<Paul> The Arlington Cemetery Station Walk of Shame
Two days ago, I had to go to Virginia for a meeting. This is a very unusual thing for me; I've probably ridden the metro to Virginia maybe 10 times in the year and a half that I've lived in the area.
And I screwed up.
I transferred at Metro Center -- that was the easy part, Metro Center is home base to me: Cool, calming, reassuring, no problem. I descended another level to get to the Blue/Orange tracks, again, no problem. I even got on the train headed in the right direction. I paused to congratulate my metro prowess; I was a metro-riding wizard!
Stops I barely knew flew past -- Macpherson, Farragut (the West), Foggy Bottom, Rosslyn, Arlington Cemetery? WHAT? Huh? Where was Court House? How was I going to get to Virginia Square?
I was a Blue line rider headed for an Orange line destination.
So, here's the funny part, the part that I found to be so unusual, it prompted me to set-up a blog:
I got off at Arlington Cemetery, and so did six or seven other people. "People don't work near Arlington Cemetery," I thought. "Are these freaks coming to admire the eternal flame at 8:30 AM on a weekday?"
And the seven or eight of us followed one another down the escalator, across the station, up the other escalator, to the other platform. The seven or eight of us -- without exception -- had all made the same mistake. Every one of us got on the Blue trying to get to the land of the Orange. We didn't talk about it, although I heard a few people chuckle. We just marched across.
And, I've studied enough statistics and probability to know that this was no chance event. People must make this mistake constantly! Every day, maybe with the arrival of every Blue line train, people are making the walk of shame across the Arlington Cemetery station. I did the math -- 5 people per train, 20 trains per morning commute, 5 work days per week -- the number spiraled quickly upwards.
Every station has its own place in life. Arlington Cemetery, I learned that morning, is a place of absolute humility. It's where people from DC and Maryland learn that they are mortal; that they don't understand the Metro system as well as they thought they did; where they suck it up, and admit their failings. </Paul> <!--9:19 AM-->
<Paul> Background
Some background, first: I start each day at Takoma and ride to Metro Center. Reverse this in the afternoon or early evening. Before we moved, not too long ago, I used to ride from Woodley Park to Metro Center. The red line has always seemed the spine of the central nervous system, to me. </Paul> <!--9:07 AM-->
<Paul> Birth.
I ride the metro twice a day, every work day. It's kind of a central figure in my life. And every day, I sit on it and think about it, and I'd like to share some of those thoughts with you. </Paul> <!--8:52 AM-->
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