The Rundown

It's amazing what you can accomplish in one week. Including, but not limited to:

• Playing in four states (MA, RI, CT, NY)
• Bringing joy to all grandparents (and one aunt)
• Witnessing your brother win third and first place in a big tournament in a casino
• Making new friends and connections
• Sleeping in no less than four different locations
• Mastering two new CDs during travel
• Visiting many (but not all) friends from college and work
• Verbally assaulting friends who have failed to keep in contact
• Swimming in a pool for the first time in two years (and having diving and splashing wars with your brother for the first time in a looong time)
• Observing the zoo that is Long Island and Jones Beach
• Celebrating a holiday
• Jamming to a live band
• Devouring some Dunkin and Uburger
• Staying out past midnight

... and more. Good times! Steve was a fantastic host. Heading for my last night in Boston then early to the airport for a long day of travel back to D-town.

I hope the airports have free WIFI like the commuter rail!

The MBTA Needs To Reassess Their Communication Strategy. Or Get One.

If the MBTA had a Twitter account, they probably wouldn't follow me. I ride the Green Line to Copley and home at least six times a week each way. Guaranteed I tweet at least one angry message per week. Here's a sampling:

Today Marissa gets to experience my hell that is the MBTA. Our fingers are numb and there is accident near by. 8:51 AM Dec 5th from txt

Why am I 15 minutes late with 15 minutes to walk? Because the MBTA sucks! Oh B line. Why do you mock me?! 4:36 PM Dec 3rd from txt

Welcome back from break. Every T driver hates Maria again. Mmm. 8:42 AM Dec 1st from txt

Today was my worst experience with the T, by far.

Two Ts and one bus passed without letting passengers board. Finally, a T arrived and made steady progress heading express to Kenmore. Looked like I'd be on time for work after all.

Between Kenmore and Hynes Convention Center, the T came to an abrupt halt throwing me into a strange man's armpit. Halfway through rolling our eyes and raising our arms in confusion, the front half of the T heard anxious screams asking if anyone was a doctor.

We all took out our headphones to hear what was going on. It was very confusing. The T was packed so we couldn't see what happened. All we could see was a crowd with their backs to us. Some woman kept screaming for a medic while another broke through the crowd and ran to alert the driver. The driver pushed her way to the injured person in the back. We were stuck for at least 10 minutes. People were screaming, "we need to get to the next stop right now." At Hynes, the injured person and some others scrambled away as the rest of us stood on our toes trying to see if the person was ok.

I still don't know what happened. I looked for information when I got home but found only one message board with passenger responses to my tweet.

This is ridiculous. The MBTA is the 5th largest mass transit system in the nation. The entire system transports about 1.1 million people per day. Considering many people rely on the MBTA as their sole means of transportation, there NEEDS to be a better system in place to provide constant information and updates.

So here's the deal. I'm going to make this easy for you, MBTA. Pay close attention.

Maria's Communication Tips to Ensure Happier MBTA Riders

1. Get a Twitter account. This is easy and effective. Someone already created a hashtag (allowing users to aggregate information on a certain topic) that goes as far back as 5 months ago. The current voice of the MBTA is angry. It is pissed off passengers cursing the T. It is people sharing stories about how the MBTA keeps messing up. Let's get an actual MBTA representative on Twitter to give some reliable information to riders, who can have updates sent their phones while they're waiting in the freezing cold wondering why no trains are coming.
2. Get a blog. Seriously. Either add an update page to the MBTA site or create a blog that will link to the site and provide constant, honest information. The current News and Events section is pathetic. It is not representative of the struggles facing the people out there riding the T every day. Some sites that I DID find include MBTASUX.com (a compilation of organized Twitter complaints), Train Stopping (written by a frustrated commuter rail passenger) and Switchback (provides commentary and criticism of the MBTA.) Again, the MBTA needs a voice. A realistic voice. People want to hear the news, even if it always bad. Right now, we never hear any realistic news from the source.
   
3. Monitor the internet. Does the MBTA even know about the blogs I mentioned? They were solely created to criticize and complain about the MBTA. This is not to mention bloggers who post or tweet about their experiences more sparingly. The MBTA should monitor Twitter and blogs to get a better idea of who their passengers are and what they want. Many people who blog and tweet about the MBTA have helpful suggestions that would make commutes easier. Many have questions that the MBTA should directly reply to.

Companies (like Comcast) have created blogs and Twitter accounts to respond to unhappy customers. Many companies have been extremely successful in doing so. The MBTA needs to get with the program. People are fed up. It's time for a change. At least get a Twitter, for blog's sake!

Until that happens, I will keep angrily tweeting in hopes of appearing on MBTASUX.com.

Trip home cont.

On my second flight home (D.C. to Detroit), I spent a lot of time trying to avoid the guy sitting next to me, who was determined to share his entire life story accompanied by home videos of his sons doing cartwheels in their pajama pants. After hearing about his 20 year high school reunion and his sister-in-law, I decided I had enough information about this stranger. I closed my eyes while he was telling me about his job at some computer company.

As I drifted off, I realized why I love flying. Aside from the people-watching of course.

Once you get past all the lines and annoying people on cell phones, you get on the plane and buckle up. For a certain amount of time, everyone sits there strapped in, technology disabled, sitting in a confined area. This is perhaps the only time we are really forced to turn everything off and sit in one spot. My favorite part is being above the clouds. It's almost as if everything disappears when you get that high. The clouds are so entrancing that I usually end up thinking about the shapes they make or the color of the sky instead of anything serious. The best part is, no matter what the day is like on the ground, whenever you fly above the clouds the sky is always sunny and blue. You can forget about the groggiest Boston rain storm after you rise above the clouds.

The same phenomenon occurs when I take the commuter rail to see Steve. Sitting in the seats, I forget about all the drunken decrepits riding next to me and become entranced by everything moving across through the window. In both planes and trains, someone else is taking you to your destination. You don't have to grip a steering wheel anticipating a kamikaze Michigan driver about to shoot out of nowhere. You can relax and enjoy the ride. Take a break. Think about nothing. Enjoy the scenery.

Of course none of this is relevant if you have an aisle seat, are squashed between two overweight travelers, or have a bipolar drunk telling you about the three-headed garden gnome waiting to pick him up in Worcester.

People in Worcester are weird.