Transportation & Entropy Effects on My Life

[podling]

So yesterday was the big switch day, my first train day in years. It started questionably and ended more so.

First I'm stuck behind a slow moving bus, I arrive at the train station 2 minutes before the train is leaving. Then there's almost no parking spots. I've only seen the lot this full on holidays or after 8am, not at 7. I end up parking a bazillion miles away, though still on the trackside (which is more than could be said for many people). I sprint for the train, along with the other 50 thousand people who couldn't park close/don't have tickets/know the train is about to leave. I get to the train and the doors close. Doh! It sits there, with the doors closed. There are approximately 50 people standing there, looking at the train in sadness (this is a fairly accurate estimate, unlike the other ones). The train moves 6 feet. It stops. They open one door and let all the sad people on, with the conductor saying, "Come on, come on! Hurry!!!" O happy day! Then on to the PATH... and may I just say, the new station at WTC is actually pretty nice, though it was pretty weird... I mean, I used to take it every day, but it had a building on top of it. There's a big construction site surrounding it, and I'm sure that will seem less weird in time, but it was kind of odd nonetheless. The escalators and stairs don't seem as steep, but I think that's partially because the roof isn't as low. The walk seemed longer than it used to be. I was still earlier than an average day on the bus. It's about the same, really, it's the evening commute that needed help.

I worked late, leaving after 5. Unusual, but there it is. So I get to Newark just as the New Brunswick train is about to leave, but the doors shut just as I get to the platform. Couldn't be lucky twice in one day. But the train on the other track is going to Princeton Junction, which might be stopping at Jersey Ave (or not, as it turned out) but there aren't any conductors around, and there are no announcements. So I get on the train, hoping to find a conductor to ask. The doors slide closed. A metallic voice announces that this train stops at Princeton Junction and Trenton only. There's no way off. A few people look up, panicked. Doh. Ah well, at least it's a fast express. The conductor comes by, looks at my pass, says, "You know we don't go there." "Yeah, I was stupid." It's okay, I wasn't alone in being stupid...

Get off at Princeton Jctn. Look around, cross to the other side. Attempt to call people, no one but tanaise is around. She laughs at me. I tell her that I think my subconscious sets up these little challenges for me. There are about 20 people waiting for the train, most of them were accidentally on the express. We all start talking about it, the unfairness of only announcing the stops after the doors have shut and how much nicer that train was. All in all, it was pretty funny. So, train comes, we get on. They don't stop at Jersey Ave (my stop) *except* for employees. But, as is the way at Jersey Ave, they only open one door, and there wasn't a conductor around for me to ask politely to set me free (and Jersey Ave. has no platform, so you have to be at a door where the trap is opened (to stairs) or you are just SOL). So I go to New Brunswick, chatting merrily with a Mason Gross student who'd been trapped on the express, then I run for the other side, catch the next train back to Jersey Ave (which I'd passed twice already, go me!) and arrive at about 7:20pm. My car looks so much farther away when there are no cars around it. Ho hum.

I turn on my car and leave the Jersey Ave. station. The Flashing Red Light of Destruction comes on! (Distinctly different from the Flashing Orange Light of Impending Doom) Noooooooo!!! I want to go home and eat something! Dammit. Stop the car, open the hood, yeah, kind of looks like there's little to no pink engine coolant (distinctly different from the scary green ghostbusters coolant that many other cars use). Wonder how that happened. Drive to Saturn (the dealership, not the planet) which is conveniently located at the end of the street that the train station is on. Of course their service and parts area closes at 7 (and most people do indeed manage to get home before that when they leave at ~5pm) but a salesdude comes out, looks at it, adds some coolant and tells me to bring it back in the morning to check for leaks, because, well, my car could explode (he didn't say that, but it's kind of an underlying thing). So now my car is there, and I'm not entirely sure how I'll get back to it, though I did get to come in late today, so there's a bonus).

Well, everything does fall apart. And this just happened to be a good day for it. Do I have a personal entropy field? Is straif right in his assessment of my Discordian tendencies? Or is it all coincidental that they all jumped out and annoyed me at once? The car will likely require repairs, and since I still don't know any good mechanics in the area, I had to take it back to Saturn. My headphones don't work on one ear, haven't worked well for months (since 2 weeks after I bought them, to be exact), and I haven't got around to replacing them, which annoys me while commuting, but generally flees my memory otherwise. The wire has 3 distinct holes in it. I've considered buying more expensive ones, but given that speed with which I destroy cheaper ones, I'm not sure the expense is worth it. My vcr (Nigel) was also obviously thinking about eating the tape I watched last night, which would be rude, as it belongs to jennywrenn. We won't even get into what's up with the stereo (though, to be truthful, at least it doesn't actually eject cds with force and the volume is still changeable). At least my fire alarm doesn't object to the humidifier at this apartment (which was an issue at the Mill).

Also, the New Year started off well. Much happier than last year, no tears, no depressed cd buying binge. Just food, friends, a party, and a road trip. tanaise and sidruid came by on the eve to reorganize, rebuild, and make things pretty. They worked hard (and I am ever so grateful), but my place now is much happier, balanced, organized, and there are finally pictures on the wall. tanaise can no longer say that I'm trying to reject the condo. I have begun to truly like it. My room still needs work, organizing, rearranging, and getting pics up, but it seems much more doable now. And I really love the colors in my place, it looks so different from the place I bought.

So then the road trip was lovely, tanaise's mom attempted to teach me how to do a quilt thingy (it might happen, that one square, anyway) which will become a pillow when it grows up. I like driving though the Delaware Water Gap and into the mountains of PA. So pretty. Would be prettier with slightly less rain and fog. Next time, maybe.

So the question, "Will it take you less time to get home by this method?" has not yet been answered. And it's funny... astrophysicat talked about transit yesterday in her journal, and I was thinking about it. I don't use mass transit because I'm an environmentalist, I use it for mainly practical and selfish reasons. It is cheaper (well, than the alternative ways of getting here, not cheaper than working closer to home), it is easier (in that I can do something else with my time, working, reading, listening to mp3s), it is possibly faster at times than going about it any other way. I still would prefer to work closer to home. Maybe this is the year...