Prologue

As my clothes smack around in the dryer, I'm thankful for wake-up buddies, for snowstorm adventures and kind dentists who give stranded strangers a much needed ride. I'm thankful for an introduction to an old jazz standard, Open the door Richard, and for the Amtrak adventures that accompanied my journey back to Philly from Washington last weekend. I still recall fondly the mirth with which we greeted the Amtrak conductor's apology for the short delay (over 3 hours) and after an additional 30 minutes on the static train, the admission they were still waiting for an engineer to show up so the train could actually leave. I still regard with wonder all which had to come together for me to end up in the car and the seat that made such a crap-tastic set of circumstances such a joy. I am thankful the night ended after 1 am with a night owl bus ride through the snowy city with the quietly menacing types that make up the night owl bus riding crowd. It was a perfectly magical and ridiculous weekend and it starts with a dear friend, an epic snowstorm, and a Mini Cooper.

Before launching in the windy disjointed narrative I suspect this story will become, I feel I should introduce the players. One of the most important people, the Amtrak engineer, I never even met but he seems like a Steve to me, so that's what I'll call him. The others are*:

Issa: A dentist in northern Virginia and a great Samaritan

Joy: A Phillipino nurse who was stranded with me when the buses shut down

Mini Cooper: My dear friend who drives a cute but impractical car, who spent Saturday morning assessing the storm and periodically clearing a trench around the Mini Cooper though it was increasingly clear the car would not see service that day. Hope springs eternal.

9 Cookie/Meal Ticket/Trustfund/Georgetown: Probably going to make my top 10 most annoying humans alive. Nice enough guy but mentioned his ability to have unlimited meals at the Georgetown cafeteria no less than 8 times. Also the first one to mention he went to Georgetown and the only one to repeat it at least 3 times. Seems to operate from an assumption that people are paying attention to him and actually care what he's up to.

Seattle: His traveling circumstances were completely tragic. He wasn't with us long, needing only a ride to BWI where he was likely going to spend the night. He spent most of his short time on board in the cafe car and I got a feeling he wanted no part of our reindeer games though he was not at all snotty about it.

Yea Something Like That: Large slightly menacing man who slept most of the ride with his headphones on which must have been turned all the way up because when he made a phone call, it was in loud deliberate Spanish which was already funny enough. When he finished the conversation in English with 'yea, something like that,' it was all I could do not to laugh.

Betsy: A nice older lady. I liked her hair and her overall chic-ness.

Tim: Last but not least, the charming Tim. I liked him immensely for the short time I knew him. He had a great way about him and I felt he would be successful at whatever he put his hand to. He was easy going, light hearted and affable, but seemed at his core to be kind of a serious young man, inclined toward introspection and thoughtful consideration of the world around him. He gave me his e-mail address as we were pulling into Philadelphia and said he'd like to read my account of our crazy adventures which is of course why he's considered so favorably in this prologue. :-) I'm sorry if 9 Cookie is your friend. Tim was unabashedly into hats and had at least 4-5 hats close at hand. Tim changed hats at least 3 times during the trip, though to be fair, one was a festive Santa hat adorned with his name written in glitter.


*some names have been modified