The Redline Metro and Shae's Commute

Most of you have probably heard about the accident on the Redline Metro that happened last Monday. 9 people were killed and I think over 70 were injured. I do take the redline home and to work but I'm on the opposite side of where the accident was. That doesn't mean that this hasn't affected my commute though! Tuesday I got into work a half hour later than normal. Trains are going really slow, and they're driving them manually as opposed to the much faster automatic system. They think the automatic breaking system failed or at least failed to recognize an obstacle and that's the cause of the accident so until they have confirmed this, they are going manually. On Wednesday however, this was my favorite. Not only are the trains going slow, they are going farther between. So normally when I get to my stop, I wait about 4-6 minutes for a train, tops. Now, I am waiting 10-20 minutes for a train. I'm on the second stop of my side of the metro so normally the trains aren't super full yet. However, you give people about 10-20 minutes to build up and you have quite a crowd! So when trains come by my station, they're already quite full. On Wednesday, I waited about 15 minutes for a train, and when it came it was so full I wasn't sure I was going to fit! Since I'm the second to last stop, when we see trains going the opposite direction we know they'll be coming back soon. Since I remembered seeing two trains fairly close together, I decided to risk it and wait for another one. I lucked out and it came along less than 5 minutes later and it was much less full. I even got a seat! Well, about 3 stops away from where I get off, we were now super super full. And because we were so full, our doors malfunctioned and couldn't close completely. So they took our train out of service and we all had to get off and try to wait for another train. The problem with this is that the trains coming along are already so packed, that they can only fit about 3-4 more people per car. Literally. People were stuffing those trains so full that doors were being closed on appendages, bags, purses, even whole bodies! But people kept squishing and fit a person or two more. Well, picture if you will, about 200-300 people who are already late for work because the trains are so slow, trying to squish onto these trains with barely enough room for 4 more people. It was quite comical. I sat on the platform and giggled to myself. More than an hour later, there were still about 50 of us on the platform when an unusually less crowded train came by and I think we all got to fit in. Or at least the large majority. I even had enough room around me to text Darren without having the cell phone 2 inches from my face! I missed the meeting our branch had that morning and got into work an hour and a half late but my boss knew what was going on and kind of expected this to happen for the next little bit. Today it only took the train 20 minutes longer than normal to get into work. It's an improvement!

The other day on the way home, we were also very very crowded and a little girl about 7 or 8 had her arms around her mother who was standing extremely close to me and the little girl feeling there was someone close to her mother started to feel my arm and stomach. I tried to step back in surprise but we were crowded enough that didn't work out real well. I kind of laughed when I figured out what had happened but it was a little startling for that split second. Hopefully they get this situation figured out soon or we'll start having people get smothered to death.

There is a bright side to this sad situation. I don't think I've ever talked to people on the metro as much as I have lately. It's hard to ignore the person who's lap you're basically sitting in, or the person who's arm is around you so they can reach a pole to hang on to, or the person who falls into your arms when the train stops/starts. So I'm getting to know my neighbors in more ways that I probably would care to, but the talking is good anyway.

