As a fellow commuter and I were commiserating this morning over the lateness of the trains and the amount of coldness we were experiencing while we waited, I thought of something funny. We tend to migrate and converse about the bad. I don’t remember ever striking up a conversation with a stranger by saying, “Hello, stranger! I would like to tell you about the perfectly pleasant day that I am having.” Usually shared misery that is the bond that glues strangers together.
This complete stranger and I struck up a conversation. He said, “Man, the trains are really late today.” And I agreed and we chatted for a while about the train that we normally take, which one we take if we are running late and how full the 7:57 usually is. We heard the announcement of “mechanical difficulty” around 8:20, and as we chatted, the 8:01 passed us by without stopping. It chugged right on past and left us standing in the cold, our breaths puffing out in clouds of steam. He was a jovial fellow and didn’t seem too worried. I, on the other hand, was a touch more peeved. My train is a local and they are less frequent. As was true in ancient days that all roads lead to Rome…….so all trains end up in Grand Central Terminal, which is where he wanted to be. Not so for Cos Cob, my humble stop. He told me that he had his laptop and planned to work on the train, so he was less concerned than me; presently laptop-less. As the next train pulled in (an express to GCT, I might add) he hopped on and we wished each other good days. I gave up on my hope for an on-time local and called K for a ride.
Today is not looking good so far, for me to have the perfectly pleasant day, but the next time I experience one, I plan to tell everyone, strangers and friends alike. Laters.
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