Stories From a Midnight Boston Train Ride.

I thought I would take this opportunity to put those "stories" on a posting before they get too old in my brain.  Without getting to detailed, I'll try to at least acknowledge them.

Drunk Girl.

On the way to Boston there was a girl.   She must have hooked up with a young man in the cafe car sometime before they closed it for the evening.   As a rule, unless you were a party of four, you were forced to join total strangers if you chose to dine there.  Anyway,  they brought their conversation back into the coach with them.   And she was loud! She sounded like Drunk Girl on SNL.    She was also ...Amazing!   Apparently, she was rich,  dated lots of famous people, and had a career at a fortune 500 company!   All before she hit 23!  ( which means she is  older than 23 at least)

I'm not sure if the younger man was buying into all of it, but he continued to sit with her and talk about her and her awesomeness! (With all it's crinch-worthyness) They made plans to link up and go on a "real date" when they got to the city.   She was going to get off early because she had family "everywhere."  (I took this as code that she was trying to dump him before the "Midnight Pumpkin Spell" wore off.)  But the punch line was this.   In her haste ( or lack there of) she forgot her hat or something insignificant.   The young man went to give it back to her, but she told him to give it to her when they linked up in the city.   In all the ruckus.... she missed her stop!   And was forced to continue on with the rest of us "commoners" all the way to Boston.

At least she was quiet after that.  I'm not sure how she was going to break the news to whoever was waiting for her at Backbay.  If there even was anyone waiting there.


Screen Writer Santa Clause.

A gentleman looking like Santa hopped on the Train the same time we did ( in Chicago)  He sat by himself and was fairly quiet until someone sat across from him  sometime after Pennsylvania.  Most of the time I tried not to eaves drop on peoples conversation.   But this guy had a Booming Voice.  To be fair, I guess I do as well.   Part of being trained as a teacher I guess...( No one likes soft spoken teachers!) Anyway,  Cheryl paid more attention to this one than I did.   I guess he helped write a bunch of movies and rubbed elbows with famous directors.

Apparently, Screen Writer must pay below minimum wage because he was riding coach train with the rest of us bargain hunters.  I could not tell you some of the whoppers,  But Cheryl was quite entertained.  Then again,  Forest Gump took the bus to see Jenny.   And he was a Millionaire!   ( And fictional...  Just saying.)

Not everything was bad / annoying.

Black Man With is Son.

As we entered New York State.   A Black father and his son joined the train and sat in front of us.   Listening to him talk to the kid was endearing.   (And I normally do not like children!)  The kid was well behaved and excited to be on a train for the first time.  ( I believe he was either 4 or 5 years old.)  I don't want to take this in a political direction, but seeing an adult black male with his son really captured me.   He was polite and kept the kid quiet and under control the entire time.  Which was a HUGE feat given that they were traveling to Erie Pennsylvania in the middle of the night. Even I was fussy after being on the train that long.

My point being that seeing a black father is something of a rarity for me.  I have seen plenty of black single mothers....with lots of unruly kids. I have worked with Black guys who had kids and took care of them. (They never brought their kids to work, though.)    But it was rare to see the interactions between father and son. ( I want to stress:  FATHER)   It was something probably most people on the train did not even notice....but I did.  And I felt compelled to write about it here.

Lady From Chicago.

A nice lady joined us in Boston and was heading to Chicago as well.  She had a daughter who ran in the Marathon and we swapped stores for a while.   Periodically we even drifted away from running as the miles dragged on.  It was nice having someone who had experienced the same heat and frustration as Cheryl had.   It helps to know that you were not the only one having a bad day .

Other than that,  Cheryl ran today, despite having a cold.   We both scored for ETS and Pearson.  And now I'm winding down for the night.  Hopefully this cold will run its course and be done with me by tomorrow.

Despite the stories, the train ride was not "Bad";  Simply long and tiresome.  Cheryl is already thinking about different modes of travel that will require less time  ( i.e. plane!)   If the distance had been shorter, perhaps a train would have been more ideal.   But being cramped up for that long with total strangers, something is bound to happen that is blog worthy.  Either that or I simply lack anything to blog about now that we are home.

Not for Resale

Boston Ale!

I should also note that I'm sampling the latest Boston Beer.  An Ale this time.  While searching on line, I stumbled upon this picture of the 26.2 brew.   As rare as Bigfoot and if you study the picture closely, you will note that it is "not for Resale"   Perhaps that is why we could not find it.