It’s Too Early for Pick-Up Lines

My Monday morning metro ride was just rudely interrupted by a very nice man in a pin stripe suit who would not stop talking to me. I unfortunately left the house this morning with no reading material and had to look intently focused on my phone.

So he chooses to use my phone as a jumping off point for a 30 minute dull conversation about Google v. Apple, Verizon v. AT&T, Ohio v. DC. I thought I was making it clear that I did not care to continue to talk with him. I answered politely but curtly, but short of saying “please stop talking to me,” what was I supposed to do?

He was one of the more normal, nicer strangers I’ve spoken to on the metro, so I continued politely, curtly answering his questions until he asked my name as his stop approached and handed me his business card. There was a gold embossed seal above the classically stamped “Department of State” which he proceeded to tell me was 24k gold. No no, he’s just kidding.

He shook my hand and told me to have a good Monday, and a good week at that probably because he wasn’t sure he’d see me again this week… go figure.

Must go to the library soon for a new book and resume habitual use of the stranger-blocking ipod.

 

On Mornings, Moving and Mishaps: Part 1.5

And how is this for timeliness after yesterday’s harrowing story?

A Washington Post article today says “63 to 69 as of this week, depending on the day, or about 11 percent of the total of 588″ escalators are experiencing outages and general chronic failure.

Please, read on.

 

On Mornings, Moving and Mishaps: Part 1

I feel like bucking the norm and going in reverse order,so mishap first:

Truth be told I’m having a hard time calling this one a mishap for a variety of reasons, none of which I can manage to verbalize at this time. I’ll call it just another metro-related unfortunate event that nearly sent me flying to my death.

Okay that was a bit of an exaggeration.

I was jogging up the escalator at the Dupont metro Tuesday morning at my new, increased, nearly heart-stopping pace when I looked up to see the top in close sight and felt a twinge of relief and accomplishment. Almost as soon as I completed that thought, the metro gods chuckled and decided to spite me.

By screeching the escalator to a grinding halt.

Thankfully I’ve begun making the wise decision to keep one hand free for handrail grasping, because that was my first successful survival move. Then, I had lurched forward mid-step with enough momentum that I was able to skip a step and land safely above the one that was threatening to trip me mercilessly. That was success number two. Then I looked back down at the vast stretch of escalator below me to make sure that everyone else was still upright, which they were, though they looked frazzled and perterbed to now be stranded in the middle of a giant, immobile escalator. But I made it off the dying beast with little further injury, and I count this as a third success.

Oh, and it only stopped, it didn’t rapid reverse (thank you for showing some restraint metro gods) so I count that as a fourth success of the morning. I have to take what I can get, alright?

I count this post as part one in a three-part series in the hopes that a cliff hanger will encourage me to come back to post again soon. In the name of keeping a 2010 resolution, stay tuned.

 

A Nice Morning and a Nice Man

I’m reporting live from a train pulling out of the Vienna station to bring you an urgent message:

I just encountered a nice person. In the morning. On the metro platform.

I know you’re thinking that breed doesn’t exist and that crowded rush hour metro stations tend to be an every man for himself situation.

Well

I was standing close to the edge of the platform waiting for the next train while a crowd gathered behind, around and far too close to me. After a few minutes I looked up from my Thomson Reuters app to find that the crowd had shifted to the other side of the platform and that a train was arriving there rather than right in front of me.

I resigned to the fact that I would not be getting my ideal seat (it’s the perfect one for reading or sleeping) and made my way to the back of the eager, impatient crowd on the other side of the platform.

Then the man in front of me turned around and offered me the space in front of him, just on the edge of the platform. I briefly wondered if I’d inadvertently stepped on him or cut him off or did something to make him want to push me on the tracks. Then he said:

You were in the front before… if you’d like to move up. It’s dog eat dog out here, you gotta be on your game sometimes!

What a nice man. I declined politely, stating in jest that he earned his spot and he should enjoy it. But the whole thing just made me happy.

The sunshine and need to take off my jacket was also a huge bonus.

And I still got my favorite seat, which it turns out is good for reading, sleeping, and blogging.

Happy Thursday