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riggety-jig
so i had a notebook with me on my way up to boston, and was intending to keep a travel-journal type thing, but then after friday evening i didn't really take any notes. shall try to reconstruct what i remember of the rest of the weekend.
friday, though, i left work half an hour early and got on the metro:
I'm about ready to euthanize the red line. Put it out of our misery. At least I was at the front of the crazed mob on the Metro Center platform, so I could get on the train while the tourons were still scratching their heads. (This once a train actually came.)
Union Station was a total disaster, and I was glad all over again to be getting the hell out of there for the weekend. I can't believe we're so wretched in other cities as people are here. Maybe because we know how to live in a city, and how to function. So there are probably perfectly competent New Yorkers visiting DC as we speak and every bit as frustrated as I am by the swarm of vets in town for the dedication.
The train station part of Union Station made me nostalgic. I love central train stations with the waiting areas and platforms and trains going further than just five or ten miles. Travel by rail obviously can't be big here the way it is in Europe, but at least it exists in the northeast, and I'm glad. (Almost makes up for the pain in the ass of flying out of BWI.) I'm eagerly anticipating being back in the UK partly for that reason -- just the ordinariness of traveling by train. It even seems like such an English thing to me that it strikes me as strange to hear station announcements in an American accent.
Also: double-decker train cars. What a good idea! But isn't it interesting that I tend a bit toward vertigo, and get anxious when I'm high up and can see all the way down to the ground, but on layered things -- double-decker trains and buses, bunk beds, etc. -- I always choose the top level. Also, have always preferred riding backward to forward. (Not in airplanes. But in trains, always.) As a kid, I'm sure this was because it was Cool. Now, I feel like it's because I can look at what I'm looking at for longer, instead of rushing headlong into the scenery -- but I also prefer riding backward on the metro, where I'm often in tunnels for the whole ride. I even face backward when I have to stand. (Also, not on the bus.)
What is it that makes pilots totally incapable of estimating time? As we passed over Providence, this one said he ought to have us on the ground within nine or ten minutes. That was, of course, probably half an hour ago. And I knew it would be -- this happens every time I fly, so why do I always feel cheated and disappointed?
friday, though, i left work half an hour early and got on the metro:
I'm about ready to euthanize the red line. Put it out of our misery. At least I was at the front of the crazed mob on the Metro Center platform, so I could get on the train while the tourons were still scratching their heads. (This once a train actually came.)
Union Station was a total disaster, and I was glad all over again to be getting the hell out of there for the weekend. I can't believe we're so wretched in other cities as people are here. Maybe because we know how to live in a city, and how to function. So there are probably perfectly competent New Yorkers visiting DC as we speak and every bit as frustrated as I am by the swarm of vets in town for the dedication.
The train station part of Union Station made me nostalgic. I love central train stations with the waiting areas and platforms and trains going further than just five or ten miles. Travel by rail obviously can't be big here the way it is in Europe, but at least it exists in the northeast, and I'm glad. (Almost makes up for the pain in the ass of flying out of BWI.) I'm eagerly anticipating being back in the UK partly for that reason -- just the ordinariness of traveling by train. It even seems like such an English thing to me that it strikes me as strange to hear station announcements in an American accent.
Also: double-decker train cars. What a good idea! But isn't it interesting that I tend a bit toward vertigo, and get anxious when I'm high up and can see all the way down to the ground, but on layered things -- double-decker trains and buses, bunk beds, etc. -- I always choose the top level. Also, have always preferred riding backward to forward. (Not in airplanes. But in trains, always.) As a kid, I'm sure this was because it was Cool. Now, I feel like it's because I can look at what I'm looking at for longer, instead of rushing headlong into the scenery -- but I also prefer riding backward on the metro, where I'm often in tunnels for the whole ride. I even face backward when I have to stand. (Also, not on the bus.)
What is it that makes pilots totally incapable of estimating time? As we passed over Providence, this one said he ought to have us on the ground within nine or ten minutes. That was, of course, probably half an hour ago. And I knew it would be -- this happens every time I fly, so why do I always feel cheated and disappointed?