Photo of the Day: Train TV

Morning commute. Quiet Car. Train TV, set to snooze. Necessary morning nap/meditation.

~ photo by iPhone, with some filters.

Photo of the Day: Snowmen

Hartsdale Train Station, as viewed from the train, February 1, 2017

Sometimes in transit, when you look up from your phone at just the right time, you see public art as it is meant to be discovered. This installation at the MetroNorth Hartsdale Train Station is located between the north and south-bound tracks, as part of a system-wide public art works project.

~ photo by iPhone, some filters.

Photo of the Day: Light at the End of the ...

February is almost over.

Deadlines are looming.

Maybe the end is in sight?

Or am I just being blinded by all the staring at computer and screens.

~ photos by iPhone

Photos of the Day: Twilight Train Time

Looking south as the northbound trains come through.

The light changes so quickly at this time of year.

~photos by iPhone

Photo of the Day: Sunset Signs of Hope

The days are getting longer.

If you catch an earlier train, and remember to look up,

you'll catch sight of some fiery ribbons of light.

~ photo by iPhone

Photo of the Day: Flashback to Flannel

I was flipping through my photo archives in search of something else, when I rediscovered this shot.

Bring a snuggly blankie to tuck in you and your honey; 

takes early morning train trips to a whole new level

c. September 2015

To be clear, it was weekend commute, rather than regular rush, but still.

It's been so cold in the mornings, maybe I should bring a blanket

in addition to my thermals, 2 huge scarves, fleece gloves and my ski-rated winter jacket.

~ photo by iTouch

Train Training: January 15, 2015

Readers, if I can leave you with nothing else from your 10-15 seconds reading this entry - or even ANY reading of this blog - let it be this.

DON'T BE THESE PEOPLE!

That is a five-seater on a train, where two people obliviots* are taking up all of the seats. People are standing in the vestibule because these two Seat Hogs are spread out, 

eating a three-course meal, with bags everywhere.

I took this a year ago - and I'm STILL so annoyed I had to share it as a PSA.

 DON'T BE THESE PEOPLE.

Also - it was FREAKING COLD that day. I don't know how she sat there with her lap and legs exposed like that.

*(Oblivious Idiots)

~photos by iTouch

Spotted on the Train: January 13, 2015

 Someone thinks they remember their grammar lessons.

From wikipedia:
Stet is a form of the Latin verb sto, stare, steti, statum,^[1] originally used by proofreaders and editors to instruct the typesetter or writer to disregard a change the editor or proofreader had previously marked. This usage of the verb, known as the "jussive subjunctive",^[2] derives from the active-voiced third-person subjunctive singular present and is typically translated as "Let it stand".^[3]

Conventionally, the content that included the edit to be disregarded was underlined using dashes or dots and stet written and circled above or beside it.^[3] Alternatively, a circled tick or checkmark could be placed beside the content in a margin.^[4]

Found via Google Image search on STET

~photos by iTouch

Rain Insurance / Spotted on the train

Murphy's law:

If you HAVE your umbrella with you, and it looks like this ...

it won't rain.

I did. It didn't.

But ...

What is Murphy's law about stashed drinks on train?

If they are there, you won't be thirsty?

These were separate legs of separate commutes. 

I'm going to start a photo series if this keep up.

People! Follow the national park rules. Pack in. Pack out. 

There are enough annoying things on trains than dealing with your trash.

The company can't even afford to fix the seats with anything better than duct tape, 

forget hiring people to clean up after you.

~photos by iTouch; general distaste for litterers, all of us

Photo of the Day: Waiting for the Train

I call this: Waiting for the Train, and BOY do I need a pedicure, why is this train late again?

Yes, it's a long title.

~photo by iTouch

Marching Forth: Trudging for the Train

 ~photos by iTouch

43 Ideas for Birthday 43: Tiny Transportation

The rest of this post is pending....

But it will focus on trains, accidents, sadness, and transportation alternatives that look like, this:

Stay tuned.

