The floor of the Hollywood/Highland station.
Downtown from the train.
benches to sit on.
A bench that is a chest.
Photography of the Metro
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Tag Archives: L.A.
Riding the Metro to work?
Last night, on my ride home, Jeff called to say that he had to be somewhere east of LA at 7:30 am. The same time I have to be at work. Which meant…I had to take the Metro to work. I looked for options out of it, but in the end, this was the only option.
So I woke up at 5:10 am. I got up. I showered. Jeff offered to drive me to the train station at 5:55 am. I arrived at 5:58 am. That’s right, folks. In the 5 o’clock hour, I was at the Metro station.
I walked down the escalators, bought my ticket (I always buy my ticket, even though no one checks your ticket and there are no turnstiles. I like to be honest, and I believe that if no one pays, the system will never get better. So I pay.) I walked to the platform, impressed at my alertness, sipping my coffee, ready to pull my book out…book out…BOOK. I had forgotten, in my haste, to grab my BOOK! And this is terrible news, because I finished a book yesterday, leaving a wide open space for me to pick up where I left off in The Red Tent so I could attempt to finish the book club books on time.
No dice. And then, I remembered that I could listen to my Bridge of Sighs book on tape. And then I remembered it wasn’t on my iPod anymore.
But then I thought it’d be OK. I could people watch.
So I did!
And let me tell you, it made me feel like I was on the subway in Beijing again. That was the last subway system that I was familiar with, and it reminds me of the Beijing. There are tons of people on the LA trains that are not “white people.” In Boston, it feels like there are Irish, Italian, and a slew of college students around. In China, everyone was Chinese. Here, people are white, Hispanic, black, etc. I feel like it’s more diverse here than any place I have lived, and a good place to see that is on the subway.
As I rode to work, I had lots of time to take in my surroundings. I took some pictures of the scenery, because most of the Gold line is above ground (the second line I ride.) I also rode the Pasadena ARTS bus for the first time! (Pasadena Area Rapid Transit System.) It was wonderful, because the bus arrived promptly, which meant I walked into work at 7:25, just in time to see Liz’s dog!
All in all, not a big deal at all. A little sleepy, but I have an iced coffee here. Tomorrow I will remember a book.
Dream Post 13: Lifting a car
I had a dream:
I was in Jeff’s car, driving, and he was there, too. We were getting off a highway and onto an on-ramp, when I noticed the accelarator wasn’t working and we could only go 40 mph. There was a lot of traffic on the off-ramp, and I was worried I’d add to it by going slowly (I don’t know why this made logical sense) and so I got out of the car, with Jeff, and lifted the car to carry down the ramp. Then the ramp turned into a very steep staircase, but the kind that have no backs to the stairs, basically a cross between a staircase and a ladder. I was walking down it, carrying the car, and there were tons of people around, standing on each step/rung waiting their turn, like they were in traffic. I excused myself and cut them, because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to stop, and then I knocked a kid down a few steps by accident. So I lifted him up and threw him up to where he was before, and then kept going, all the while holding my car.
Then I woke up.
Riding the Metro, in L.A.
For those of you who have seen the movie “Crash” you know that it’s a bit taboo to ride the public transit in L.A. Or, so I thought. I had been told that the subway exists, but most people seldom use it.
Well, today Jeff was on a film shoot, and I was going to be the only person in the office. How was I to get home? Well, I looked at a map of Pasadena, and determined it was only a mile and a half to the train station.
A mile and a half, I said to myself. Nothing. True, longer than the walk from my old apartment to school, but I could walk a mile and a half. I’m on my way to RUNNING one, for goodness sake.
So, today I wore my sneaks, and when 3:30 rolled around, I locked up the office, put my backpack on, and headed to the train. Luckily enough, I ran into K who also works at Poly, and he told me he was also on his way to the train! So off we went. He chuckled a little when I mentioned that a) I was going to walk and b) that I had never taken the metro. He takes it every day, over an hour each way, from way down by the water. That, my friends, is a hike.
Because I was with K, the walk was short. We got to the metro, he showed me how to buy a ticket, and off we went. He even switched to the same line I was switching to, which made it really easy. The metro is just as clean (and sometimes just as dirty) as Boston’s T, or Chicago’s El. I was surprised to learn it’s only $1.25 each ride, thank you very much. From my stop to the apartment it’s a mere half mile, which rounded my walk off to 2 miles. When I got home I wasn’t angry from driving, my back didn’t hurt from clenching, and I had learned a lot about my coworker and listened to some tunes.
It took about an hour and a half, and driving takes about an hour. But, exercise was about a half hour, so I’m pumped.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll take the train, too. Anything’s possible.