tofurkey day

Now that I've moved out of my parents' house, I've joined the world of those who travel to visit their families for Thanksgiving. I cut out of work at 5:30 on Wednesday and rushed up to Penn Station, only to wait around for an hour for the train to arrive. Luckily, I had the fabulous company of one VReing for the wait and the ride.

And what a ride it was.

We squirmed our way to the head of the mob to get onto the train (the Penn Station staff really shouldn't complain about people's inability to form a line when they don't encourage one with those seatbelt-y divider things), and found two seats next to each other.

Ah, the Acela. Cleaner and faster than all the other Amtrak trains. What luxury! Altho, apparently, the bathroom was gross. I bet it still was better than the non-Acela bathrooms, and the ones on the bus, but I can't say I minded never having to find out for myself.

Anyhoo, the biggest challenge of the ride was staying awake for the whole thing. Work is hard; even a 3-day workweek wears me out. So I was just about to doze off somewhere between New London and Providence, when the train came to a halt. Once I figured out that we were nowhere near Broadway/Lafayette, I began to wonder what was wrong. But no worry! An announcement came over the PA just then, informing us that they were working on getting power back to the train. Soon, another announcement! (we're so popular, us train passengers) This time: The next power grid is fine, but the current one still has no power, and we'll let you know what we know in 15 minutes. Half an hour later... Guess what! You get two trains for the price of one! They had failed to get the power back to the wires, but another train was on the way (the one that left an hour after we did), and would pick us up.

Soon, sure enough, the next train pulled up next to us, as full as ours (over 75%). It was a harrowing journey, involving a plank and a bridge guard bearing the warning, "Only one person on the plank at a time, please." Luckily, she didn't quiz us on things like our favorite color before we could pass.

As the passengers on the quiet car (oops), we got to get on the new train first! So VReing and I and our new-found across-the-table grad-student friends found a spot with three stools and one leaning spot in the cafe car--four of the best seats left on the new train.

Train v. 2.0 was full of interesting characters, all of whom had come from Train v. 1.0 like we did. It featured:

-Drunk Guy with a Boston Accent (DGBA): double-fisting when we met him, DGBA had been imbibing since 6pm (it was now 10:45) and was slurring the hell out of his speech. Amusing, but easily angered. Finished two beers and two wines during the brief time we were perched/leaning near him.

-Smoking Man (SM): put out the cigarrette after the announcement stating that anyone caught lighting up would be kicked off of the train, causing further delays.

-Adorable Love Connection (ALC): were having the most boring conversation ever (he describing brain function and she detailing her stint of jury duty), and totally loving it. Were smitten with each other. So cute.


At long last, we arrived, in time to go home and basically crash. Everybody's ride home from the station had been waiting around as long as we had, as many had left to pick us up before we stopped in the first place. Ah, the holidays.


In other news, I've been Googled! And MSN'd! 3 Google searches and 4 MSN searches have returned this very blog as a result. Most awesome keywords: foedal and ooh. Yes, I know I misspelled foetal. I was angry about politics or something. Also, the previous links are to Google searches, when those words found my blog through MSN searches. But the former when Googled also returns me. Found by a misspelled Internet search keyword... how embarrassing!