I forgot to write about how crazy my commute was Friday morning. I feel a little bit sorry for BART, because they have been receiving so much negative publicity lately, but Friday morning's situation made things worse. When I arrived at the Walnut Creek BART station at 7:25 am Friday, the sign on the platform said the next train would arrive in 6 minutes, which is normal. Because I was getting off work early to go to Fresno, I wanted to get into the office a little early to not feel as guilty about taking off early. I was listening to my iPod and waiting in a larger than normal line for the next train when I noticed that I had been waiting a lot longer than 6 minutes for the next San Francisco bound train. In fact, no trains had gone through the station in either direction for over 15 minutes. The platform was getting really crowded at this point and I was thinking to myself "I hope this platform can support this amount of weight!".
Around 8:00 am, with many disgruntled commuters around me, the station announced that we had to move to the other platform to board our train. We were not given an explanation as to why the trains were very delayed or why we had to move to the other platform. This is when I learned I will die if a train on fire ever comes through the station. In order to get to the other platform at the Walnut Creek station, you have to go downstairs and come up the other side. Because the escalator only goes up on the side I was on, taking the stairs down was our only option. I could not even reach the stairs for over five minutes, and by this point, the station agents finally switched the escalator to go down. Once down, there was another large crowd trying to get up the stairs to the other side. This is when I got some comic relief, because some people were so fed up with waiting, they were running up the escalator that was going the wrong way. The station agent was yelling at them to come back down because she couldn't switch the escalator to go up with people on it. After waiting another few minutes for the escalator to clear, I finally made it up to the other platform, which was packed with people.
It took about 20 more minutes to finally board a train, and we were stuffed like sardines in a tin. My arm ached the rest of the day, because I was stuck having to hold onto the bar running along the ceiling of the train the entire ride to work. I wish the taller people would let us shorter people have the easier to hold side bars, but no one knows how to be considerate on BART. I finally arrived at work right at 9:00 am, 45 minutes later than I should have. One of my co-workers arrived at the same time at me because she was on the same train, so we had each other as an alibi, since BART seems to have delays on Friday mornings more often than any other day of the week. We learned that a car had broken down on the tracks between Walnut Creek and Lafayette and only one track was available to use on that portion of railway.
I'm happy that I was able to arrive at work at 9:00 am, because my father-in-law, who was off boarded from the broken train in Lafayette, did not make it to work until 10:00 am since all of the trains coming through were too crowded to board. I hope that BART learns to be better prepared from this commute in case it ever happens again.
Monday, January 12, 2009
An uncrazy weekend in Fresno
This weekend was pretty fun for a trip to Fresno. It is one of the few trips we have made in which we do not have a holiday or family reunion to go to. Also, I was finally able to ride Amtrak without getting sick!
Saturday was a relaxing day that began kind of lazy. After a late breakfast, G, his Grandma, and me headed to a Japanese garden in Fresno at a huge park. We walked all around the beautiful koi pond and plants for about an hour, then walked around another portion of the park as well. The exercise was great and made me not feel as guilt about gobbling up beef stew for dinner. Dinner was fun because G' aunt and uncle came over and we were able to talk with them for a few hours.
On Sunday, we went out to breakfast with G's grandma, two aunts and uncle. After breakfast, G's aunt and grandma took us to the convention center in Fresno, where we boarded a shuttle to take us to the construction site of an Extreme Makeover house. There were a ton of people there watching over 50 people construct the new house. Of course, G was critiquing everything, and his aunt was a bit annoyed, but he couldn't help it! We saw Ty Pennington film a bit for the show, and many of the women there were going nuts for him. I have never seen the show and I only know Ty for getting a DUI somewhere in Hollywood, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. However, it was neat to see a house being constructed so fast and for a good cause. After watching the construction for a while, we headed back to G's grandma's house to get our luggage and head back to the train station. We were both happy to be home last night without any Amtrak mishaps!
Saturday was a relaxing day that began kind of lazy. After a late breakfast, G, his Grandma, and me headed to a Japanese garden in Fresno at a huge park. We walked all around the beautiful koi pond and plants for about an hour, then walked around another portion of the park as well. The exercise was great and made me not feel as guilt about gobbling up beef stew for dinner. Dinner was fun because G' aunt and uncle came over and we were able to talk with them for a few hours.
On Sunday, we went out to breakfast with G's grandma, two aunts and uncle. After breakfast, G's aunt and grandma took us to the convention center in Fresno, where we boarded a shuttle to take us to the construction site of an Extreme Makeover house. There were a ton of people there watching over 50 people construct the new house. Of course, G was critiquing everything, and his aunt was a bit annoyed, but he couldn't help it! We saw Ty Pennington film a bit for the show, and many of the women there were going nuts for him. I have never seen the show and I only know Ty for getting a DUI somewhere in Hollywood, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. However, it was neat to see a house being constructed so fast and for a good cause. After watching the construction for a while, we headed back to G's grandma's house to get our luggage and head back to the train station. We were both happy to be home last night without any Amtrak mishaps!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
First post of 2009
My first post of the new year! I need to make a resolution to update my bland life more than once a week.
New Year's Eve was really low key for us this year, mostly because we both had to work that day and G worked New Year's Day as well. We made enchiladas and margaritas, and I had to keep waking G up so he could count down the seconds with me before midnight. I also drank a mini bottle of champagne, and since G doesn't like champagne, I got a little buzzed finishing the bottle off before bed. The next day, I woke up at 1 pm with dishes covering the sink and counter, so I took care of that so G wouldn't be too upset with me for enjoying my lazy day off from work. Friday was also another lazy day for me, but I really enjoyed taking time to do nothing but relax because I needed it.
Saturday, my mom, G and I went out for dinner at Mimi's and then on to my cousin Brandon's fifth birthday party. Brandon was too hyper that night and bouncing off the walls. I wish I could bottle up some of that energy for myself! My cousin Karina, 18 months, was super adorable as usual, and smiling the whole time. I hope that my future children are a good as she is.
Sunday was just a run around day. We went to Macy's to return a few things, and buy clothes. We also went to Petco to get some new fish and plants for our fish tank because it has been looking rather sad lately. I finally watched Hamlet 2 on Sunday, which was pretty good overall.
New Year's Eve was really low key for us this year, mostly because we both had to work that day and G worked New Year's Day as well. We made enchiladas and margaritas, and I had to keep waking G up so he could count down the seconds with me before midnight. I also drank a mini bottle of champagne, and since G doesn't like champagne, I got a little buzzed finishing the bottle off before bed. The next day, I woke up at 1 pm with dishes covering the sink and counter, so I took care of that so G wouldn't be too upset with me for enjoying my lazy day off from work. Friday was also another lazy day for me, but I really enjoyed taking time to do nothing but relax because I needed it.
Saturday, my mom, G and I went out for dinner at Mimi's and then on to my cousin Brandon's fifth birthday party. Brandon was too hyper that night and bouncing off the walls. I wish I could bottle up some of that energy for myself! My cousin Karina, 18 months, was super adorable as usual, and smiling the whole time. I hope that my future children are a good as she is.
Sunday was just a run around day. We went to Macy's to return a few things, and buy clothes. We also went to Petco to get some new fish and plants for our fish tank because it has been looking rather sad lately. I finally watched Hamlet 2 on Sunday, which was pretty good overall.
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