Paying it Forward

Finally!  I was able to pay forward a surprise happy hour on an unsuspecting commuter.  If you recall, in August I blogged about a woman who carried an extra plastic cup with her Friday carton of wine in hopes of sharing a weekend toast with some new face.  On August 13, that face was me; and I was so touched by the gesture, I vowed to pay it forward.  Since that time, though, I have been unsuccessful in my efforts.  Not for lack of trying.  It seems that more often than not on the Fridays when I have decided to purchase a carton of wine and get two cups from the Union Station liquor store, the person sitting next to me is not of legal drinking age or is so engrossed in a telephone conversation that I have never been able to offer them a glass of wine.  That is until last night.

Jeff, a young professional  whom I'd say was in his early 30s, sat down with a sigh in the seat next to me and I could just tell he'd had one of those days.
 "How long have you been commuting?" I asked.
 "About four months," he said.  "It's killing me."
"Perhaps I can make it better," I told him as I produced my two plastic cups and carton of wine.  "Would you like to share a cup with me?"
He started to grin and said, "Is it red or white?"  "Red gives me heartburn."
"It's white," I responded as I watched his grin grow.

So we shared a glass and chatted for more than an hour and I told him about my first happy hour friend and how I'd vowed to do the same thing.  He said he would carry on the movement.  "Maybe not every Friday," he told me, "but I'll try it at least a couple of times."  I just hope I'm the person sitting next to him when he does.  Even if I'm not, though, at least I've done my part to pay it forward.

Out-of-Office Meetings

The last two weeks have been crazy in terms of my work schedule.  Lots of meetings requiring local travel had me riding a variety of trains at a variety of times.  This variety, however, allowed me to formulate some interesting insights about train riders.  For instance, it seems that people who ride the 4:48 am train are much more serious than the people that ride the train at 5:48 am.  Maybe all people who are actually awake at 4:48 am are just naturally more serious than those slackers who want to sleep that extra hour, but more studies need to be conducted.  Also, I noted that there are more Bible readers at 5:48 in the morning.  It's likely that there are more readers in general on the later train but it's an interesting observation nonetheless.  I do know there are definitely more talkers on the later train.  People are more willing to talk to each other and on their cell phones at 5:48 am.  The cell phone thing still has me confused.  It's clear from the snippets of conversations I overhear (and I really try not to eavesdrop) that the majority of early morning calls are personal in nature but I have to wonder who these people are talking to.  If I tried to call one of my friends at 5:48 am just to catch up, I'm not even sure they'd answer the call.  Even if they did, I think the conversation would be pretty short involving words like "are you crazy?" and "do you know what time it is?".  But then again, those are the same words they used when I decided to start this commuting adventure.

Delightful Chat

One of the more positive aspects of a long commute is the interesting people you meet along the way.  Take yesterday for instance.  I was able to grab the earlier train and sat next to a delightful gentleman who had been doing the same long commute for about four months, just like me.  The man was from Ohio, just like me.  He'd lived in a remote area of Alaska for a few years, just like me.  And had moved from Alaska to Maryland, just like me.  As you can imagine, the usual "it's a small world" sentiments were exchanged and we lamented about the how long our days were now that train riding had become such an integral part.  Still, had we not had these daily long commutes, we most likely never would have met and our conversation certainly made the trip home seem much shorter.

Post Comment

Saturday's Washington Post carried an article on the problems MARC commuters face, especially those on the Penn Line, which is the Line I take.  From crowded trains to delays and break downs, commuters had little nice to say about the service.  And MARC, in it's usual fashion, blamed Amtrak and CSX for most of the problems.  It seems that Amtrak and CSX operate the tracks on which the MARC trains run and often bump trains in order to get "higher priority" trains (read Amtrak and CSX trains) out on time.  That said, what I found most surprising about the article was the statistic reported that MARC trains are late 30 percent of the time. 

Only 30 percent of the time?  Really?  I've been riding the train for four months now and can say with certainty that more often than not my train is late.  So exactly where that 30 percent number comes from is unclear.  Perhaps it's an average of arrival and departure times over say a five-year period.  But if that means I have to ride the train for five years before I see more on-time arrivals, I'm afraid that MARC will be losing my business.  Unfortunately, though, I think that's exactly what the organization is betting on as there appears to be little effort being made to improve the service.  According to the article, MARC is trying to keep people more informed about breakdowns and delays.  But when you're sitting on a broken down train somewhere in the middle of Maryland, it does little good when your Blackberry blinks with a message saying your train will be late.  And with so few options, there's no chance on catching another train that will get you to work on time.

No Lights, No Air

We are sitting at the West Baltimore station after some technical problem resulted in a loss of lights and air.  Supposedly a technician will fix the problem . . . and after only a few minutes, he or she does.  Lights shine brightly now and the air is blowing with full force.  I hope whatever the problem though it was actually fixed.  We still have lots more stops before we arrive at our final destination.  And while arriving in the dark doesn't bother me, the train cars do get stifling when no air is circulating.

Character Update

I've been riding a different train lately and therefore haven't seen Orange Hat lady or heard the Voice in quite awhile.  My morning commute, however, is still filled with characters though.  So, by way of introduction, meet the following:

Romance Reader -- She has sat beside me several times and always pulls some generic version of a Harlequin Romance paperback from her purse and proceeds to read.  She doesn't attempt to hide what she's reading either with some type of brown paper cover and it's always fun to see what Fabio-like character appears on the cover of each book.

The Fidgeter -- I don't know whether this gentleman has ill-fitting underwear, but he usually spends the first 15 minutes of his commute getting situated in his seat, tugging at his shirt collar, adjusting his belt and pulling at his shirt sleeves.  It's quite annoying actually when he's sitting next to you but I guess I should just be glad he's dressed.

On-time Arrival

While yesterday may have appeared to be an ordinary Wednesday, I assure you it was not.  After commuting for more than three months, October 6, 2010 was the first time the 5:20 pm MARC train arrived in Aberdeen, MD as scheduled.  I had been wondering whether an on-time arrival was actually possible or rather just a figment of someone's imagination. But I guess it really can happen.  Congratulations MARC for keeping to the schedule.  I just hope I don't have to wait at least another three months before it happens again.

Bundled Up

Commuters of all sizes bundled up for this morning's ride despite the moderate temperatures.  Last week I noticed people had pulled their raincoats from storage to help keep them dry as they travelled back and forth to their various destinations.  This week, however, I noticed people swapped their raincoats for fleeces and winter jackets, and I even saw a few scarves. While it may have been my imagination, the extra layers made the Metro ride seem even more crowded than ever as bundled up people squeezed into the cars.  You could feel the temperature rise but people were squeezed in so tight, they couldn't remove their coats when it got too hot in the train cars.  Frankly, I think it's a bit premature to be adding all these layers.  While I understand the need for raincoats to stay dry, it's still not exactly fleece weather and no one needs a winter coat yet.  Why not save that until it's actually winter?