Now I've Seen (or Heard) It All

Under the category of, "I've-lived-in-NYC- 22 years-what-haven't-I-seen?' I am pleased to announce that it happened last night on the Amtrak home. Train travel this week has not been pleasant. It began with the horrible commuter train crash in Washington DC, a 4.5 hour trip home Tuesday night (30 minute delay on Amtrak and no-signals on the "F" train), and ended up with what I had hoped would be a quiet ride home last night.

I was on the 5:55pm (Washington to Boston), which moves a bit faster and has more of a 'business suit' crowd. I was able to find a seat to myself and comfortably settled in with my Subway tuna sandwich and Cool Ranch chips (recommendation: put the chips in the sandwich...it's noisy, but yummy!)

Footnote for my techie friends: at least 1/3rd of commuters are now using netbooks on the train, versus full-scale computers.


About 30 minutes into the ride the woman ahead of me, who has been on the phone since I got on the train, begins shifting the conversation. To phone sex. Interesting. Not quite as interesting when you can only hear one side of the conversation. Still...interesting. Now...she was speaking quietly and using an appropriate phone voice, still....

I'm not sure the guy she was talking with (yes, I figured it was a guy through the types of questions she was asking!) was any more comfortable than I was. I learned he'd never done this before ("your first-time, huh? That's ok, I'll help you through it") and I think his comfort level was about equal to mine because after ten minutes to talk she couldn't get him to go any further (for my sports friends: I'd say they were stuck between first and second and he was caught in a run down).

It eventually ended with her saying things like, "so you don't want to tell me that," "why can't you say that?" and "fine, I'm ok with that," then the call ended. I guess she wasn't so 'ok with that'. Poor guy.

I must say...commuting life does have its' moments!