Tuesday 21st of February 2006

Commuting is a lot of fun

Heading to work this morning, I incrust my headphones into my ear canals for my morning hearing loss session, and as soon as I step out of the gate of my building, Luetin by Underworld starts playing. I remember Flowers for Algernon. I made the mistake of not changing my MP3s in my player while I read that book last June and now I guess it´s ingrained into my head. It makes me remember how great that book is (thank you Heather!) compared to the shitty one I´m reading right now. I really don´t like to give up on books, but I´m comtemplating doing just that, it´s that bad.

I´m wearing my new bright yellow and orange Converse shoes. They obviosly don´t match. It looks as if they they would be reflectant; and who knows, maybe they are. I´ll have to try them at Gris next friday. I turn left at the Glorieta de Embajadores to catch the Cercanias (yes, those commuter trains from 3-11) to Atocha. I´m standing almost on the the edge of the sidewalk waiting for the pedestrian light to go green. I have a young lady to my left and a man in with a beige leather jacket on my right. Suddenly, I´m being pushed. I languorously turn and I see this old woman trying to squeeze herself between me and the young lady. I take a small sidestep to the left, my eyes meet with the young lady´s and we share our “what in the world is wrong with this woman?” look for a fraction of a second. Menopausal woman plants herself in front of me. She has gained a whole 40 centimeters of advantage on us. The light turns green. I sidestep around her left, take three steps and I´m again ahead of her.

What was the point of that? Making me waste more sole of my shoes by making me sidestep her once to let her through and twice to pass her once the light turned green? -Maybe she´s upset that she doesn´t own obnoxious bright yellow shoes.

I get to the station, the train arrives as soon as I turn left after the last set of stairs. The good thing about peak hours in the morning. The ride to Atocha is good. Not a lot of people. After a few seconds people start getting up to queue in front of the door. I start counting the seconds.. 1, 2, 3.. 10, 11, 12.. 34, 35, 36.. after 38 seconds we arrive at the station. Everyone is standing, a few people have almost fallen because they have nowhere to hold on to since they decided it would be a good idea to stand in front of the door before the train arrives. I go up the stairs in Andén 8, walk towards Andén 1, go down the stairs and wait for the train. The train takes about a minute to arrive. The people standing in the door for 38 seconds are right next to me.

Doors open, people wait for the incoming to get out. Eventually the people on the front start peeking inside to see if no one else comes out. Then they take that first step. And like penguins orderly coming out of the sea one after each another to embark on their yearly mating journey, we all follow that first step with amazing synchronization. We´re even walking a bit like pinguins, wobbling our steps. you have to, in order to not step on the back of the feet of the person in front of you. We´re in fast, the train is packed, It doesn´t matter if you´re holding onto anything, you won´t fall, there´s people all around you and you´re squeezed in the middle of them. I feel a newspaper on my back. I smell Chanel 43 on my left, Acqua di Gio on my right, tutti frutti shampoo in front of me. At least most people in the morning smell nice and clean.

After two stops we get to Nuevos Ministerios. I´m lucky today, I arrive in the Andén that´s in the same floor as the Metro connection. I swipe my abono twice, once to get out of the Cercanias and again to go inside the Metro system. I wait for the metro in line 8 to arrive.

Line 8 is fun. It goes to the Airport, Barajas, so you get a lot of foreigners with their oversized suitcases, It also goes to Campo de las Naciones, so you also get a helping of office yuppies.

Metro arrives. I get in, lean on the opposite door from where I came in. I start looking at traveling people coming in, struggling with their bags, while the suit laden yuppies look in disgust at them. I see a cute lady in front of me. I scan her bag. “CCS - MAD” reads her tag. She hails from Venezuela. I look at her and ask “cuanto tiempo sin una Reina Pepeada?” with a smirk on my face. A Reina Pepeada is basically an arepa filled with avocado, chicken, potatoes, carrots and mayo, popular in Venezuela. She answers “y sin Chicha!, un mes!”. I smile. I know my ride is going to be fun now.

It´s amazing how fast time goes by when you´re having a fun brisk chat. In no time It´s my stop. I tell her I must go and start heading towards the door, she says “espera!” and quickly tells me her email address. “escríbeme!” she adds. -”vale!” I reply. Doors close I wave once more, grab my pen, write down her address in my arm. How juvenile of me. I keep on walking.

I take my regular shortcut to my building. The only bad thing about is that there´s this little walkway that barely allows for two people walking one next to the other. Normally everyone who takes this route is on their way to work and is walking fast, sometimes there´s no such luck. I see this mid aged woman coming from the opposite side from where I am. She´s heading towards the entrance of the walkway. I know she´s going to take it. She picks up her pace and gets there first. As soon as she´s in, she plants herself in the middle as to not allow anyone past her and slows down to a crawl. I take it for about 15 seconds and then I let out one of my loud raccoon-shriek-monkey noise things that I do. I use this technique in the Metro stairs when moronic people are standing on the left and not allowing people by, always works. She turns around in horror and looks at me as if I had just killed a baby. She steps to the side and lets me by. I say “Gracias!” and pick up my pace. Maybe I´m an ass.

I get to my building. Go up the stairs 3 floors. Turn right, then left then left again. I say good morning to everyone I cross paths with. I arrive at my desk, I sit. Turn on the ThinkPad.

Now that was fun.

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