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Attempt to get the iPhone #1 - Fail [Jul. 11th, 2008|11:29 pm]
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So, today, I failed at getting and iPhone. I couldn't even TRY. Not because of the lines or anything, but this was the plan:

6:00 - Get picked up at Metro, go to Fair Oaks Mall, assess crowd, ask if they fixed iTunes yet. if it's insane, turn around and go home.
7:15 - Sushi dinner
9:45 - See Hellboy II, hope I don't get paged.

BUT... the Metro *broke down*! Yes indeed, it broke down as in power failure.

Somewhere around 5:45, the Metro train stopped. And we waited. And waited. We waited somewhere in the tunnel between Ballston and East Falls Church. Finally the conductor came on and said the train ahead of us had to be evacuated due to a power failure in the system. But not to panic, we still had power (as indicated by the lights and working A/C). But he didn't want to move us until we got cleared.

At about 6:10, the conductor said we were allowed to move to East Falls Church, but they were evacuating the cars. There was a power failure at Vienna, and they were shutting down the Orange Line until it was resolved.

When we got to East Falls Church, the platform was so clogged, it was hard to get off the train. People we talking on cell phones and trying to assess the problem. They had announcements, but you couldn't hear a damn thing over the roar of the crowd and the white noise hiss of I-66 which is on both sides of that station. Finally, some people in orange vests said to leave the station. It took me about 10 minutes to get from the platform to the outer gates. That's when they said it would take 3-4 hours to restore service. They also said that they had restored the trains to West Falls Church, and would have shuttlebusses there.

I went to look at getting a cab, but 2000 other people were ahead of me. East Falls Church is a small station, and it was swamped like an outdoor rock concert.

I thought, "I grew up near here!" I know this place fairly well, there's a shopping center that-a-way!" There WAS a shopping center in 1986, but now it was a series of luxury townhomes. At least the Exxon was still there, and I got some water and Gatorade because it was 89 degrees outside and I was wheezing badly because of my asthma. I walked up and down around the area, but I couldn't find a shopping center or any business district until I followed Lee Highway where it crosses I66. I finally found the Econolodge near I-66, but [info]takayla couldn't pick me up because of the traffic, so... I tried to get a cab, knowing full well that it may take a while.

And it did, but not really because of the mass exodus from East Falls Church. The cabbie, a really nice guy from India, told me "We never pick up when people call from Metro Stations. Times like this, you got thousands of people leaving, how are you going to find a 'Steve' out of all that? No sir, the dispatcher will refuse, and say just wait of the next cab to show up. Today, however, traffic on 66 is terrible and we have a light day for cabbies anyway. They are all still sleeping, waiting for the business when bars let out tonight. You did good to walk a few miles away and call from where you did." Wise words.

The cab ride cost me $65 from the Falls Church/Arlington Border to Fairfax, and it took a while because he didn't want to take 66, but the Dulles Toll Road. I got home at 8, and everyone had already left for sushi and the movie.

Home alone, exhausted, wheezing, and depressed, I called [info]stodgycat and found out that coincidentally, they were looking for a sitter to see our friend Paul perform tonight. I didn't even know Paul was in town. But he's with his new group, and so [info]stodgycat and [info]cheesy_reads went and saw him while I stayed with Scarlet, Kieran, and little [info]stodgyspike. I stayed up later with Scarlet, who turns ten in a few weeks, and shares the same birthday as my father. So she's a Leo. I had one of the best talks with her I had with anyone in a while, and I still say people should hang around children and learn a few things. Sure cured my depression.

Bonus: I tried to get Kieran to say in a low voice, I drink your milkshake!

But no iPhone. Maybe I'll go tomorrow.
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The Metro today [May. 27th, 2008|12:22 pm]
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So, get this. I am a little groggy and I get on the Metro. It's pretty full on the car, and some guy did the "sit on the outer seat to discourage someone sitting next to me." So I asked if I could use that seat. Already, he gets off on the wrong foot by looking at me from head to toe, looking a little upset a fat guy wanted to sit next to him. But he relented.

I had charged my iPod this morning (I left it on by accident the first day of Balticon), and was untangling the earbuds when he took his hand, and put my hands down in my lap. He shook his head and said, "No radios."

