We Saw a Mouse!

Oh you know, it's just a normal day. I'm talking with my friend after we get through the gates at the T. We round the corner and are walking down the stairs when all of a sudden we get to the bottom and there is a dead mouse who has fallen victim to foot traffic road kill! He is smack dab in the middle of the stairwell at the bottom sprawled out for everyone to see. I threw my hand out "WATCH OUT!" I scream to my friend. She just screams and then I scream. We do the "Oh-My-God-It's-A-Mouse-Dance". Ya know, the one every woman does when she comes across one of these furry little beasts. Our arms flailing about and our legs going up and down like we are training for football doing the tire running strength exercise,  even though we know he is already dead.

Luckily we saw him and if we didn't, we had rain boots on so it wouldn't have been a huge deal if we didn't.  We could just jump in a puddle and wash off his poor little guts. However, other girls wear ballerina flats during their commute and it's not so easy to avoid mouse guts on your feet and rinsing off is just not an option. Transit police, surprise surprise, were no where in sight so we couldn't even let them know so that they could put a cone over him so people know to go around while they figure out how to remove the little critter.

Needless to say, seeing this mousy mouse, didn't sit well with me! It means there are other mice traveling in the station too. I mean, I was aware that they do live there along with god forbid, rats!! However, seeing him in plain sight was obviously not the highlight of my commuting experience.

Rough Morning…But Not As Bad As Others

This morning was so aggravating. I went to the train station to catch the train. I was running a couple minutes behind so I didn’t have time to park in my normal spot. I had to go park on the side the train doors opened on. I pull in to the parking lot and there are no spaces at all to park in. Because of the way the parking lot is plowed, the only available spaces were for compact cars…aka, your car needs to fit nicely in to the space with its own allotted snow bank. My vehicle, being the beast that it is, did not even come close to fitting. I’d like to point out that had there been a space on this side, I would have SO made the train!

I see people making up parking spots. However, when you do that, you don’t have a number to properly pay the meter by the platform. I have seen people get tickets when they park like that so I opted not to. I drove around to the other side. I get a spot on the far end of the lot and I am psyched. I grab my things and look in my rear view to see the train pulling in to the station. DAMN IT! I missed it. There is no way for me to cross over and get to the boarding side.

I throw my things on the seat and grab my phone to see when the next train is coming and to make sure that one isn’t having mechanical difficulties since I had already gotten a few emails today that said that various Lowell trains were canceled due to mechanical problems. Luckily the next one is on time but I decide to take my time in the car since it’s not coming for a half an hour. A few other people were in the same position as me as I saw them park and wait in their cars.

I hear a knocking on my window as I am waiting. I open my door. “Can I use your phone? I locked my purse in my car. It has my keys, train ticket and work badge in it. My husband is only five minutes away so he can just come down with the keys.” I let her use my phone. She leaves him a voice mail to meet her inside at the train station. She heads up to the station and I stay in my car. After a while, I start to head up to go sit in the station and wait for the train. I see her still sitting there worried. I head over. “Do you want to try one more time before the train comes?” I say as I hand her my phone. “Oh my god! Thank you! I don’t know where he could be.” She calls again and then tries to call her home phone too. No one picks up. She can’t even board the train because her train pass is in the car and so is her work badge. This is the second train today she has missed. I wish her luck as I head out to board the train.

As I’m heading out side I see a shiny new sign that says “Failure to pay for parking will result in vehicle being towed at owner’s expense.” I am glad I didn’t “invent a spot” like some others did and run for the train. I’d much rather miss my train than come home to having my car gone.

So, all that being said…my theory is that no matter how bad I think I have it, clearly someone else has it worse than me between missing multiple trains instead of just one and locked purses in cars and now, new posters claiming they can tow a vehicle instead of just ticket, I’d say my morning wasn’t all that bad after all.

Whiny Kids Shouldn’t Ride the Train

Oh school vacation week. How I wish you’d hurry up and be over (and let’s just point out that I don’t even have kids)!

This morning on the commuter rail, the train was one car short so we were packed in. By the time we got to the second to last stop, people were standing in the aisles. A mom and her two kids got on and were standing in the aisle. There ended up being a seat for the little girl and the little boy starts whining that he “doesn’t wanna stannnnnnnnnnd”. A nice guy got up and offered his seat. The mom thanks the guy and tells the boy to sit down. The boy looks at the seat and realizes he’s got to sit next to a stranger. “I don’t wanna sit nowwwwwwwww” he says.

Dear God, I haven’t yet finished my coffee and THIS is how we start my day? Excellent!

The mom replies “This nice guy just gave you his seat.” The little boy has a solution “You sit and I’ll sit on your lap.” He says.

The mom sits down and the boy continues to stand in the aisle and whine. The mom gently tells him to stop it and that’s when he loses it. He throws himself on the ground and starts kicking a screaming. The poor mom is horrified. She starts whispering in that mom tone you know not to f*ck with “You need to cut it out now.” “Stop it you hear?” the kid continues flailing about on the dirty dirty floor. The mom finally dives in and it looks like she is trying to tame a wild pig and hog tie it as we are pulling in to North Station.

Mean while, everyone wants to look but their eyes are up at the ceiling or glued to a window. The second we start disembarking, the boy seems to be fine and over his issue. He get’s off the train and is skipping along the platform to keep up with his mom because she is high tailing it as fast as she can to get out of dodge where everyone is now looking at her.

