Monday, June 20, 2011

I normally take the 07:15 from Ajax. It's a longer train (length, I mean, not commute time). For a while I was taking the 07:01. It's a shorter train and usually standing-room-only.

I was also surprised (and annoyed) by how rambunctious this train is. There were days I wanted to slip tranquilizers into everyone's coffee.

I experimented for several months, trying out different cars, joining the various scrums to get on the train. Nothing seemed to fit.

So I went back to my 07:15.

The thing is, my husband drops me off on his way to work. I get to the train in plenty of time to catch the 07:01. So I wait.

In the winter, I waited at the bottom of the escalator, behind the elevator, well out of the way of everyone sprinting for the train. It was entertaining to watch everyone hustle. And I don't know why I was surprised to see so many people block the bottom of the escalator. If you're not going up immediately, get the hell outta the way so everyone else can get through.

Now that it's nice weather, I want to be outside, enjoy the bit of sun before I'm chained to my desk for ten hours. So I wander up with everyone else.

I normally sit in the first car which, for the 07:15, is way at the other end of the platform. The 07:01, having fewer cars, stops shorter.  Since I've come back to the 07:15, I've joined the scrum waiting for the 07:01 front car. I don't want to look like an idiot, standing all alone at the end of the platform. I just know everyone will think I'm clueless and have no idea that the train won't be stopping anywhere near where I'm standing.

So I wait with the others. And when the train leaves, I wander down to the end of the platform and wait.

But this morning I thought, 'the hell with it. I don't need to explain my actions. And I really don't give a shit what anyone else thinks.'

So I went to my usual spot for the 07:15. And waited. I turned my back to everyone else, so that at least the conductor would know I wasn't a moron, and I pulled out my BlackBerry and passed the time with a game of Word Mole.

I hear the train pull in. It stops way behind me. There's a quiet toot of the horn. A few seconds pass. Then...
an ear-deafening blast of the horn for at least three seconds.

I've been taking the GO for more than ten years. The train has never blasted the horn in the station. There is no doubt he blasted it for me.

I turned very slowly. I know he couldn't see my facial expression, but I mouthed "What?!" and shot him a WTF look.

Though I'm quite sure they were bantering about how much of a ditz I am, I appreciate the thoughtfulness, but my ears haven't stopped ringing.