Boyfriend Leaves Girlfriend Stranded

Heading home last night, the train stops at Haymarket. A few people get on and one couple stands on the platform looking in. There seems to be room for one of them on the sardine packed train but not both of them. Someone says “We can make room for one more.” And we seem to squish in even tighter to each other making room for the couple. However, the guy gets on and the girl waits for him to get situated before she tries to get on. Well, the doors slam and don’t open. She looks like a lost puppy dog and in shock.

“You left me here! All by myself! You just left me!” she screams to him through the door. He screams back “You’ll be fine! Just one stop! ONE STOP!” The train takes off and he turns to everyone “She’ll be fine. It’s only one stop right?” We all collectively giggle which fades into the normal train silence.

I had to crack up though because this poor woman was just left on the platform all by herself while we had every intention of squeezing her on. Although, the train conductor didn’t seem to think it was necessary to get her on board. I hope she made it to North Station OK!

You Fit the Profile

Heading home last night, I caught the 5:10 train home. I made it to the train at 5:08 and hopped on hoping to find a seat. My new theory is that I am going to take the first available seat I see when it comes to packed trains. This is because if I walk by three seaters with a middle seat open in hopes of finding a two seater with an empty seat, I am sadly mistaken. I will end up sitting in a middle seat at the front of the train or at the back of the train. So, I can walk all the way to the end of the train and sit in a crappy seat and then at my stop have the extra walking to my car for getting off the back of the train or I can sit in the front in the same crappy seat and save myself some walking.

That being said, I come up on a three seater with an empty middle seat. I lean down and ask if I could sit down. The guy looks me up and down and says "You fit the profile! Sit on down!" and he slides right in to the middle seat and lets me have the outter seat.Score! But also strange! He must not be a commuter.

Once I sit down he says "I was holding out for someone like you. I didn't want to be stuck with....ya know..." I knew exactly what "ya know" meant. Someone that's stinky or gonna squish him or worse...both!

As you may be aware by my previous posts, I can't stand stinky people or the larger ones that plaster me up against a window. So, I am self concious. I spray myself with body spray before leaving the office every day and I eat "card board crap" (as my dad would call it) to stay fit. I am please to know that I'm officially not "Ya know!" one of those people you dread sitting next to.

Bad Dye-Slash-Perm Job

This morning I was running behind. I didn't have time to do anything fancy to my hair so I threw it in a braid and ran out the door. I didn't even have time to check it in a mirror. I hate when I have no idea if my hair looks dreadful or not.

I was feeling all frumpy when a woman walks up to the train landing and stands near me. Her hair is short, permed and dyed blond. Her ends look so dead...actually I take that back, it's not just her ends, it's the entire length of her hair since her hair is only an inch and a half long. I felt like screaming, 'This isn't the 90's! You can't perm your hair AND dye it AND wash it with VO5! There are conditioning products out there to give you that healthy hair look!'. However, obviously those are thoughts I need to keep in my head. Instead, I stood beside her thanking her for having a worse hair day than I was having.

Although her bad hair days seem permanent so whenever I know I'm going to have a bad hair day, I will just stand next to her while waiting for the train.

Violins at North Station

Have you heard the violinists at North Station? Oh my goodness they are good! There are two violinists that play at North Station and instead of holiday music that they could be playing, they are playing things like Toxic by Britney Spears and Alien by Katy Perry! It’s great!! I actually just missed the T because it was packed and I couldn’t cram on and was kinda bummed out but then realized that I got to stay another 5 minutes and listen to these delightful violinists.

They are not your typical subway musician. I actually wanted to give them money because they were good. There have been other times where I just want to throw money at other subway musicians and say “If I put this in your bucket, will you please please stop playing that hideous thing you call a recorder?” But not these guys! If you have the opportunity to listen to them they are great! Maybe miss your train and throw them a little cash, there should be another train coming in 5 minutes…if you’re lucky!

Negotiating on the Train

Last night heading home from North Station, the train was packed! I walked all the way to the last car before I found a seat. Some guy who had mistaken the train for Southwest Airlines, was sitting on an aisle seat and had the window available. He was talking on the phone so I interrupted him. He looked at me like I had six heads. I thought "Screw you buddy. You're letting me sit. I have a 45 minute ride ahead of me and I'm not standing! Plus I want to read my book." Instead of saying what I thought, I smiled and asked "Can I sit down please?" He got up hastily and allowed me to take the window seat.

