I got to sit by myself for [the majority of] my ride home today!
Without some context, you may not realize why this is a note-worthy, blog-starting event. Here’s the background:
In my new daily commute, I get on a stop AFTER everyone else in the world. This means that most 2-seaters and the 3-seaters have two sitters and if there are ONLY two sitters in a 3-seater, guess which seat is open? The middle. Between who? Large men who use the extra space for their persons, reading materials, bags, etc…even when you are sitting there. Which I do. Because the alternative is to stand. And standing on the commuter rail is way worse than standing on the Red Line, which is the other funso part of my daily commute.
But TODAY was a special day!
It would have been even more special if it was a random act of MBTA kindness and I didn’t have to earn that luxurious ride home…
So that other fun part of the commute, the Red Line, for those who don’t know, goes very far underground (which will hereafter be called the “bowels of Hell”–copyright held by my mother, who has been commuting far longer than I have) and to get back to the non-Hell world you have to take the escalator up very, very far.
100 stairs worth in fact. My mom did an approximate count one day when she decided to walk up instead of taking the escalator. Seem like a rookie mistake? She does it for exercise. I, however, RAN IT TODAY to make my train after staying late at work. YES I SAID RAN. UP. ONE HUNDRED. STAIRS. IN FLIP FLOPS (at least not heels!). It was not pretty. I have no business running up stairs like that and I honestly wasn’t sure if I would make it.
Lesson of the day: Take the motorized path out of the bowels of Hell. It is the road more traveled by and it makes all the difference.
