They’re BACK!

I’ve been traveling a bit and have had a nice break from my local commute to and from work. But now I’m back in the normal grind of making it back and forth from DC to Baltimore. In a “we missed you and want you to feel like you didn’t miss anything” kind of way, the loud MARC train passengers are back in my life!

Please help me understand why someone who obviously has a limited vocabulary and finds they must pepper their conversation with superlatives every third word, speak so loudly? I’m no prude. I’ve been known to have a potty mouth and to be honest, I STILL haven’t found an adequate replacement for the “f” word. I mean, come on “fudge” or “freak” just will not do when you want to drop the “f-bomb”. Still, I have enough respect for those in ear shot of my conversation to not cuss in a high volume voice.

I am always completely surprised at people who have never been trained in the use of an “inside voice”. What compels these people, even the ones having a civil conversation, to talk on their cell phone as loudly as if they are home in their living rooms and with as much color commentary as if they were alone?

I say it over and over again but I’ll say it again. God bless the inventor of the headphones. It is my only salvation as I try my best to drown these rude people out. Truth be told, they are getting on my freaking never. See what I mean, it’s just not the same!

There Are No Free Rides!

When you pull up to a train stop and see two Federal Marshals and two Police Officers approaching the train… it’s never a good thing.

Four young high school students boarded the train this morning. All four were cute, well dressed little sistas. Who knew they would be sneaky and devious as well?  One of them tried to use her friend’s train pass to ride the train without paying. When the conductor caught her, exposed the fraud, and demanded payment, the young lady, instead of humbling herself and apologizing got cross with the conductor.

I have to commend the conductor because all this went down in my very own car without any of us even knowing what was taking place.  I’m repeating the story as told by the conductor to the law enforcement officers. As we were stalled at the BWI station, wanting to go about our daily commute, the officers got on the train and started questioning the girls.  The one young lady, tall in stature, and “fast” (as my Grandmother would say) in demenour continued to have an attitude even though she was clearly in the wrong. As they are all working this out on the train a woman hollers, “put them off the train I need to get to work”.  The mob mentality then begins…

Another woman screams back, “relax, they are high school students. Shut up.”  Another lady yells, “you need to stay out of it!”.  The girl causing all the drama turns around and says “We want to get off  so shut up”.  The woman in front of me shouts “Lady, mind your business and let the police do their job”.  More superlatives are thrown around with words I’d rather not post.  All this drama… all because one little girls didn’t (or couldn’t) pay the seven dollar fare. Thus began my morning but please note, there are no free rides.

Biking in the SUN!

I rode my bike to Union Staion this morning… like I always do… for the first leg of my commute to work. I absolutly loved my ride this AM. Aside from the fact that I was rushing (I’m always rushing), I was riding with the sun beating warm, spring, almost summer-like rays on me skin.

For the first time this year, I rolled our early this morning with no scarf, gloves or jacket. All I had on was a t-shirt and jean skirt! Ok, for those of you who live it warm weather you’re saying to yourself, “so what”. But, for those of you who love in the north east portion of the U.S. you may know why I’m so excited.

The DC metro area had one of the worse winters in history. We survived record breaking snow falls and record breaking cold temps. Even worse, we haven’t had many honest to goodness warm days this spring… which is odd for us… because it’s almost JUNE. We’ve had a lot of rain. A LOT of rain. There have been a few warm days here and there and a couple of hot ones, but today was the first day I could walk out at 7:30 AM with no jacket.

I have to admit, I was starting to think this day would never come. I know it’s silly. Summer always comes around. But I honestly started to think, what if we’ve messed up the atmosphere so much, we now won’t even have a summer. I have been cold so long… and I’m so tired of being cold. I seriously just couldn’t trust we’d ever get warm again.

Well, it’s here. Finally! Summer is here. I’ll be complainig about how hot it is soon. The Metro area has a tendency to get very hot and very humid. But, you won’t hear those complaints for a while. I need only rememeber how very cold I’ve been these past five months to put things in perepctive. One thing about living up north… our long an oppressive winters make spring and summer that much more sweet.

See you out on the bike trails because it’s that time of year… FINALLY!

Sleepers Ride Free

Soooooooooo the next time I forget my monthly pass (which makes me furious) all I have to do is go to sleep? As the conductor was collecting tickets this morning he pauses at the man sitting in front of me who is fast asleep. Does he wake him up to collect his ticket? No, he does not. This is the same conductor who gave the women who claimed she didn’t know she had to purchase a ticket a discounted fare. Come on now, you bring your metro subway fare card to ride the train? Really?

I’m going to try this one day. Just pretend I’m asleep and see what happens. How much youbwant to bet he wakes me up to collect my ticket GREAT, now the guy is snoring and thr women sitting across from him is sneesing without covering her mouth What a great start to the day… and it’s not even 8:00 AM yet!

Spring cleaning

It’s spring in the DC. It’s so hot it feels like summer but that’s a whole other story. In spring people put away their winter clohes, start working on their gardens and do a little spring cleaning. Well, Maryald Transit Authority must have gotten the memo because they cleaned the trains.

At first I thought they got new seats but actually they just gave the train a good cleaning I’m grateful for that! Looking at how clean the train is you can see by comparison how darn dirty is was.

On another note, when did it become popular to paint your nails in public? We are in a small enclosed area with no windows. Finger nail polish is a toxic smell that next to the heavy cologn people spray on train makes me sick. People, please do your grooming at home! Don’t clip your nails, polish your toes, spray on scents or shave in public places. Where were you people raised? Do you have NO home training? Oh, and don’t even get me started on using your inside voice or the proper use of headphones. We are ridding public transportation people. This is not your bathroom or living room!