"Without headphones," I said, pointing to the sign. The guy was an older man, probably in his late 40s, early 50s, with a buzzcut and wearing city fatigues. The badge over his pocket said, "Richardson." Now, I see guys like this a lot. Some military guys wear their combat dress instead of military dress to work because... well, I don't know for sure. I used to see them a lot at the Pentagon. I think [info]anyarm told me her dad did this from time to time because it matched the dress code requirements at work, and were more comfortable than a suit. Maybe there are other reasons. But I have seen it all my life growing up here and it's pretty normal.

The man replied, "I don't want to hear your rap music while I am going to work." He was already pissed off about something else, I could feel it. Now, most of you know what I look like. I am a fat Swedish looking dude with facial hair. Not exactly a stereotype for listening to rap, but I will admit, I have been enjoying a recently free download of Ganstagrass, which is another topic for another entry (summary: very intriguing). I don't hate rap, but think most of it is pretty boring, whiny, self-congratulatory, and the urban form of "emo" at least half the time with a martyr upswing. But some of it is very clever and poetic, and the beats aren't too annoying. Anyway, I consider this accusation to be kind of funny, even though he was touching me to put down my little iPod shuffle.

I pulled out my music player from under his gentle hands, and continued to untangle them. "Luckily, it's classical today." [NB: really, it was techno and the Linux Action Show podcast, so I kinda lied] He put his hands on mine and forced them down. He said something I didn't quite hear, because he lowered his voice like someone talking to an errant child at a fancy party, but it sounded like he was saying, "Let's learn to commute like mature people," or something before going back to his newspaper.

Okay, NOW I am pissed off. I don't care if he just got his orders or whatever he was angry about, and so I said, "I'm Grig, by the way. I work in Silver Spring. Where do YOU work, Mister Richardson?" He replied to me something that sounded like, "I don't engage in idle conversation," with the tone to shut the hell up. I just kept going with small talk. He then asked me, louder, to stop talking to hear myself speak. "Then let me use my iPod, or else I will assume you want to speak. Choose one or the other."

People were staring at us. Some with music players.

He sighed aggressively. "Don't make me call the Metro police," he said, which was so... random, it was like a non-sequiter. I agreed. "Okay, we'll talk to one of them if that makes you feel any better." Well, he didn't like that answer one bit, and he finally tried to stare me down. I just replied back with a friendly, doe-eyed stare. He just stared, pushing his anger into me, and I just channeled it through the floor. When we stopped at Dunn Loring, he looked around, and got off, I guess looking for a Metro cop or something. Then I saw he just got on another car.

"Man, what an asshole," I heard someone say, and some giggled replies.

Does anyone else get these jerks on the Metro, or am I a magnet?
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Arg, need ride to Balticon! [May. 21st, 2008|08:57 pm]
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I had a ride to Balticon, but they canceled on me due to financial issues.

This is the deal, there's only me and two pieces of luggage. I can be picked up at any DC Metro station. I need to be there by Friday early afternoon.

Anyone going my way?
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Another fun day on the Metro [May. 14th, 2008|12:14 pm]
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Today was a terrible day on the Metro... for other people. I was okay, but feeling uncomfortable as this sunny weather and what I considered happy weather seemed to anger everyone on the way in this morning.

I am reading my book, when suddenly I hear a voice scrape across the air, "You know, other people don't want to hear your phone conversations." A quick glace showed a confrontation between two men. The man on the phone looked like a distinguished businessman with a very low voice; so low, I didn't even register he was on the phone even though he was maybe 3 feet away from me or less. That's the Metro for you. But sitting in a seat a foot away was the kind of guy you just want to punch on principle. An older guy with a bike helmet, a "Northern Face" jacket, shorts, and a messenger bag. But it wasn't how he looked that bothered me, but his patronizing tone to the businessman standing up in front of him.

The business man said something which sounded like a gracious apology, but the older man just kept talking like he was condemning an errant teenager who just said the F-bomb in front of his small children. "A lot of people have to share the Metro, you can make that call at some later time." I wanted to stand up and go, "What the FUCK? How would YOU know? He can use his damn phone all he likes, and I wasn't even aware he was talking until your irritating anal-control voice slithered into my ear like oily barbed wire." But I didn't. I am not sure what the man said next, because again, he had a quiet, low voice. But the old guy kept shaking his head, "No. NO. You can make that call outside the Metro. Now hang up that phone." The business man decided to do so rather than fight, but the old guy lectured him for another minute or so. It took me a while to calm down in sympathy. What a prick!

