unacceptable

this week, i was on a train from boston to new york. leaving at 6:15 and scheduled to get in at 9:45 a.m., it was full of business people traveling for work, much like i was. it was a train trip where everything thing that could go wrong, did go wrong. just outside of new haven, the train broke down due to a computer glitch. after 45 minutes of waiting, it took another 45 minutes to get to new haven because the train needed to go slowly. at new haven, they fixed the problem, though we were already running late. Forty-five minutes outside of new york, the same problem happened again. this time, we had to go back to new haven and switch to a different train there. i didn't get to new york until two o'clock, eight hours after i left.

now, this was a bit annoying. i expected to be on a train for three and a half hours. in the middle of the trip, it was unclear if we would make it at all. when the train conductor announced that we would be switching trains at new haven and getting in around two, i thought there was going to be a mutiny. one woman yelled "this is unacceptable" and a man was discussing how embarrassing it was to have to keep changing the time of his meetings. luckily, i was in a much better mood.

early in the trip, after the train broke down the first time, the man behind me called the people he was meeting to update them on the travel time. now, he was switching trains in new york to go out to new jersey, which was a much longer trip than the rest of us just going to new york. he was also dependent on transferring trains, a stressful proposition when the first one is late. when talking to his colleagues, he was very jovial and making jokes about the situation. after he hung up, the man sitting next to him commented on his attitude. "At least you can laugh about the situation," he said. His laughing seat partner said "What else can you do?"

instead of getting worked up like everyone else on the train, i kept this man's comments in my head throughout the trip. when we had to travel backwards to new haven, i realized how hilarious this situation was. i would have a great story to tell. and when we got our new estimated arrival time of two p.m., i could roll my eyes at those shouting about the unacceptable-ness of the situation. there are many, many things that are unacceptable in this world -- injustice, corruption, and hunger to name a few. thanks to the good mood of the man behind me, i was able to keep my annoying trip in perspective and probably have a much better day than the woman who had an "unacceptable" train ride.