Just some Friday thoughts...

Living in Maryland and working in downtown D.C. I have the pleasure of taking a 45 minute train ride to and from work. I don't mind it because unlike the CTA (no offense, Chicago) it is much, much quieter and most people are commuters so they respect the serenity. Because I can't sleep on the train, I'm wide awake and take advantage of the time for good people watching. Some of them are pretty amusing so I thought I'd share.

As a pretty motivated commuter, I move at a moderate pace. Not because I'm in any particular hurry but because I guess that's just what commuters do. However, I am amazed and even sometimes appalled by the commuters who will literally knock you, a child, a blind person and an elderly couple over to catch the next train. Understand that D.C. Metro trains are on schedule practically down to the second and one comes literally every 4 to 5 minutes if not sooner. Seriously crazy commuter, is it that awful if you have to listen to one additional song on your iPod until the next train comes!

A fan of technology, I get to observe a number of really cool gadgets in the variety of phones, Mp3 players and PDA's that D.C. business people are glued to. Earlier this week, I saw something that I had never seen before. A man was standing reading what looked like a book but there was light coming from it. I peeked over and saw that he had the Kindle. I first learned about the Kindle around Christmas last year and had seen ads online but I hadn't seen one in person. Initially, I thought it was a complete waste of money. (FYI-The Kindle is an electronic device that allows you to purchase books that same way you purchase songs for your iPod, download them and read them on the screen.) Retailing at about $300, I felt it wasn't a huge deal to continue buying standard books like everyone else. Originally a skeptic, let me tell you, this thing is pretty f'ing cool! I'm not sold enough to run out and buy one but I must say, good job Amazon!

I can't forget my fellow iPod listeners whose music is so loud that everyone around them can hear it and I can hear it over the music I'm listening to on my own iPod. One thing that Apple does well is sound quality, it's not necessary to listen to your iPod at its most exaggerated level, no matter how much you like that new Lil' Wayne song.

Because it's summer and it's summer in D.C., the city is ridden with tourists. Every afternoon I leave my office feeling like a celeb walking through a crowd of paparazzi (not in a good way) with all the tourists taking pictures. (It's kinda creepy to think about how many vacation pictures I'm probably in the background of. ) But you gotta love the tourists that get caught on the Metro during rush hour. I can't help but to feel bad for them because it is immediately evident that they're not from D.C. nor from a large city with a large public transit system. If you look close enough, you can literally see the joy and delight on their faces turn to horror once they enter the underground tunnels of the Metro. I have literally seen families huddle together so as not to get eaten alive by the D.C. commuters. But I usually flash them a smile and answer their directional questions to try to reassure them that it really will be okay.

Every day is different but the 45 minutes is usually pretty well spent. If nothing else, I get a few giggles out of it in between reading my newspaper. As if I didn't know this already, people are really interesting. If you observe long enough, you can learn a lot about someone you don't even know. So, the next time you have a free moment, instead of struggling to fill the time with doing something, sit back and observe. You may learn something about someone else or even yourself.

~S