(one of) the most miserable commute ever

i'm beginning to count down the days until march when i can drive into work again. the metro has just been ridiculous lately. i get on at the second stop on the orange line and all week have not been able to get a seat (and even i am not mastered reading the post while standing on the metro). but i would gladly stand everyday if it meant not having to deal with the hellish commute that was this morning.

susie and i arrived at the metro at 7:44 (we've determined there is some sort of time warp between our house and the metro because we ALWAYS arrive at the metro at 7:44, it's actually kind of creepy). we're going down the stairs (because the down escalator is out of service until may 2007, explain that one to me). so anyways, we get down the stairs and the platform is packed with people. great. but there's only one minute until the train comes so we head down the platform to our normal waiting area. we get on the train and the conductor is already announcing that there's another orange line train right behind this one, susie and i just looked at eachother and knew this wasn't a good sign.

we pull into wfc and more people pack onto the train, it's already almost to capacity and we're only at the third stop. so then we arrive at efc and even more people pack onto the train. and then the chimes come on - "doors closing" - and the chimes continue for nearly five minutes. the conductor comes on the loud speaker - "if you see any doors open, please jam them shut 0r we're going to have to off-board this train." well the door(s) never closed. so finally after five minutes of trying, the conductor took the train out of service and made everyone get off. BLAST.

so now we're standing outside in the bitter cold (ok, i lie, it wasn't so cold since there were so many people crowded around). the broken train pulls out of the station and a few minutes later a new train pulls in. susie and i don't even bother trying to squeeze onto that one. we luckily got onto the next one, but the commute wasn't over, in fact it had really just begun. so we pull into ballston and maybe a few people get off, but then 25 people try to squeeze on. at this point susie and i are separated (tragedy) and pushed in opposite directions. same sort of thing happens at virginia square. [side note - you know there's a problem when the virginia square metro stop is packed].

and then there was clarendon. we pulled in and i don't think a single person got off the train. clearly we're already at capacity, yet some guy thinks he can fit in. he tries pushing his way onto the train and starts yelling at everyone to move in. when no one moved (probably because there was literally no where to move) he pushed even harder right into some other guy. and then this guy had the nerve to say "i need to be on this train, i've already let a bunch of trains pass me by." ok seriously dude, everyone needs to be on this train, just take a chill pill. a fight almost ensued, but i guess the guy who was pushed into realized it wasn't worth it.

so now we still had two more stops until i could get off. courthouse was pretty non-eventful. but then there's rosslyn - there's always a problem at rosslyn. so many people getting on and off, and so many people not getting out of the way to let people get on and off. seriously people, learn the metro rules. if only we had had the best conductor ever, i have a feeling he would have been able to smooth things over.

so now we're in the tunnel approaching foggy bottom (finally). the train stops in the station, and there's that awkward wait until the doors actually open. i'm near the center of the car at this point and i say "excuse me" and attempt to make my way towards the door, but some heinous woman won't move, so i do the only thing i can - i push her out of the way. whatever. if you don't move then i will make you move. susie still had a ways to go, but hopefully she made it without any more debacles. the metro really needs to get itself in order - with all the track fires, people getting hit by trains and out of service cars in the past week - it's really getting ridiculous.