Reading on the Rails: #IReadEverywhere

Source

 "This summer, The New York Public Library is celebrating the excitement and personal joy of reading with the hashtag #ireadeverywhere. Beginning on Aug. 5, we are asking all of you to join authors, librarians and other readers from all over the world to share your favorite — and unusual — reading spots, along with the hashtag and our handle @nypl, all in an effort to inspire others to pick up a book (or an e-reader) and start their own adventures."

 ~ Per the New York Public Library

I'm so happy (and relieved) to be riding the rails again. I now have almost 2 hours a day when I have NO EXCUSES but to pick up a book and read. I mean, I could read anywhere, anytime, anyplace, and everywhere -- so ... I try to. But, when reading on the train platform, it's important to WATCH THE GAP!

  via iTouch, despite the top left picture, I wasn't reading trash, thank you very much!

Book featured: Introvert Power: Why You Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie Helgoe, Ph.D.

Winter Woes: Tales of Treacherous Travels via Trains

Well, this certainly has been a wild winter and a bunch of wild transportation.

Polar Vortex anyone? 

Sometimes a photographic mistake is a surrealistic truth.

 There's been too many nights of travel that looks like this:

Not to mention, platforms that look like this:

Views from the platforms look like this:

It really starts to get to you.

You start to think about alternate transportation options.

Forget the train. One day - maybe this could be my ride.

Innocuous debris in the subway begins to remind you of

Frosty the Snowman.

Frosty RIP 2013-2013

If he had a REALLY bad night.

You rejoice in empty train cars, even if they are wrapped in the yucky competitor's cola*,

 and even if it is for some Sportsball Cup Event Thingy (TM).

You trudge to the train, only to be lulled out of the trudge 

by the dulcet sounds of a classical guitar wafting up an almost empty corridor.

Thank you traveling troubadour.

The guitar music totally was a graceful note that I try to remember, and NOT the night I spent three hours on the floor of Grand Central with thousands of people because Metro-North lost power to their control room - grinding the train wheels of transportation to a complete standstill.

This was my limited view. I did not venture forth from my spot by the Eastern staircase at the foot of the Apple Store very often. It was a mob scene.

I looked at this ... a lot for three hours.

Did I say three hours? Did both my phone and my iTouch almost die because all I did was send out updates and try to figure out if I was staying in the City overnight, even though I didn't have an overnight bag? Yes.

Some notes from my phones from that evening:

* Missing Grand Central's grand waiting rooms and bench seats in scenarios like this. And walls of power outlets to recharge devices.

* I bet the iFruit store, FrozenDrinkHut & FrostedSITCtreat places at Grand Central rake in the $$$ tonight with stranded crowds. [Ed. Note: Apple Store, Shake Shake, Magnolia Bakery]

* Today's #momentsofgrace: being acutely grateful to be stuck in Grand Central & not on a train in ParkAve tunnel or cold rails.

* LOOK Mr Announcer Dude. "Temporarily" is the wrong word if it has been more than an hr. "temporarily suspended" is code, right? [Ed. Note: they said "temporarily" for over 2 hours. SERIOUSLY!]

* And the NYC media has arrived. I see shoulder cams. Time for 10 & 11pm news clips. (Like that is going to help us one damn bit). [Ed. Note: It didn't.]

* People at my old job used to mock the fact that I kept a "go bag" under my desk with change of clothes, etc. Regretting I don't have 1 now. [Ed. Note: I prepped and packed one the next weekend. It still has yet to get to the new job. A fact that was regrettable given the weather the first 2 weeks of the new job.]

* Trying to remain positive. Standing &\or sitting on cold marble in the Terminal is better than being stuck on a cold dark train.

* Just declined giving a quote to traditional print media re: situation. Because, you know, "privacy" & all that. I do appreciate the "irony." [Ed. Note: Also invited to do a phone interview with television. Didn't get message. Declined follow-up later. Because, you know, "privacy" and all that.]

* Karma is a wonderful thing. I charged an old lady's phone when stuck in Salt Lake. A nice businessman is charging my phone in Grand Central.

* Phone battery dead. Nice business man had to go. News later. Signing off to save.

* I also think I will be "experiencing considerable residual delays" for my inbound NYC commute tomorrow.

* On the 11:13 local on track 27, packed to bursting, when conductor tells the entire train to move to track 28.

