I cho-cho-choose you...

Reading on the train on the way home

My granddad loved trains. He worked on the railroad for much of his life, and kept a fascination for them long after he retired.  My family ended up with grandad's model train set, and my sister and I always looked forward to when it came time each year to put it up. Something about that miniature town, and the silhouettes of the people in the passenger cars entranced us. We loved making up stories about the people riding the train. We would turn off the lights in the basement and watch the glowing train go around the track, singing "City of New Orleans" over and over for hours.

My daily commute, like so many other parts of my life, has taken some getting used to living in Philadelphia. Gone are the days of hopping in my car and driving seven minutes to work. Now I don't even get in my car for days (sometime weeks) on end.

When I started work this summer, I would walk 25 minutes to a free shuttle provided by the college. With the nice weather and plentiful sunshine, the longish walk in the morning and the evening was a welcome addition to my day. On the other hand, the shuttle ride, albeit free, was not the best. The van we rode in was missing some much needed shocks, and the driver in the evening apparently was a fan of rollercoasters. I was also most often riding with medical students, who invariably would talk, really loudly, about veins, brains, cedavers, and other similarly glorious topics.

So as the weather became cooler (we're supposed to have highs in the low 20's the next couple of days), and I began to have to make the walk home in the dark, I started to think I should look at other options. And so I tried the train.

And I have to say that now that I've started taking the train, well - I'm hooked. I love it. And here's why:

- I can read on the train.  For some reason, even though I got really shuttle sick, I do not get train sick. Do you know how incredibly fantastic it is to get an extra 30 minutes of reading in a day? Do you know how many more books I will now be able to cram into a year? A lot. That's how many.

- The train is well lit. The shuttle on the way home was pitch black, so I couldn't do anything except for peer out the windows and hold on for dear life.

- I love being a part of the commuting masses. I haven't quite figured out why yet. Maybe it's being a part of a community. Maybe it's the quiet comraderie of being in the same routine with the same people every day, getting to imagine what the rest of their lives are like, all while enjoying the anonymity of never actually having to have a conversation. Then, of course, maybe it's the fact that I know this commute doesn't stretch in front of me for the next 20 years, so I'm taking in the novelty as much as I can.

Don't get me wrong - riding the train isn't always perfect. My commute now costs me a monthly fee. The trains can be slow in inclement weather, it can be smelly, it can be loud. But despite this, I am now, officially, a train-riding commuter, and very happy to be so (did I mention the extra 30 minutes of time that I can read every day?)

And I'd like to think that granddad would be proud.