The Train Essential

The journey home on the train is always better when someone is talking in your ear. Terry Gross, Ira Glass, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, the folks on National Public Radio are usually the voices courtesy of a podcast as I travel. On a post-it on my desk I have the train times listed for my journey home and they are in roughly half hour or 45 minute increments but weird times like 7:17pm so I can never keep them straight, so it’s not uncommon that I will look up from whatever I’m doing, notice the time at the bottom corner of my laptop screen, immediately look at the train schedule and realize I’ve got to be out the door in two minutes to run to the train station. There’s a big window in my office so I’m sure if people are still in the building this looks hilarious as I jump up and start packing furiously and run out the door without saying a “goodnight”.


A funny thing happened last week on my way out the door. My routine is always the same, as I am walking to the train station which takes me about 6 minutes, I am speed walking uphill and wrapping my scarf around my neck, finding my train card, taking my iPod out and putting one bud in my ear, and turning on a podcast. These podcasts help turn my mind off. Music allows me to just keep on thinking about work, where podcasts take me somewhere else. As I was walking and fumbling for my iPod I made a very stressful discovery, I had left it on my desk. With a very short timeframe do I turn around and go back to the office to get it and risk being stuck for another 45 minutes or do I press on? Because of a pending conference call I didn’t turn back, so the whole journey home my mind is rambling because now, not only will my evening commute suck but what about the morning commute? Sure I’ve got the London commuter paper to flip through but that doesn’t take me long. Can I steal H’s iPod for the day to get me through? But his doesn’t have podcasts loaded? What am I going to do?

I realize the thoughts running through my head make me sound like an addict, and I fully admit my addiction to my iPod. Oh and yes, about public radio, I am a subscriber.