New York Weekend 2

I'm back from the second trip to New York and while this one was a little more stressful, still very enjoyable! I don't have any pictures since Darren's sister, Cari, took them this time but when I get them, I'll share. Loren and I drove "JJ's" new car up. I put that in quotations because the car is really Darren's parents but JJ will be driving it. We met Darren, JJ, and Cari at Darren's house pretty late so we bid goodbye to Cari and JJ who were staying at their cousin Scott's house and then we went to sleep. Saturday morning we woke up, fixed breakfast together, ate quickly and headed out the door for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Which, by the way, the Statue of Liberty is not on Ellis Island. It's on Liberty Island. I didn't know this but we made it to both places on the same ferry ride. While we were stuck in traffic trying to get through the Holland Tunnel, Cari realized that our tickets were for 1:00 and not 2:00. We missed the 1:00 ferry and even the 2:00 ferry but they let us take the 2:20. We didn't even get off the boat at Ellis Island, we just stayed on and went to the Statute of Liberty so we didn't miss getting to go inside the pedestal. They are going to start letting people go inside the statue starting next month for the first time since 9/11 so I'll have to make another trip up there. We did get to look up inside of the statue though which was still very cool. She's not quite as big as I thought she was but learning about the building of her and what not was still very fun.
After that we were trying to figure out the order of the evening since we had tickets for Wicked at 8:00 (which we double checked) and we still hadn't eaten and it was about 5:30 and we needed to drop the car off at Darren's. We decided to hurry home and find a restaurant on our way to the theater which we did. We ate at a fun Cuban restaurant which was delicious then hurried to our show. We we got there and showed our tickets to the first usher, she said we were another two escalators up. Cari informed us that we were the second to last row so we knew we were going to be high up. Well when the last usher looked at our tickets he pointed to the back in the middle and said, "The last row of seats you can see? You're one behind that." We about died laughing. And he was right! There was a row of seats hidden back there we couldn't see! The didn't even light it back that far! But we still had a good view of the stage and it was amazing! I was little disappointed with the way they did a couple of songs ("I'm not that Girl" especially) but overall very good.
Sunday we slept in ("we" meaning Darren and I.) then we had breakfast together and relaxed together. Later we met up with the rest of Darren's family for a late lunch/dinner and then walked through Central Park. It started to rain but they were determined to play frisbee no matter how close we were cutting it to missing our bus. And miss our bus we did. We did eventually make it home however and even though I'm on about 4 hours of sleep, it was a very enjoyable weekend. Darren's coming down here for the 4th of July so he can enjoy our fireflies. I'm very excited too!

FIREFLIES!!!

I saw my first fireflies of the season! I went outside to let the dogs play for a bit, and I saw some lights across the street. I started to look closer and I realized what they were and got a really happy smile on my face! I watched for about a half hour. The dogs seemed more confused by them than anything. The first one I tried to catch Sandwich ate. But she immediately spit it back out. Eddie seemed to try to chase them but wasn't trying to actually catch them. I'm officially happy I'm here for the summer. :)

My first weekend in New York!

That's right everyone! I made it back! No dead in a gutter for me! I didn't take many pictures and they were all taken with a cell phone camera but here they are.



This is the view from the top of the Emipire States building! This was our first stop on Saturday morning. I wasn't extremely impressed but it was fun because it was with Darren. :)

This is Darren with the very tip top of the Emipire States building behind him. This is a sneaky trick they pull to make their building taller than it really is. Add a perfectly useless tower on top of it. And ta-da! After that we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's the largest Cathedral in the United States. I personally hadn't been to a cathedral before but I know this one was pretty big indeed. It was also very pretty.

While we were there we saw a wedding (which I believe is what this picture is of) and two baby christenings/blessings/baptisms (they were twins) and a lot of really pretty architecture. After that we headed to Darren's office:

He has a candy jar on his desk if you can't tell and we stole lots of it. Is it stealing if it's his? After that we headed home by going through Grand Central Station. I took a picture because this is where the lion from Madagascar comes out of the tunnel. I asked Darren to act like a lion for me for the picture but he declined.

On Sunday we went to a Flea Market and Central park and Central park zoo. I was disappointed with the zoo seeing as there wasn't a Lion, a Giraffe, a hippopotomus or a Zebra. Dumb Madagascar getting my hopes up. :( But the monkeys were funny and the see lion was entertaining. Next weekend it's the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and WICKED!!! :)

New York New York!

I'm going to New York city tomorrow night for the first time ever. I'm scared I'll be dead in a gutter somewhere come Monday or hopelessly lost and have to walk back. Darren's in New York for the summer with his 2nd year associate job and we'll see how my first visit goes. We're not planning on doing anything too exciting, maybe a small bit of sight seeing and that's about it. We're going to see Wicked later this month which is what I'm really excited for! So the purpose of this trip is to make it to New York, not die, and make it back in time for work Monday. Good luck to me!