Public Transportation is Making Me CRANKY.

Well, of COURSE I want to be eco-friendly. I’m having my patience tested, though.

I have a day job – same company for ten years now – in Irvine. I live 60 miles away in Oceanside. Driving back and forth has always been a problem, and gas prices made it into a HUGE problem. Recently, and just in time, the City of Irvine started up a free shuttle service that will allow me to get from the train station to my office.

Woot.

So now I take the train to work. To be exact:

1. I take my car to the first train station near my house and catch a train.
2. It takes me to a station where I switch train lines, and take another train for nearly an hour.
3. I get off the train and take a bus.
4. I walk for a couple of blocks.

Transit time… two hours, each way, or four hours total every bloody day. I can handle that. It’s a long time, but I can nap or read or stare out the window and actually get a little personal time.

Here is where I start to get peevish.

The first train was late today. So I got to the station just as my intended commuter train was pulling out. Leaving me, a woman built like the Hindenburg, running behind it. I was on time! I got up early! And now… no train. I waited another hour for the NEXT train, drinking nasty fast-food pseudocoffee and growling. I was very very late for work.

Also, you, sir, sitting across from me? Your Bluetooth does not include a cone of silence. Your phone is not a damn PA system, and I’d appreciate it if you quit YELLING into the damn thing. Especially since you are talking baby-talk to your apparently brain damaged spouse. Since you are in your early fifties and look a lot like Les Nessman, it is not. Appealing.

And would it KILL the Metrolink people to buy seats with padding? My tailbone is sore. I can’t get comfortable enough to nap, and I’ve been getting up a lot earlier lately.

So.

Other than the noisy, uncomfortable, tiring, late, cranky parts, it’s fantastic.

Pic: LA Wad