Thursday, March 27, 2008
Morning is my destination
Pleasant WFMU radio program last night. Although there's not a lot to do while a 60 minute CD is playing that I don't need to hear because I've listened to it at home for the past three weeks. I loathe the trip home. At the end of a 4 hour show, all I want to do is eat a couple of cookies, go to bed, read a bit to unwind, & sleep. This is possible if I go to bed at 6 am. Under those circumstances I could sleep about four hours, wake up & feel like I've had something resembling normal sleep. The Jewish Moments in the Morning Show is fundraising, but the crew hasn't unpacked the bagels & cream cheese by the time I must leave. Disappointing.
I walk to the PATH station - the sky is brightening in the east behind Manhattan. I take an underground train with many commuters on it. The train pops above ground on the other side of Jersey City & there's more daylight. Across the Meadowlands - nothing attractive about it early in the morning, into Newark Penn Station, where I miss the 6:49 to Elizabeth & have to wait 20 minutes. I go downstairs to pick up a train schedule & the concourse is madness. Hundreds of people rushing here & there, commuters, travelers dragging luggage. I couldn't stay out of their way, I wasn't rushing anywhere. All the food establishments serving up the coffee & portable breakfasts. Line at the lottery machine.
I go back upstairs. An Amtrak Acela pulls in & I'm looking directly into the First Class car, about 75% filled, almost all middle-aged men. I immediately despise every one of them, damned Republicans who would vote their own ride out of existence. There's more coffee cups & newspapers in the car than laptops. A one way first class fare from Newark to Washington DC is $300. The coffee cups are styrofoam; you get sturdy cardboard ones downstairs in the station. I read somewhere they serve a Jamaican blend now & the attendant brings it to you & after he takes your coat, but the food is no better than the Amtrak cafe car you get with coach fare on the slow line to Palookasville. As the train moves out, the seating doesn't look like a great improvement over business class. My train arrives, Long Branch local with plenty of seats. An adult fare to Elizabeth is $2.25. I pay less thanks to a long-expired official NJ Transit senior/disabled discount card with a very tiny date printed on it that was issued to me after I had eye surgery in 2001 & wore a ghastly bandage covered with a pirate eye patch.
I walk home from the station in Elizabeth in full daylight, the Columbian cafes are open, it's overcast, which always helps, but there's no denying it's Thursday rather than an extension of Wednesday. I'm dog tired & all wired up again. At home, I drop my clothes, pull on my sweatpants, take 1/2 an Ambien, get into bed, read for awhile, & it's after 8 when I fall asleep. I wake up at 11. I don't feel groggy. I have no memory of dreaming. These are bad signs. It means my body only pretended to be asleep while i was unconscious.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I walk to the PATH station - the sky is brightening in the east behind Manhattan. I take an underground train with many commuters on it. The train pops above ground on the other side of Jersey City & there's more daylight. Across the Meadowlands - nothing attractive about it early in the morning, into Newark Penn Station, where I miss the 6:49 to Elizabeth & have to wait 20 minutes. I go downstairs to pick up a train schedule & the concourse is madness. Hundreds of people rushing here & there, commuters, travelers dragging luggage. I couldn't stay out of their way, I wasn't rushing anywhere. All the food establishments serving up the coffee & portable breakfasts. Line at the lottery machine.
I go back upstairs. An Amtrak Acela pulls in & I'm looking directly into the First Class car, about 75% filled, almost all middle-aged men. I immediately despise every one of them, damned Republicans who would vote their own ride out of existence. There's more coffee cups & newspapers in the car than laptops. A one way first class fare from Newark to Washington DC is $300. The coffee cups are styrofoam; you get sturdy cardboard ones downstairs in the station. I read somewhere they serve a Jamaican blend now & the attendant brings it to you & after he takes your coat, but the food is no better than the Amtrak cafe car you get with coach fare on the slow line to Palookasville. As the train moves out, the seating doesn't look like a great improvement over business class. My train arrives, Long Branch local with plenty of seats. An adult fare to Elizabeth is $2.25. I pay less thanks to a long-expired official NJ Transit senior/disabled discount card with a very tiny date printed on it that was issued to me after I had eye surgery in 2001 & wore a ghastly bandage covered with a pirate eye patch.
I walk home from the station in Elizabeth in full daylight, the Columbian cafes are open, it's overcast, which always helps, but there's no denying it's Thursday rather than an extension of Wednesday. I'm dog tired & all wired up again. At home, I drop my clothes, pull on my sweatpants, take 1/2 an Ambien, get into bed, read for awhile, & it's after 8 when I fall asleep. I wake up at 11. I don't feel groggy. I have no memory of dreaming. These are bad signs. It means my body only pretended to be asleep while i was unconscious.
Labels: New Jersey, WFMU