* The kicker of tonight's commute from heck? If I had just worked until 10:30 on my 6th to last day, like usual, I would have missed the mess.

* I beg to differ. We were NOT "bemused." Not 1 tiny bit. MT @nytimes Metro-North Grinds to a Halt W/ Computer Trouble http://nyti.ms/1c8ZFSZ


I am ever so grateful to be heading in the opposite direction now, where I can stay with friends, or stay in guest quarters.

If we all survive the winter and don't get stuck somewhere en route to somewhere ... it will be a miracle.



*I will drink it, if it's free.

Photo of the day: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

View from the train, June 26, 2013, Evening Rush

Apparently the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow can be found off the expressway in Queens.

May-be I need to clone myself?

I  know I've been so busy this month, that it's almost hard to remember what all I've done. So, I've had to drag out my now-bulging scheduler with its receipts, ticket stubs, programs, and notes to just document it all. (And take this all in mind after this week's posts, and you see that I will be resting/scheduling better for the rest of the summer.)

May was abnormally busy, which is saying something for this year.

~ It started out one Friday night early in May with two vocal recitals, back to back, by two of the graduating  sopranos who have been my work study students, one for almost four years. If you know me at all, you know how I feel about opera, so this was an evening of love for those young women. It was a LOT of singing ... in many languages.

~ The next day it was off to the City for dinner and a show with Poopeh. The show always ends up secondary for us, even though it is the purpose for the gathering, and we try to find a quiet restaurant to sit and catch up. We happened upon an out-of-the-way Irish pub in mid-town that was blessedly quiet around 5:00 p.m. on Derby Day and we got a very quiet table in the back. Thanks Maggie's Place, for being quiet and not touristy. We needed the time to catch up before the critically acclaimed, yet very dark, tour-de-force production of Macbeth featuring Alan Cumming in about 90% of the roles. The Scottish Play is a heavy production in general, but with one person playing all the roles, set in an asylum ... whoa. It was heavy. Thanks to Poopeh for the tickets. I never would have gone on my own if she hadn't insisted. (I have good friends. Seats in 1st row, center mezz. at the show where you do not dare speak its name in the theatre.)

 ~ The next Monday after work, there was an open dress rehearsal of the Drama Division's Third Year Class presenting Twelfth Night up in the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater. After the intensity of Macbeth on Saturday, a comedy was a good palate cleanser. There were some lovely moments in the production, and some stronger performances than other. It was set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans during the 1800s and actually worked better than you might think.

~ The next day after work, completing my slew of three plays in four days, was the Drama Division's Third Year Class doing Hamlet in the Drama Theater. I'm glad there was a comedy between the two tragedies. In these Shakespeare productions, the actors that had main roles in one play perform minor roles in the other play, so I got to see a different side of the actors and their range. The student playing Hamlet was quite good. I happened to be on a subway one night that he was on, and I overrode my usual reticence to just tell him how much I enjoyed his Hamlet. By their third year in the program, even the staff can start to tell who of the 20 or so in the class is going to "make a name" for themselves. I bet he's one of them. Sadly though, something was still rotten in the state of Denmark and everyone died.

~ Left abnormally early for me at least once ... at 5:30 ... due to the need to do copious amount of laundry. That was the night I got reacquainted with Grace. But I did manage to get my five loads of laundry done despite all the college kids in the building avoiding studying for finals and trying to do theirs! (These many weeks later, Grace has left .. but I am sure is lurking around to trip me up late and leave her mark.)

~ Rented a Zipcar to meander back to Manhattanville to see Marion. To combat the slightly musty/smokey smell I got in my ZipCar, I left behind the smell of MickeyDee's fries. You are welcome next Zipper. (read: when you have a car, you go to a drive thru for fries. Though they were meh...);

~ Spent time with Casey and her Ms. Addie, showing her the sights of the Big J and some of the Upper West Side. (More on that later - maybe on Casey's blog - as it's Addie's tale to tell, not mine);

~ Attended the Senior Dance Showcase at the Big J, featuring the graduating seniors of the Dance Division in solo pieces, duets, and a rousing final number ala Bob Fosse's Chicago. I'm getting jaded and/or I don't know dance as well as I know music and drama, but only about three of those student solos really stood out to me.

