… I’ll be waiting at the station; you can meet me at 4:30, ‘cuz I’ve made my reservation. Don’t be slow — oh, no no no, oh no no no!
No, I’m not on some crazy Monkees kick now. I’ve just completed my first month riding the train into town to work. Feels good, like I’m officially a suburbanite now. 😉 In any case, all the things I was worried about before — not having my car available, should I need it, giving up a little bit of freedom of movement, what if the train’s late? etc. — didn’t seem so important after about the first week or so. The MARC train’s Penn line has been clockwork precise the whole time for me. The worst part of the whole trip is the Metro. 😛
Seriously, DC has what must be the prettiest but least-functional large subway system in any major city. I can’t say I’ve taken the train in every major city I’ve been in, and some have added railway systems since last I’ve been there, but I have been on a few good ones. New York City’s subway may be dirty, but it’s cheap and it goes everywhere. The Metro, on the other hand, is expensive and only goes downtown and somewhat into the ‘burbs — but only so far out in certain directions. My biggest beef with the subway when I lived in the city was that it pretty much didn’t go uptown at all and was, as a consequence, unusable for someone who really wanted to use it instead of driving. I’d have to take our excellent bus system, which is a really good substitute if you aren’t in a rush and it’s a nice day out, because it’s more like the NYC subway — cheap and ubiquitous.
Oh, well; enough of that. The Metro gets me from my office to Union Station, and that’s all I need now. I just wish they’d add trains, lines and escalators in busy stations so people aren’t always pushing or walking into you ‘cuz they’re rushing to get someplace. Pretty trains but crazy people.
In any case, the commute’s shorter (imagine that!) and I’m saving tons of money on gas and parking every month, so it’s been really good. And the pretty women you run into from time to time don’t hurt, either. 😉