Just for some background info: every morning, I make the 8.2 minute trek (on foot) to the train station. Once I board, it usually takes me 1.6 stops to fall asleep. about 40 minutes later, I transfer to another line, which takes me to Brooklyn, where I proceed to take a Brooklyn bus (whoooaaa. crazy!) for about 10 min. During training, this all happens before 7:30. When school starts (in a week!), this will all happen before 6:30 (which unfortunately means that I'll be waking up before the sun rises, but on the flip side, the walk to the train station blesses me with a breathtaking view of the sunrise!).
Last Monday, I began my first day as a commuter, PUMPED to be starting training at my school (as opposed to the network-wide training at a beautiful-but-not-my-school campus). I woke up pre-alarm, and was feeling good. Day 1 of training. Awesome. High energy. Psyched! But I was tired! A full day of training, starting at 8 (but really, 5:30, when I woke up), really was a foreign concept to my body (I had to fight my body to sit upright...gosh it was tempting to just lay down on a carpet). I was about getting ready to leave to go home when I got a 3-word text from my sister that would really put a damper on my plans to go home, eat a home-cooked meal and pass out. "Trains are down."
Me: What do you mean the trains are down...why?
Her: Apparently there is a hail storm and signals are off, and trains aren't running.
Me: *looks out window* I see kids playing soccer outside, and it's cloudy, sure, but there's no precipitation.
Her: Hailing at Tai ah-yi's, but it's clear skies at home. So, it's whack.
Whack it was. (I actually had no idea how whack it was until I just google searched it)
I went to Penn station, figuring that there are more trains. When I got there, our line had recently been rebooted. Only 20 minutes to go! Though I was super hungry, I passed on the tempting pizza and Auntie Anne's, because how else would I have room to eat some delicious rice + random side dishes? So I settled for a nice jug of sweet tea from Mickey D's. 5 minutes to go, and I'm ready to board, when suddenly the time disappears! APPARENTLY MY TRAIN HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Grr. So I met up with my sister who was chilling at a nearby beer garden until the next train, an hour later, where I proceeded to be antisocial cranky-pants ("I just want to go home. I'm tired."). Day 1 of commuting, and I return home 3 hours after my initial ETA, 1 30 minutes before my self-implemented bedtime. Is this what the life of a commuter is like? Oh gosh, what happens when winter rolls around?! =X
Day 2 of my life as a commuter, and thankfully, the MTA had mostly recovered from the freak hail storm (save a 40 min. complete stop at one point, which I certainly used to maximize my napping time). Training was good, I learned about some neat mathematics pedagogy. Great. Waiting at Jamaica, where I'm holding my required reading (would highly recommend!) for training, when this guy makes eye contact with me and moves as to say "Hello!" At first, I brush it off as a creepster...and then I worry that I actually know him and am being rude by ignoring him. BIG MISTAKE. He inquires about my reading, and upon learning that I'm a teacher, proceeds to ask if he can tell me about this social psychologist whose ideas really should be implemented in the classroom. Thus begins an hour of chatter about random psychologists; importance of empathy; how he thinks my students (special needs) would love it if he came in and spoke to them, because he had a lot of learning disabilities growing up, and just look at how successful he is now!; and at one point, he even felt compelled to show me where he used to live (a white brick house, just next to the train tracks). I stupidly feel obligated to carry on the conversation, and am relieved when my stop comes, and he doesn't get off as well. I figure that I'd probably never see him again.
....except, the next morning, when I arrive at the train station, HE'S THERE. Maybe that was actually his stop and I just never noticed him because I didn't know him, but that skeeved me out a bit. Whatever, I'm only taking that train for a couple more days, and I've decided to use headphones as a "I don't want to talk" cue.
I've taken that experience as a lesson-it can be refreshing, entertaining to talk to other people on the train, but I don't think it's for me. I'd rather not, especially since I often feel obligated to continue conversations, even if I'm uncomfortable.
No comments:
Post a Comment