A Metro milestone
Posted May 4, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Okay, so tomorrow is two weeks, but I’m still not back completely on track. Sigh. More about that later.
But first, a bit of good news. Today, I took the Metro to work for the first time since I think sometime in 1998 or so.
When I first moved to DC, I did the bus/Metro thing regularly. But then I started grad school, and my school wasn’t really Metro-accessible. At that point, I started driving to work. This may have been a chicken or egg thing, but that is the point that I went from being really heavy (probably high 200s or low 300s) to being physically challenged (as I started heading to the high 300s).
Why did I stop doing Metro?
Well, the school thing was initially an issue, but I graduated in mid-2001. At that point, I chose not to begin doing the Metro for one simple reason: I was too fat to do half a seat, and I was too fat to stand the whole way.
One of these is a social/psychological thing, and the other is a physiological thing. The former is related to the really annoying seats on DC’s metro (see above). That damn little plastic triangle makes the whole issue of who fits a lot harder than it needs to be.
If that damn triangle wasn’t there, then whoever was on the aisle could “hang over” even if it was just a tiny bit. But with that stupid little piece there, fitting into the bench becomes a serious team effort.
What does this mean?
Well, if you are a fattie like me, it means you really, really want to be able to sit first in an empty bench. Then it’s up to someone else to decide whether they can handle your “cooties.”
When I could stand (if an empty bench wasn’t available), this approach worked well for me. But as the weight piled on, the alternative (stand for the whole ride) became less and less an option.
Anyways, today I had to attend an event in the AM that was out in the burbs. And since our parking garage fills up early, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to drive afterwards. But courtesy of my weight loss, not only was I comfortable walking to the Metro and where I needed to be, but I knew that if I couldn’t get a seat, I’d still be okay.
As it turned out, I had a seat both to work and back home. But there was still that awkward sense of “oh, they see me and don’t want to sit with the fat person” as I try very hard to squoosh into just my half of the bench.
All in all, a good thing (especially with the price of gas becoming astronomical).
May 4th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
I used to take Metro to work, and I didn’t realize how much better than commuting it was until I went back to driving. On Metro, the commute’s longer, but I can read, listen to music, de-stress from the day. And walking to and from the station was the only exercise I was getting at the time. Sitting in traffic at the Wilson Bridge never de-stressed anybody. I get home more tired than I did walking twenty minutes from the station to my house.
Maybe taking up two seats never bothered me because I don’t want anyone sitting next to me anyway, and the train was hardly ever that crowded. I commuted off-peak, mostly, so I paid less and got to see all the colorful folks. I still commute off-peak, but I still sit in a lot more traffic than I’d like to. Every so often, I take out the bus schedules and work out how to get to my job from the nearest Metro station… and chicken out. I’ve already got too much to do and not enough time, I can’t add more time to my commute.
Oh, I live in the DC area too, BTW… :)
May 5th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Is that supposed to be a safety feature? Or do they put those damn triangles in there to prevent people from lying down on the benches? It certainly has undesirable side effects!