.  My tires screeched as I pulled into a parking space, grabbed my coffee and heavy backpack (which got caught on the gear shift causing some coffee spillage, argh!) and ran for the train....to find out that it was running 10-15 minutes late.

The first rule of commuting by train is "Get on whatever damn train pulls into the station if trains are running late".  I know this, I feel this, I understand this, I just didn't do this.(Bad decision #1)  When I got to the station, the train that runs before my normal train was in the station.  I chose not to take it as it appeared crowded and also because I apparently had lost my mind.......sky is now really threatening.  10 minutes go by, my normal train pulls into the station.  Hop on, All goes well, (I'm monitoring the skies as we glide along) we pull into the downtown depot.  I need to make a decision on the rest of my commute...Walk as I usually do?  Take a bus? Take a water taxi? What ho!  A bus is waiting for me when I hit the sidewalk.  Bus it is!! (Bad decision #2) I'm all settled in my seat for my 10 minute commute to my office....10 minutes later...I'm still settled in my seat...in traffic.  Sky is really threatening but I don't care cause I'm safe and dry on the bus....in traffic.  We get to the entrance to lower Wacker to find it is blocked off by our vigilant ladies in blue, Chicago cops. (Thank you Chicago for having a city so great people want to film movies here and do it during rush hour commutes) Our bus driver says to the cop "Hey, I need to turn here, I don't have another route".  The cop says "Hey you can't, we told the cta (Chicago Transit Authority)" Bus driver says "I'm the CTA and you didn't tell me NUTHING!". They continue to fight while the rest of us exit the bus (not knowing when the bus would move) (Bad decision #3).  I start to walk.  I get about 10 minutes from the office and the skies make good on their threat.  It as a blistery blowy wind. I open my umbrella and of course it is broken so I have only 1/2 an umbrella. I swear and walk, swear and walk, etc..... Finally get to work, completely soaked.

As I try to dry out EVERYTHING I realize....
A... If I had taken the train that was in the station when I got there I would have missed the rain and been dry
B... If I had walked or taken the water taxi I would have missed the rain and been dry
C... If I had stayed on the bus, I would have arrived at the same time and not gotten wet (a coworker who was on the bus after me said that they opened the entrance ramp about 5 minutes after I left my bus) and been dry.

The moral to the story? Well I guess to go with my gut but I think truly the moral is don't trust MY judgement when the skies threaten rain!