So, funny story.
And by funny, I mean only in retrospect. Totally not funny at the time.

This morning, Tyler gave me the heads up that there was an accident on the cTrain. Since I take both the bus and the train to work, there really wasn’t any other way to commute so I just had to endure the congestion since the train was only running on a certain portion of the line.

I take the bus no problem to the train station where I can already see the clusterf*ck of people waiting for trains to arrive. Then proceed to pack in like sardines. I got into a train, and pulled out my phone to keep myself busy with my latest book. I was definitely one of those sardines and had 2 mm of personal space- standing of course. The guy comes over the intercom and said the trains were really running slow and it would take approximately 45 minutes to reach downtown. Groan.

I continue reading my book and we slowly crawl towards downtown calgary. At one particular stop, the doors opened and so many people crammed into the already crammed train that my 2mm of space was compacted to about .5mm. The doors closed and we stood still for what felt like forever. All of a sudden, I started to get REALLY hot. I tried to ignore it since I knew the ride would be a lot longer, but pretty soon I couldn’t ignore the discomfort and I attempted to undo my coat buttons.

Then, the hot flash turned into a hot flash with a barfy feeling. I tried leaning over to gain some relief- no help. I turn towards the door and a woman behind me asks if I need to sit down and I remember responding to her that I needed to get off the train. Cut to a few minutes later, I came to and I was being escorted by a fellow male commuter to a nearby bench.

I completely blacked out.

That has NEVER happened to me before. I don’t know what happened (I’m guessing combination of too much coffee + standing backwards in a HOT crowded train + reading in a moving vehicle) but the man who helped me out said that he was a diabetic and had to be assisted on many occasions and only felt right doing the same for me. I didn’t even realize what stop we were at or the fact that he even said I wasn’t acting myself- which is weird since I don’t know the guy. But when I came to, I was profusely sweating. And shaking because when I realized what happened I had totally freaked out.

He wanted to stay with me until he was sure I was ok- and after a few minutes of fresh air, I assured him I was (minus the freaked-out feeling of course). I was profusely thanking him for assisting me.

Then, I realized how screwed I was because the trains were so packed and there was NO way I’d get on another one anytime soon to continue my commute to work. About 7 or so trains later, I finally managed to squeeze on another and get to work only about an hour late.

Moral of the story-
1) don’t drink too much coffee too fast
2) don’t try to read while standing backwards on a train
3) pack a personal fan or coldpak
4) kind strangers DO exist