Yesterday I had to leave the office early. I gave myself a head start because there was a Bruins playoff game happening later in the evening at the garden. As I was walking to North Station, I had successfully avoided getting stuck behind tourists and by the time I was about two blocks away, it is a possibility to make an even earlier train than the one I was trying to catch! I pick up my pace a little bit and am psyched I will make an earlier train. Now, one block away, I am totally pumped, I will make the 4:40 train!!
All of a sudden, out of absolutely nowhere, a couple pushing a baby stroller, moving at the same pace of a snail, is in front of me. Brakes on! I go on the street to speed around them but just as I do, a car pulls up for valet and cuts me off. I hop back on the side walk behind the snails and get around the car. Hop back in the street and start to run. I can see North Station. I get to the cross walk where all the tourists just stop. Um, I never stop at that cross walk. If you don’t just walk into it, you are not getting across. You have to be aggressive.
I throw myself into the crosswalk and a tourist sporting a brand new Bruins jersey yells out “This chick has some balls!” Traffic stops abruptly and the tourists all follow me. I start running once I am through the crosswalk and another guy in non-Bruins gear does the same thing. We are neck and neck. We burst through the doors and look up at the screen. Track two! Track two is all the way on the other side. We continue running since it is 4:39 and we totally can make it. We get to the track and I see the train pulling away. The guy continues running alongside the train trying to plead with the conductor to let him jump on. I know I don’t have a shot so I hastily turn around and go find a seat. Now I have to wait a half an hour. I shouldn’t be mad because the next train was the train I was shooting for but the very fact that I missed this one by the skin of my teeth just irritates me.
As I am sitting, I realize that I am super hot and practically overheating. I take off my suit jacket because I just power walked-slash-ran an eighth of a mile in crazy amounts of humidity. I am totally sweating. I never sweat. A guy sits down next to me on the bench as I am sweating and catching my breath. I look up to see the guy I was running with come walking by. “They left early!” he says to me. “By a good thirty seconds!” I scream back as he’s still walking.
A short time later the guy next to me grabs all his stuff, gets up and walks away. I take a deep breath. “Jeez! Do I smell?” I think to myself. I don’t smell anything. “Nah! He just needed a better view of the train board. My sweat smells like roses!” OK! Maybe it doesn’t but I’m just gonna tell myself that so my self-esteem isn’t crushed completely.
I finally start to catch my breath and cool down a little bit. I want to open my seltzer. I grab the bottle and then stop myself. “You just ran with this. Do you really need a seltzer bath?” I slowly put my seltzer in my bag. When I look up the snails are standing in front of me. “YOU!” I think to myself as I immediately start giving them my death stare.
The snails don’t even notice that I am staring them down. They are too busy being in “aw” of North Station, the beer garden and everything else going on around them. Great! Now I am sweating, catching my breath still and giving them the stink eye. I probably look like my grandmothers one eyed-asthmatic cat. I quickly compose myself and grab my blackberry. When all else fails, grab the blackberry! Even if you are just scrolling through facebook, you still look “important”! I scroll and scroll and scroll. Finally the 5:10 train is called and I finally board the train.
Just another day on the commuter rail my friends. Just another day!
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