The Kindess of Strangers

Normally I use this blog to moan and groan about my week day commutes to and from work.  So, I could talk about the pouring rain that made my bike ride this morning a mess or the young men with no home training who wouldn’t give their seats up to elderly women on the buss. Instead, I’m going shine a positive light on my blog.

Today, while waiting in the rain for a bus to take me the 15 blocks to the train station I got in a conversation of two other people waiting on the corner with me. One women I see all the time but the  young gentlemen was unfamiliar to me.  They were talking about the merits of the “old school” bands like Parlimentfunkadelic and Earth Wind & Fire…  so you know I was all over it. We talked and talked and finally realized the bus wasn’t coming. I was especially upset because if I miss the 5:25 PAM train I’m stuck in Baltimore until 6:30.

But, out of the kindness of his heart, the young man who’s name I do not know, volunteered to pay for a cab for all of us to get on our way to our final destination. What a nice, unselfish thing to do. I made my train and my faith in mankind was renewed.

Ridding In The Rain

It’s not riding my bike in the rain that bothers me. It’s being wet on my MARC train ride into Baltimore that sucks. I have on a rain jacket and boats but for whatever reason I decided I’d be cute and not wear rain paints. So, here I sit, soaked skirt, damp leggings, on a cloudy, rainy Monday morning. Yay for the start of the work week!

Spring brings out the bikers

As I make my week day morning bike ride to Union Station I’m amazed at how many bicycles are on the road. Where did they all come from? I don’t remember seeing any of them this fall or winter. Heck, I don’t even remember seeing all of them last spring. I guess cabin fever from being snowed in for so long coupled with the longer hours and warm temps have “driven” people to wipe the dust off their bicycles and hit the roads.  They’ve hit the roads in record numbers in their shiny new bikes (I hate shiny new bikes… I like the character of my beat-up bike that has all the battle scars of the road… but that’s just me).

I’m not complaining (per say) because those who know what they are doing when they ride create better conditions for those of us who bike daily. For the other bicycle newbies who think riding a bike is as easy as, well, riding a bike, here are some suggestions:

• Wearing high heels while riding a bike should only be done by experienced bikers. If your heel gets stuck as I approach you… I will hit you.
• Look both ways before you take off. You shouldn’t just look for pedestrians and cars. There are other bikers on the roads as well.  If you don’t see me as I’m rolling… I will hit you.
• I’m an animal rights activist but if you ride with your dog on a leash beside you and he suddenly stops and you suddenly stop… I will hit you.
• If you have mirrors on your bike and both sides of your helmet I fully expect you to see me approaching and if you don’t I will… oh, you get the picture by now.

OK, everyone grab your bicycle, helmets and unnecessary accessories (don’t get the overkill on the mirrors) and get to ridding. But be careful because those of us who think we own the road will… (go ahead… fill in the blank).

Back To The Grind

I’ve been away from my daily comute for almot two weeks. I was attending the SXSWi conference in Austin, TX. While I was gone a few things happened. Spring arrived, warm temps rolled in and day light savings time went into effect. With the longer day comes a much better commute. I ride out on my bike while it’s light and I ride home in the light. That’s a good thing.

Want to know what didn’t change? Loud ass people on the train. Why must you ruin my peaceful commute home with your loud chatter? Seriously, you are not at home and I don’t want to hear your whole telephone conversation. Now I’d be wrong if I just turn around and look at this chick right in the eyes. Oh, wait, she got on in Baltimore. She may cut me.

Parents please teach your children the art of speaking softly with an inside voice. PLEASE! That is all.

Brothas On The Train

I met this former… or maybe he’s a current… Ravens football player on the MARC train ma while back. I don’t follow football so I didn’t know who the heck he was (I still don’t).  He had on all this leather Ravens gear so I said something like, “you must be a really big fan”. He said with a smirk, “no, I’m a Ravens player” or was it “I use to be a Ravens player”. I can’t remember. Anyway, when I was boarding the train this morning he was already on the train. I remembered that I didn’t remember much about him and continued to look for just the right seat.

Seat selection is an art form for me. I like to sit in just about the same seat everyday. I’m sure I do this because of some kind of “I don’t like change” disorder. Anyway, I look for a seat, on the right, facing the way the train in running. I always try to figure out who is going to be talking a lot or making a lot of noise first thing in the morning.  Not speaking with your “inside voice” is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine! That’s when I spotted the Raven or ex-Raven. I decided to sit in the seat across from him. He wouldn’t, I concluded, be the type of person to draw a lot of attention.

Here’s where I have to chuckle. This big, overweight, unmemorable, (former or current) athlete actually thought I strategically sat across from him because I wanted to hit on him! LOL! Negro, PLEASE! You’re riding the MARC commuter train. If you were ballin’, pun intended, you’d be rolling to Baltimore in a car service. I don’t want you. I’m still laughing about that.

Now, on the ride home, yet another brother is getting on my nerves. This guy cannot sit still. He keeps scratching himself…then stretching… then scratching…then stretching…. then rocking…t hen stretching. I work hard on not judging people but clearly I’m falling short today. Does the man have some kind of syndrome? Is he on some kind of drug? Does he have a flesh-eating disease and more to the point, should I move?

My train ride is very challenging today. Oh, thank God, they just announced my stop is next. I don’t even mind riding my bike in the rain today. Just get me away from these brothas on the train!