~ Worked at the Big J's 2013 Commencement seeing the next generation 'leave the nest.' For me that meant, caffeine, carbs, constricting clothes and allergy medication. But I also, truthfully can now say, I was "this close" to a famous Oscar winner, though again, I'm getting to be a jaded New Yorker. You do your thing and don't make a fuss. It's not the time or place ... but ... "no matter what occurs .... I will find you....*"  DEEP DREAMY SIGH ... it was pretty cool to be there.

~ Spent the rainy holiday weekend lazying about, getting sleep, and hanging with friends. No schedule. No plans. No agenda. No deadlines. At some points, no makeup.

~ and THEN, finally, to complete our quartet of Shakespeare for the month, attended a screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center of the new movie version of Much Ado about Nothing directed by Joss Whedon .. and attended by JOSS WHEDON. (I've been a Whedon fan since I skipped out of a film class I was auditing post my B.A./pre-grad school to go home and watch the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So take that, Avengers Johnny-come-lately-band-wagonners!)

Oh boy howdy ... was that fun! The people next to me were friends with the moderator and I got to hear how nervous he was about it. The audience was strangely subdued (I thought) for a Whedon crowd, but comported themselves well during the Q&A. Not surprisingly there were many, many, many questions about his other work (Buffy, Firefly, the Avengers films), and then FINALLY a question about actual film techniques and camera work. I say FINALLY, because it was the Film Society after all, not a con. Anyway ... can you tell I'm trying to be all cool and collected about this? I'm not... it was Joss FREAKIN' Whedon!

And, the movie ... I'm going again. A few times. Aside from the fun of seeing my Whedonverse actors, and maybe Nathan's name originator, the acting, directing, and some of the camera work was really excellent. Given I took about 3 semesters of Shakespeare on Film, I need to watch again. I can tell you, if you ever saw the version with Keanu Reeves, it will totally get rid of that memory - no offense to Sir Kenneth Branagh and Ms. Emma Thompson.

~ Had way to many work meetings, interviews, and end of the year parties, including:

- the end of the year/meet the new VP margarita meet-up at a bar (skipped);

- a potluck in honor of the graduating work study students. (organized) Why is it that everyone wants to eat at the potluck, but no one wants to tell you what, if anything, they are bringing to the potluck? Or help clean up from the potluck? Just wondering.;

- the year-end staff meeting, and then the year-end staff party. (attended) There is a joke at School about the state of things being reflected in the appearance of, and quality of, shrimp at the twice-yearly parties. Given the shrimp bar, and ginormous offering of guacamole and salsa, things were okay this year.

Which indirectly brings us back to Hamlet. After the staff meeting, I went upstairs to grab my stuff. Behind the closed office doors, I thought I heard something weird for that hour of the night. I thought there was an intruder, or crazy person, until I started to realize there was a pattern to the ramblings, especially when I heard "neither a borrower or lender be" and "to thine own self be true." Turns out, the actor playing Polonius was pacing up and down the halls reciting his big speech to Laertes. 

~ Farewell lunches for colleagues like Ms. R--- who is leaving the Big J after a few years to pursue other opportunities. (attended, sadly).

Leading to the necessity of days off for:
~ food poisoning;
~ grocery restocking and retail therapy;
~ travel;
~ recuperating from sending an email to VP that had my stomach in knots, but one that had to be sent, because I needed stand up for myself and articulate my work needs. Since the new VP is starting to assess our working conditions, so I thought I better speak up for myself/my space. THUS ...

~ regrouping.

Also good for stress relief? Go to your work Mailroom. Get sheet of bubble wrap. Walk around popping it. It's good for you. But not good for coworkers. (EVIL LAUGHTER!)

Good grief.

When do Summer Fridays start?  Because I need a break! Really Really Really need a Long QUIET BREAK!

I am not a social butterfly. I'm NOT. Really. Actually, I'm the complete opposite of one.

So if anyone wants to send me lilacs or  lavender roses so I can alight upon them and rest a bit, I won't mind.

 See the smiley face? Do you?

*“Stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you. I will find you!”

― James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans