{"id":359,"date":"2017-04-08T21:33:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T21:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tulipsbloom.com\/?p=359"},"modified":"2017-04-09T15:38:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T15:38:38","slug":"seatmate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tulipsbloom.com\/?p=359","title":{"rendered":"Seatmate serendipity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"train-travel-poster\"<\/a>Some time back I boarded an Amtrak train for my first long-distance U.S. train ride. At this point I should mention that the romanticizing of events, especially travel-related ones, comes quite easily and naturally to me so this train ride was not thought of as a mere form of transit from point A to point B, but imagined instead as possessing 40’s jazz-era glamor, i.e. champagne in the dining car, men in fedoras, etc. \"images74POEVC9\"<\/a>\u00a0The seat-mate I dreamt for myself would be thoughtful and intelligent, adept at the rhythm and sway of conversational dance with a stranger and the hours and scenery would while away with pleasant engagement.<\/p>\n

\"Something<\/a>
Something liiiiike?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once I boarded the train it became clear my imagination had “gone off the rails” and that reality not only didn’t favor my naive\u00a0romanticism, but would set me back on track\u00a0with indifferent bluntness. There wouldn’t be any men deftly pulling\u00a0the chain of a pocket watch from their waistcoat to check the time or women in pencil skirts audibly clicking shut their handbags with elegantly gloved hands.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a>
What I was imagining…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I got to my assigned seat\u00a0I found\u00a0my real-life seat-mate sleeping with her hands tucked\u00a0deeply down the front of her pants and our conversation consisted of little more than her saying “sorry” when she jostled me while lifting her shirt all the way up to apply deodorant right there in the seat next to me. It was at that point I wanted to weep into my imaginary lacey-veiled pillbox hat but focused instead on enjoying the live movie provided by the passing scenery set to the rail rhythms. Fast forward to the return trip which originated amidst the crowds and chaos of New York’s Penn Station. When you purchase your ticket from Amtrak it is sold as a “reserved seat”, and indeed, when I departed Virginia, one of the conductors gave me the golden ticket assigned seat\u00a0 which landed me next to Miss Hygeina Inappropria. In New York though, once the platform was announced an entire train’s worth of people carting their luggage swarmed en masse to the too-small staircase leading to the train and once on board it resembled something like a carnival game of cake walk. The train seemed fairly full but I finally managed to secure a window seat and was surprised when the seat next to me remained empty as we pulled out of the station. The first stop was in New Jersey and the platform seemed to have relatively few passengers awaiting our train. Then sounds of the air click and whoosh of the door opening and the boarding commotion as a porter toting luggage came up the aisle in search of a seat for an elderly gentlemen who was making his way up the aisle using a walker. They stopped at the available aisle seat next to me and as the stop was a short one the porter quickly stashed the man’s bag above and exited the train. The gentleman was somewhat flustered as the porter had left before he had been settled into his seat and now his folded walker was half hooked over his armrest but falling into the aisle. The train pulled out of the station and\u00a0a conductor came by then to check the gentleman’s ticket and thankfully, stow the walker as well. As the gentleman retrieved the ticket from his coat pocket he asked what time the train would arrive to Washington D.C. as his original train had been delayed by a few hours\u00a0until he was finally told at the last moment to board this train. The conductor gave him an\u00a0ETA but was anxious to move on and away from the man’s tale of the tardy train. The conductor departed and the gentleman then turned to me to relay his frustration about his travel day so far and his concern over arriving\u00a0late into Washington.