Once I got situated, the conductor comes in and screams "If you are in a three seater and the middle seat is empty, MOVE IN!" People slide in but this one woman refuses to slide in. Explaining that she is claustrophobic and doesn't want to slide in. The conductor comes over and says if she is claustrophobic, she can stand and let two people sit. She didn't like that and starts negotiating with the person who is aligned with her seat and should be the one sitting down. "How about you sit in the middle and then at the next stop we switch. We can take turns?" Everyone looks at HER like she has six heads. Really? You're going to make someone switch off every other stop from middle to aisle. What if this person wants to read or set up their laptop? That's just not conducive at all.

The conductor then became a mediator. He turns to the person standing "Would you mind taking the middle instead of the aisle?" The woman is still trying to negotiate "Where are you getting off? I don't want to get up to let you off if you get off before me." Ok, you lost me lady. Didn't you just say you wanted to switch off every other stop? Now you don't want to let this guy out if he happens to get off before you? Now your just crazy.

The conductor turns to the guy in the aisle "Take the middle seat." He turns to the woman "Tickets and passes please!" Obviously this conductor wasn't going to deal with this ladies crap and rightly so!

Missed My Train! But the Bright Side is, I Didn't Die!

This morning I missed my train! Not because I was late, because it was early! I parked, paid for parking, walked up the hill and the train was already coming in to the train station. I had to heed my own advice and not run or cross in front of it. It was so aggravating watching it pull into the station and block me and then I have to watch everyone board on the other side while I was stuck on the side of the train that wasn’t opening its doors. Because the train was early, it didn’t leave right away, it left on time. So, after everyone boarded, they waited! THANKS for waiting! You made it so that I was stuck on the wrong side and now I have to look at the train I need to be on even longer than I have to and fester while I can’t do anything about it. I contemplated crawling under the train on the rubber crossing. There is about a 3 foot gap between the ground and the bottom of the train. I sooo could have done it BUT then I thought “What if I am under there and the train starts to go? Now you’re just being an idiot!” The train finally left the station and I could cross. The next train wasn’t for another 35 minutes.

Why couldn’t they have stopped 50 feet back and let the people cross before pulling in to the train station early and blocking the people who were there on time from getting on the train? Huh? Maybe next time Mr. Train Engineer, you should do that!

Thanksgiving

I love when noncommuters ride the train! The commuters generally keep to themselves, bury their head in books,  kindles and blackberries but the noncommuters, full of energy it seems.

Wednesday when I was heading home on the 3:10 train, I noticed I was surrounded by people with luggage and most of those people were coupled up or had kids in tow. Not a usual train ride for me. I hop on the train and start to grab my book when I hear some girl say to a stranger in the seat across from her "Can you watch my stuff? My boyfriend is lost and I don't want to lose this seat for us." I am intrigued. I look up to see a young girl with luggage asking an older woman to watch her things. I am pretty sure everyone around me was shocked. I was waiting for the cameras to pop out from the show "What Would You Do?" Did this girl really just ask a perfect stranger on a train, in a large city, to watch her things?

The older woman cautiously agrees to watch her things. However, I watched the older woman, she did not watch this girls things for the entire time she was gone. This woman chit chatted with her seat mate, looked out the window (away from the girls belongings). I don't know about you, but if I was responsible for someone else's stuff, I'd watch it like a hawk. There is no way I would want something to turn up missing on my watch!

The girl finds her boyfriend and makes it back safely and her belongings are still there in one piece.

Once this is done, I return to my book. However, a young couple slides in behind me and is talking loudly so I can't focus on my book anymore. The boyfriend is briefing his new girlfriend on his family. I feel like I am in an episode of Jersey Shore. "My Ma wears hot things like sweatpants and stiletto's. She's really cool ya know." The girl giggles. "My Gramma! Oh my god! When you meet my Gramma, she's gonna tell you" he pitches his voice up so high he sounds like he's the big bad wolf trying to imitate Gramma "'He's my favorite Grandson! He's just the best.' Ya, my Gramma LOVES me YO!" the girl giggles again. Mean while, I am rolling my eyes while looking at my book pretending to read. The girl finally says something "I hope she loves me too then." The guy goes "Anyone who I make a career out of lovin', she'll love." The girl gets feisty, "A Career? I'm a career?"

"A relationship yo! A relationship! We have a relationship yo! You know what I mean yo." he says trying to console her but I don't know how that's consoling when you throw three yo's into one statement. She is calm now (I guess when you're Jersey Shore wannabe's, "Yo" is a soothing word.) "Good because I'm gonna marry you some day." I roll my eye again and bury my head in  my book desperately trying to tune them out. After 45 minutes of them doing some Jersey Shore canoodling made me THANKFUL to get off at my stop as they kept canoodling all the way to the last train stop!