For three days this week, I’m commuting from Norwalk, CT, to New York, NY, to take some classes in QuarkXpress. These commuting days are very different than the three-mile drive I’m used to doing.
For starters, my day begins at 6:00 a.m., not my usual 8:00 a.m. By 7:00, I’m out the door. Since parking is scarce at the train station, spend the next 20 minutes walking the half-mile. Mind you, it’s 20 degrees out and snow on the ground.
Once I arrive to the station, I join a large group of people who are standing on the cold, open-air platform, waiting for the 7:23 train to Grand Central. When the train does arrive, nearly all the seats are full. I have to ask someone to move their stuff just enough for me to cram myself in-between two sleeping passengers. Five minutes later, I also fall victim to the rhythmic click-ed-ly-clak of the train.
One hour later, I arrive in Grand Central Station. Exiting the train, I slowly walk, push, and bump may way to the Subway, where I wait for another train to carry me six more stops. By 8:45, I return to the surface, walk less than 20 yards, and enter the building where my classes are held.
All it all, it takes me two hours (1:50 on a good day) to go door to door (Norwalk home to NYC classroom). My classmates can’t believe that I’m commuting in from a different state. But when I tell them it takes me just 20 minutes longer than their commute from the Bronx, it’s doesn’t seem so bad.