Playing Subway Football

There is a point in my commute when I clearly would benefit from being in football gear. In the evening it’s exiting the MARC train at Union station and in the AM it’s entering Union Station from the Metro. This morning was no exception.
As you exit the Metro there is just one up escalator. This short set of moving stairs carries hundreds of cranky, rude, unpleasant AM commuters. As I make my way to the escalator the man beside me (notice I did not identify him as a gentleman) was body slamming me to make sure he got in front of me. Oh, how I wished for a football player’s shoulder pads! I finally got in front of him and he had the NERVE to say to ME “Lady, you can’t just push your way into place”. First of all, YOU pushed me… HARD! Second of all, when did I become “Lady”? Damn I’m getting old… but I digress. I turned to him and said “I appreciate you being so courteous”. He retorted back, getting ready for a war of words, “what?”. I repeated myself and watched him retreat into shame for the behavior he displayed.

Moral of the story… kind words cancel out bad ones, taking the high road benefits everyone involved and my sarcastic wit is right on point in at 7:30 in the morning

Rudeness In Numbers

Yesterday was my first really good commute to and from work. I made all my subway Metro trains and connections, my MARC commuter train left right on time (or was late… which for me yesterday was right on time), there were no loud passengers and my last train home changed to an express train.

But as good as yesterday was, today is starting off on a whole different vibe. Coming out the Metro at Union station the escalators are once again not working.  No big deal… I need the exercise. But why are the folks descending on the broken “down escalator” also coming down our side, on the “up escalator”? Don’t we all have appointments we need to keep? Don’t we deserve to have a way out of the metro? Do you have to take BOTH sides?

As we push… literally push… our way through this hostile, morning rush hour crowd I have to use Red Skins defensive line blocking techniques to make my way to my commuter train… which isn’t that hard… have you seen our Skins play lately?

So, here I sit, on the MARC train on my way to work. My arm is sore from all the pushing and bumping I had to do through the inconsiderate crowd. But it gets better (insert sarcastic phrase of choice here). WHY is the women next to me getting her yoga on? That wouldn’t be so bad except I have to see her dirty socks pointing in my direction. Yuck!

A day in the life of my daily commute!