So I decided to blog on the way to work today. I guess it was something about the cool air blowing through the platform at 7am just made me want to take out my Treo and try to play hotshot with the Crackberry crowd. Yeah, so if you haven’t figured out by now I am that 16y/o kid who uses his smart phone for street-cred, no wonder I don’t have any friends. But hey, it works; people at school says the phone defines my professional demeanor, little do they know I am just so cool I just defy them.
So before I go too far, this blog is not me trying to seem like some elitist hotshot who is trying to duke it out with the big boys, I just wanted to comment on my ride to work and mass transportation in general. Perhaps the one thing savvier about me than my Treo is my ability to navigate my way home if you give me a handful of change and drop me within 1 mile of a bus or train station. I am basically your average 16y/o mass transit junkie. People know that if they need to get from point A to point B I am the one to ask. So when I started working up in San Francisco and had to take the train to and from work every day I figured it would be an easy transition.
Unfortunately, my savvy-ness does not compare to the viciousness of the people surrounding me on the train right now. I feel helpless, like a boy surrounded by a pack of wolves who are ready to take their styli (plural of stylus?) and retractable badges out if means they can get the empty spot next to me. That doesn’t mean I am entirely helpless, their demeanor is addictive and every day I am becoming more like them. Just yesterday I cut a woman off in the parking lot to get the last space: This is WAR!
I am not trying to seek your pity here, but let me just tell you about some of the individuals around me right now.
To the man sitting across from me:
We got on at the same station; you were the guy with the glorified razor scooter. Why are you still wearing your helmet? I am not hating, I am just simply inquiring why you don’t take your helmet off. We have a 45 minute ride; we aren’t going to be there anytime soon. Besides, who wears a helmet while scootering? Call me a wild child of the 90’s but this millennial here has never worn a helmet while riding a scooter and mine had a wheelie-bar for tricks and stuff.
To the tourist sitting above me:
Welcome to San Francisco… Wait, how do I know you are a tourist? Perhaps it is because you are reading “San Francisco for Dummies”. Now I can’t exactly decide if I want to applaud you or scorn you, so I will do both. I think it is great that you have accepted that you are a “dummy” personally I appreciate it and I think it is better than making a fool of yourself. Wait what am I saying…. YES you are making a fool of yourself! You are walking around with a bright yellow book and a cable car sweatshirt on (So tacky!), the only thing you are missing is your Scarlet “D” for dummy you Hester Prynne of travel. Next time may I advise Frommers or something a tad bit classier; whoever published the “Dummies” series either knows you to well or is doing a real good job of turning you into one.
To the inevitably hung-over guy sitting next to me:
You and your work hotshots who all got on at Palo Alto are really the definition of class (maybe Ms. Dummy above us can take a lesson from you). I appreciate your grogginess, the fact that you have claimed the entire armrest between us and the hicky you have on your neck. Keep it up!
So the ticket collector (Janet) just walked into the car and two words “power trip”! Although one of my many aspirations in life is to wield massive amounts of power, I have never until this moment thought of becoming a Caltrain employee, I am glad this woman has found her niche. But here is my problem, my ticket isn’t validated—crap! It wasn’t my fault that the machine last night destroyed my ticket and I couldn’t put it in the validator this morning; but, Janet probably won’t believe my story. I am sure this little faux pas will be blamed on me and land me in Caltrain purgatory for sedition (Yes that is the magnitude of my crime in Janet’s eyes). Here she comes…
So she was being “nice” and signed off on my ticket even though she claimed I was deliberately trying to game the system and that she didn’t appreciate my actions. Thank god my fellow riders over these past few days have made me calloused, if not Janet’s words would have made me cry. Love you too Janet!
So what is my message on mass transit?
Perhaps if people weren’t as aggressive and the employees a little bit nicer more people would ride the Caltrain and mass transit in general. I guess in reality the Caltrain is out of a lot of peoples comfort zones (for many of the reasons mentioned above) causing more people to drive to work—luckily a direct affect is that Al Gore was able to invent global warming (that is sarcasm if you couldn’t tell—That being said his glorified PowerPoint err… “Movie” sucked).
So let’s all be a little nicer ride the train and we can save our planet a whole lot more than McCain’s 300mil cash prize. That is all I am saying!