I get off the train and chug my coffee as I head toward the T. I may need a second cup after this morning. Have a great day everyone!

No Heat!

This morning when the train came, it blew past us in its attempt to stop on the snowy tracks. I usually hop into the first car but today, I was lined up with the second car. I climb in and took a seat. It is strangely empty. I take off my gloves and my fingers were freezing. The conductor informs us that this car is the only car on the train that doesn't have heat this morning. GREAT! That's why there is no one in this car. He said if we wanted to, we could move to another car and so, I did!

While the train was moving, I got up and proceeded down the aisle. There was a guy in front of me so I figured now was the time to go since I hate opening and closing those heavy doors in between cars! I was about three feet behind this guy. He opens the door for himself and walks through and lets go of the door slamming it shut. I pull on the door and it doesn't budge. I put my full body weight into it and get it open just enough to slip through. This guy is still in the breezeway and I am right behind him. He looks at me, walks through the door and let's go again. I am now in between train cars. This scares me but since there are doors to the outside, I don't have any chance of falling out of the train, I just hate the feeling of being "stuck" out there. I approach the second door and lean into it with all my weight to pull it open. Success! I am in the train car with heat! Now, to find a place to sit since everyone is in there.

I find a three seater with a woman and a newspaper. She has her paper spread out all over the seat. I sit down on the corner of the seat where the newspaper isn't reaching. She glares at me and takes all of the newspaper, folds it up and hastily puts it away. Sorry lady. It doesn't take three seats to read a paper. PS Who reads the paper anymore? I didn't care! I was warm and toasty and as the train moved its way toward North Station, I had to slide in to the middle seat to accommodate another passenger. She huffed and puffed the rest of the way to North Station after I scooted in. Sorry lady, you're not the only one who needs to take public transit. Get over yourself.

I Made It To Work Today!!!

First of all a huge kudos to the MBTA for clearing out the tons and tons of snow to make it possible for the Monday morning commute to happen!

This morning I was weary that I'd even get to work at all! I woke up to a T-Alert stating that the Lowell line had a canceled train due to weather conditions. Luckily for me it was the train before the one I catch. I continued getting ready and was prepared to head to the train station on time because if the cancellations were going to continue, I needed to secure my spot on the platform to insure myself a spot on the train! It wasn't too cold out today so I didn't mind waiting outside.

I got to the train station on time and walked right up to the platform. The train was a little late but I was so impressed that it came, I didn't even care. We got to North Station and I got a T Alert stating that the orange line was experiencing a 10-15 minute delay because of a disabled train. I brushed it off since most of the time, the delay only affects the ones near that train. I get another T Alert that there are 10-15 minute residual delays on the Orange line. I took my chances anyways since walking the narrow sidewalks through, what felt like snow tunnels, didn't seem appealing.

I head down to the Orange line platform. Wait about 5 minutes and the T is packed. Hardly anyone can get on. The next train is set to come in 15 minutes. GREAAAT! We all wait some more. The next train finally comes and it's packed too. A handful of people get on and we all let a blind guy and his companion jump the line because it's not like it would be easy for them to just walk or hop on a different line (which I am glad the people in the front made the decision to let them on because the narrow path ways would have sucked for them). So, we wait and see that the next train is coming in 15 minutes.

OK! Now I get fed up and see the Green line come in. Figure I can take it to Government Center and walk a few extra blocks. Normally, I don't mind walking but today, it started sleeting and the snow tunnel sidewalks were very narrow. Also, the puddles at the end of the sidewalks were looking so deep that you didn't know if you could step in it and skim across it or if you'd be knee deep in slushy mud. Once navigating through the puddles and crossing in cross walks, you get to the other side of the street where people are waiting to cross the other way and since it's so narrow, you get to crawl up on a snow bank in your skirt suit and commuter boots to go around them.

2 hours later, I was at my office safe and sound! We survived the Blizzard of 2013! Go Boston!!

I Was That A*shole This Morning

So, this morning, I was THAT a*shole! I get on the train at my usual spot. I sit in a three seater next to a guy playing video games on his iPad. There is a space in between us giving the two of us plenty of room.

We then, pull into the next stop and someone requests to sit in the middle of us. I, trying to be nice, slide in instead of making the guy actually sit in the middle. I grab my book, back pack and purse and slide over. In the process, I forget I am also holding my coffee and spill it all over the guy who is playing video games on his iPad. The second my cup tips, I realize what is going on! I pull it back up right but the damage was done. I had gotten his Pea Coat with about three tablespoons worth of my coffee! I gasp “Oh my god! I am SO Sorry!!” and start digging in my purse for a napkin. I don’t have one but luckily the guy who asked me to move it, did! The video iPad guy takes the napkin and starts blotting. As he is blotting, the coffee runs off his coat and onto his dress pants! I am horrified. “Can I pay your dry cleaning bill?” I blurt out.

“No, no. It’ll be ok.” Video iPad guy says as he continues to blot.

“But I feel so bad.” I say as I watch him blot.

The guy leans over that’s on the other side of me “What a way to meet someone huh?”

“Oh, I know!” I say and video iPad guy and I let out a little giggle.

“I think I should be all set.” Says video iPad guy as he goes back to playing his video game and turns up his ear buds. I return to my book sheepishly. I have to admit, I wanted to melt right into that seat and I didn’t get much reading done, I just stared at my book and pretended to read. I felt so bad.