\u00a0My dashed seat-mate hopes on the outbound journey\u00a0had kept my expectations for the return\u00a0trip low but I honestly was hoping he wasn’t going to be a mopey grumbler the whole way.\u00a0He then realized he needed to update the party that was picking him up\u00a0with his new arrival time so he pulled out his phone and made a call. His face lit up when his party answered and his entire countenance changed. Gone was the furrowed brow and tightened lip of a long-delayed traveler replaced by sparkly eyes and a wide smile, his phone call had reassured both of us in different ways! He hung up and introduced himself. His name\u00a0was David and he had just gotten off the phone with his daughter who would be picking him up. He told me he was 91 years old and the reason\u00a0he was traveling to Washington\u00a0was to attend his great-granddaughter’s 1st birthday party, which is why he was so upset at being delayed but his daughter had reassured him the party would await his arrival. We chatted for a bit until he excused himself in order to eat a sandwich he had brought along.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0train\u00a0ride\u00a0clacked\u00a0along\u00a0with us\u00a0both\u00a0absorbed\u00a0in\u00a0our\u00a0own\u00a0thoughts\u00a0until\u00a0finally\u00a0he\u00a0turned\u00a0to\u00a0me\u00a0and\u00a0asked\u00a0where\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0headed.\u00a0I\u00a0explained\u00a0I\u00a0had\u00a0been\u00a0in\u00a0NY\u00a0for\u00a0work\u00a0but\u00a0that\u00a0my\u00a0husband\u00a0and\u00a0I\u00a0lived\u00a0about\u00a0an\u00a0hour\u00a0outside\u00a0of\u00a0DC.\u00a0He\u00a0eventually\u00a0asked\u00a0my\u00a0name,\u00a0and\u00a0when\u00a0I\u00a0gave\u00a0it\u00a0to\u00a0him\u00a0he\u00a0began\u00a0to\u00a0sing\u00a0one\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0several\u00a0songs\u00a0about\u00a0my\u00a0name\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0lovely\u00a0voice.\u00a0When\u00a0I\u00a0complimented\u00a0him\u00a0on\u00a0his\u00a0singing\u00a0he\u00a0went\u00a0on\u00a0to\u00a0sing\u00a0me\u00a0beautiful\u00a0bits\u00a0of\u00a0different\u00a0operas\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0language\u00a0they\u00a0were\u00a0written.\u00a0When\u00a0I\u00a0marveled\u00a0at\u00a0that\u00a0it\u00a0opened\u00a0another\u00a0door\u00a0to\u00a0further\u00a0discussion\u00a0with\u00a0this\u00a0amazing\u00a0man,\u00a0who\u00a0spoke\u00a0several\u00a0languages\u00a0fluently\u00a0and\u00a0had\u00a0traveled\u00a0the\u00a0globe\u00a0for\u00a0his\u00a0business.\u00a0Now\u00a0fully\u00a0engaged\u00a0with\u00a0one\u00a0another\u00a0we\u00a0were\u00a0both\u00a0turned\u00a0in\u00a0our\u00a0seats\u00a0to\u00a0more\u00a0fully\u00a0smile,\u00a0laugh\u00a0and\u00a0converse\u00a0with\u00a0one\u00a0another.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thinking\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0experience\u00a0of\u00a0my\u00a0wonderful\u00a0seat-mate\u00a0now\u00a0I\u00a0wonder\u00a0how\u00a0often\u00a0we\u00a0are\u00a0too\u00a0quick\u00a0to\u00a0judge\u00a0the\u00a0stranger\u00a0in\u00a0our\u00a0midst,\u00a0and\u00a0how\u00a0much\u00a0richer\u00a0our\u00a0lives\u00a0would\u00a0be\u00a0if instead of always racing to our destination so\u00a0frantically we could occasionally meander off course and take the time to appreciate\u00a0each\u00a0others\u00a0life\u00a0stories,\u00a0charm,\u00a0foibles\u00a0and\u00a0all. (Maybe deodorant-girl had a fascinating tale of her own to tell. Then again…nah.)<\/p>\n

P.S. Sorry for the wonkadonk layout…think I tried everything short of taking a sledgehammer to my laptop so….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some time back I boarded an Amtrak train for my first long-distance U.S. train ride. At this point I should mention that the romanticizing of events, especially travel-related ones, comes quite easily and naturally to me so this train ride was not thought of as a mere form of transit from point A to point … Continue reading Seatmate serendipity<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeatmate serendipity - Tulipani in Fiore (Tulips in Bloom)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tulipsbloom.com\/?p=359\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seatmate serendipity - Tulipani in Fiore (Tulips in Bloom)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some time back I boarded an Amtrak train for my first long-distance U.S. train ride. 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