Then a little later, another guy started hassling this young woman sitting next to him. "Move your pointy elbows!" he said. The way he was sitting was seriously encroaching into her space because he had a rolling suitcase, a duffel bag, and was holding onto all of it instead of keeping it on the floor. The woman said something back, and his response sounded like, "Well, some of us weren't born rich and privileged." Finally, he moved to an empty seat, but when he made eye contact with me he shook his head and said, "Women can be so self-centered."

Yeah, so can asshats with luggage.

Then there was a really bratty private school kid with possibly his older sister. I see a lot of private school kids on the Red Line, and many of them are rambunctious and rude. In this case, the younger kid who looked about 7 or 8 was climbing all over the seats while he teenager sister was yelling at him to stop. All he did was mock her, laugh, and generally act monkey-like in his taunting. Finally, one of her attempts to grab him worked, and she pulled him across the seat, pulled down his pants, and spanked the hell out of him. The kid just said, "Oh yeah. Uh huh. I like dat! Smack my ass!" Her blows were weak and ineffective, and finally the kid wiggled away, even more hyper. He started doing a dance out of her reach, and then started jumping on the seats. Not two seconds after I thought, "God's going to take care of this one," the kid slipped and fell ON HIS THROAT over a handlebar on the back of the seat.

His tune changed quickly. He started to cough and then cry. His sister came over to look at him, but he jerked away, gasping. Then they got off at Fort Totten, so I am not sure how badly he was hurt. But as they left, she was saying, "I told you not to do that. I told you you'd get hurt, but you're such a stupid ass you don't even listen to anything!"

Fun day!
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Man, today was one of those days... [Feb. 4th, 2008|10:44 am]
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... that I wish Metro Rail had bathrooms. Nothing like getting a delayed allergic reaction to... something while the train stops for no explained reason at all between Takoma and Silver Spring. Before the train just sat on the tracks for 15 minutes, I thought I could wait until I got to work. But then it just stopped and waited, and waited, and then once in a while the conductor would come on the loudspeaker and go, "Lalala station lalalalala..." I mean, if you're going to mumble into the loudspeaker like a drunk and sleeping frat guy passed out on your couch, why bother? I thought I was going to explode and do something I hadn't done since I was four right on the train.

There have been a few times I have been forced to get off at Union Station and go through their mall to deal with such emergencies. I call it "Metro's $3.00 toilet fee" because that's how much it costs to get off at Union Station, exit, plow through MARC commuters, do my business, and then get back on to finish my journey to work.

Because I had to hold it so long, I think I broke something. My tummy plumbing is all bent up and sore. Ow...
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Santa hat [Dec. 24th, 2007|02:15 pm]
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Working Christmas Eve

Yes, I am at work. We get off early at 2pm today, which threw a monkey wrench into [info]takayla's day. Right now, as I type this, a bunch of my work mates have gone to get Chinese food. I leave at 2:30 so I can get a ride home.

The Metro was virtually deserted this morning, and I am not surprised. I had forgotten that being in a car with only a few people is kind of nice. Normally my 7am commute is packed to the walls with bitter and angry government workers. I am lucky that I get to sit most of the time. It's because I get on at Vienna, and sometimes the car doesn't fill up before I get to it. But two stops down, it's standing room only. And on some days, notably when it rains or the train has been slow, by Ballston, about 4 stops down, the cars become too packed to get more people on. The Metro simply cannot handle the riders it has anymore. How do they handle this increased business? Why increase their fares, of course. :(

I wore a Santa hat to work. [info]anyarm, who gave me a ride to work, screamed, "SANTAAAA!!" and hugged me, which was a great way to start the morning. ALSO, Mars is the closest to Earth until 2016, and I showed her and Brian Mars, Venus, and the full moon in the morning dawn. Mars is so close and bright, you can tell it's orange. Venus, as always, is a dirty white due to its high albedo. I also explained a little about the ecliptic path. I wish I had become an astronomer sometimes :(.
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CR so far [Oct. 30th, 2007|10:13 pm]
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CR is doing worse slightly, so they have upped the steroids and the doctor approved him for 6 months homebound schooling. They have some theories as to what it is, and think it might be a medicine they need to put him on (and forgot), or it might be a severe mold issue. They took a lot of blood out of him for testing allergen counts as well as deep allergy testing purposes (they can't do a skin reaction on him because of the steroids). He is going to have a CT scan for his lungs instead of just his head. Now we just have to convince the school to agree to home schooling, and we're set as far as that goes. I suspect CR will lose his job which he only had for a few weeks, but oh well. :(

He is going to move into my den. The cleaning of my den is going very badly. I had so much packed in here, that it's unfolding in mess like unwadding a tight ball of paper in the fact it covers more space with the same amount of stuff. I have generated 5 bags of trash, packed several storage bins, and it still looks like I have done very little. It's really depressing.

Lastly, an apology might be in order. Sorry, [info]patches023, but I was late getting home and I abruptly left you while rushing for the train. It sounded like you ran into someone saying goodbye to me, and a nasty exchange ensued between him and you. I hope that wasn't your voice, and it was some other woman's, but if I caused you to run into that guy, I deeply apologize. I also apologize for sort of ending our conversation in mid sentence when I realized that I needed to be on that train. I am scatterbrained on the Metro, ask [info]mysticpaws. It was nice seeing you, though!
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Waking dream [Sep. 10th, 2007|08:49 pm]
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I debated posting this. I hope no one freaks out.

During the summer, I don't usually wear my music player because I usually don't have a place to put it (in the winter, it fits in my coat pocket: my torso is too tall to clip it on my waist), but this time I was using my jogger's arm strap because I really just didn't want to face people. It all started when some dude was trying to bum money off of me on the Red Line, and got all bent out of shape that I didn't have any, and felt the need to explain to everyone that I was like every other rich white man trying to keep his people DOWN... whatever, dude. Nobody else seemed to pay attention to him, thankfully, and he shut up when a guy in a Metro vest came on board and then exited at Union Station. So I put on my jogger's armband and just rushed onto the Orange Line.

Sadly, there was no place to sit because there had been another breakdown earlier, and everything was backed up. Somebody in our car was "baking brownies" as Eric Cartman once put it. Waves of poo-gas wafted about we all tried to find the source of the phantom windbreaker. Whomever it was got off at East Falls Church.

I was trying to be in my own little world, listening to techno on my MP3 player, and even though I was standing up, I think I kind of dozed off. As I watched out the window to I-66 (the train runs parallel to a major highway), I swore I started to see waves of people walking down the tracks. Not workers, but people dressed like a random assortment of citizens from 1970 to the present day. I remember thinking, "These are the spirits of all the people who have died along this road. They are all walking to DC for tomorrow. What happens tomorrow?" But then as I realized I was seeing hundreds of ghosts whiz by, and wondered if they weren't heading towards something as much as fleeing away from something else I was heading towards, I snapped awake, and didn't see anyone anymore.

I know it was a daydream, but it felt so real. After spending some time freaked out about it, I remembered tomorrow is the 6th anniversary of the biggest attack on mainland US soil by foreigners since the War of 1812. Hope you all make it through.
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Oh, what a horrible Metro ride [Aug. 3rd, 2007|12:40 am]
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First of all, the Red Line was crowded. It's not usually crowded. Okay, I can deal, because at least there were some seats. So at Metro Center, I got off to hop on the Orange Line. Ooh! It's there, I run in the door just in the nick of time. I'll have to stand but...

... and we just sit there. For like 10 minutes. This means by the time the doors close, the train is packed. Okay, whatever. This happens more than it should with no given reason, but the Metro is breaking down, so I should be glad it didn't derail.

( OOOH! Spoke too soon. Halfway down the tunnel, the car stops.  )
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FW:Mother-f$*king tourists on the subway! [Jul. 2nd, 2007|05:50 pm]
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Man, like I know tourism brings in money to our fine city, but all these people visiting for the Fourth of July are screwing up rush hour flow something fierce. Gawk somewhere else, Zeke and Betty-Lou! Not at the top of the escalator! MOVE!!

[TxtLJ doesn't like my phone]

I posted that with TXTLJ, which rejected the first entry I tried, and then split the second into two posts.

People walking into metro cars and then STOPPING IN FRONT OF THE DOOR SO NO ONE CAN GET PAST THEM also seems to be the new fad among the flip-flop elite. Some out-of-towners seem non-plussed they have to stand, and look around at the various seats trying to find empty ones so they don't have to sit next to someone whom they don't know. I am so sorry Granmama had to sit next to the colored fella, Mr. Buzzcut with the "Kansas is God's Country" shirt, but can you get your skinny-assed preteen daughter's sweatshirted arm off my face as she presses against me to read the map? Maybe if she didn't wear soccer shorts that say "SWEETIE" across her ass, and had some meat on her bones, she wouldn't be so damn cold all the time.
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