Sunday - Monday 9/28-9/29 (Post #7)

Well this week's commute started out a little earlier than normal due to the fact that there was a 9:30 am big wig meeting on Monday morning and I did not want to risk the chance of being late. So instead of going to LA monday morning I decided to jump on the train Sunday night. Then my wonderful parents picked me up in Santa Ana. Ok do you really think it was that easy...is anything I do easy. So I had a soccer game at 3pm on Sunday and the train was leaving at 5:56pm which of course means I need to go straight to the train from my game. OH FUN! I got over it quickly and just dealt with it. I played about 75% of the game which we played like CRAP, but that is another story. I got taken out and really thought my knee had finally blown. Yippee just really sore...on to the second half. We win 3 to 2. Yeah us. I grab my stuff and head to the train station. Left shin throbbing and my right knee blazing with pain. I hobbled up the stairs...because all of the downstairs seat are reserved or for the elderly and found a seat next to some older gentleman. Cold, smelly and in pain. YEAH ME.

Oh forgot to add that the guy next to me farted like 3 times!

Monday comes and the Perkins family carpool leaves for work. BTW my dad actually has a carpooling pass that included a dependent child....ME. HAHA j/k it was from when he used to take Mattie to school. The green line was pretty cool today. I spent about 20 minutes talking to a man in a hoveround. He worked for Boeing and has been in the aerospace for years. Currently he is working on designs for space and mars colonies. He is also working on a satellite that will capture solar energy to help run the earth. Pretty cool! The rest of the commute was boring. However, I have decided that I am going to try to sit by the first cute guy I see with an open seat from now on. I mean if no one is gonna be nice and talk to me at least I can have something to look at. Right? ;-)

Since the day was lame....here are some pictures of the subway in LA.

Friday 9/26/08 (Post #6)

If you have seen this movie then you will enjoy my next story, or if you have my grandpas you will probably get a good chuckle out of my post. This morning I got on the train and decided to shake things up a bit and sit in a different place. Ok, the truth is two older men took my spot. I say down by myself in the seat behind them, I mean really if you know me you know that I am a creature of habit and I would not be comfortable too far from “home”. A couple then boarded the train and could not find two open seats. So of course I offered them my seat and I moved up to sit with the older men. The one next to me was sleeping and the other one was just sitting there with half of a frown on his face. We sat quietly the whole way, in fact I think I actually got some sleep. That was of course when we were not passing a site of interest.
Grumpy man #1 “There is the baseball stadium.”
Grumpy man #2 “WHAT?”
Grumpy man #1 “I said there is the baseball stadium”
Grumpy man #2 “Oh, humph” (then back to sleep)
A few minutes later…
Grumpy man #1 “We are in Fulerton.”
Grumpy man #2 “WHAT?”
Grumpy man #1 “I said we’re in Fullerton. Hugh used to live here.
Grumpy man #2 “WHAT?”
Grumpy man #1 “ I said Hugh used to live here before he moved to Palm Springs”
Grumpy man #2 – just huffed again
As we approached Union Station we had this conversation…
Grumpy man #1 “Old time private cars” (there are some old private train cars on the yard)
Grumpy man #2 “WHAT?”
Grumpy man #1 “Old private train cars”
Grumpy man #2 “WHERE? I didn’t see anything!”
Priceless I tell you just priceless….I almost peed my pants.

Friday PM commute…also called HELL. The Friday commute is PACKED with a shit load of people trying to get home early. If you have a metrolink monthly pass of a Amtrak ticket or pass you can ride this train. It is standing room only for about two stops. RING!!!! There goes my cell phone and it is Denise.
Denise: “Where are you? What are you doing?”
Terri: “ I am on the train getting ready to go home.”
Denise: “Get off, Get off come out to cowboy with me, our plans have changed.”
We talked a lot about the chance of me getting picked up in Fullerton and what I was wearing and we decided I would just go home and we would go out on Saturday. I got a seat in the 4-person section in the middle sitting with two other ladies and a guy. I started to work and then when the train got less crowded I moved to a two-seat row with some lady. She was in her 50’s and looked pretty nice. She was reading “The Shack” and I have seen so many people reading it and my uncle told me how much he loved it. So I tried to start up a conversation, but she was not up for it. I went back to work. About 30 minutes later the lady gets on the phone and starts the name-dropping and the guess how rich I am conversations. “(insert name) made over a million dollars on Nickelback this year alone. He was trying to talk (insert name) to sell one of her houses, he wants her to move into his multi-million dollar home in Malibu.” Yadda Yadda Yadda. She continued for like an hour talking to everyone. Telling everyone that would listen that she loved using public transportation. I bet she called her whole phone list. Finally she hung up and was ready to grace me with her conversation. We talked (she did most of it) about public transportation and how great it is. How all of her family said she was crazy to be riding on the train from Simi Valley to San Diego. She said she doesn’t care if we travel on the same train that crashed a few weeks ago. She was a flight attendant years ago and she told everyone who would listen that she knows that when there had been a plane crash the next few months were the best time to fly because everyone was on hyper alert. She then told me that she was here to visit her daughter who was about to have a baby. Her daughter is married and her and her husband live on mission bay in a million dollar home, but they want to move. Even though they make over a $100K a year and can afford to live here, they want to move to another area for the schools and a bigger house. I mean really you can’t have an infant in a 5-bedroom 4-bath house that is just ridiculous. Yes of course I made that part up, but I know that is what she was hinting at. BTW her family in California lives in Palisades, Newport Beach, Malibu and somewhere else. Let me just finish by saying I never got a word in edgewise. If you know me then you know that is a miracle in itself.

Casualty of the day: my ears.

Thursday 9/25/08 (Post #5)

Thursday’s am commute was so awesome. I rode the whole way to Union Station with an older guy probably in his early 60’s. He was raised in North Carolina and has moved to San Diego to be near his grandchildren. We talked about so much I don’t think there was any moment of silence. While he was in high school he met this wonderful lady that was like 3 years younger than he was. They dated for a while then when he left for the war they decided to see other people. While she was in college she started to date her college professor and she ended up marrying him. This man also married a young lady he started dating. His wife was a flight attendant and they worked opposite schedules. She was very adamant that she never wanted kids and he thought she would change her mind…she never did. They live their life on different schedules up until they both retired. When they were traveling and being busy they were good together, but as soon as thing settled down they could not bear to be near each other. She wanted to live in New York and he wanted to retire somewhere a bit calmer. Slowly the started to live apart from each other and then they mutually got divorced. He adds now she gets half of my pension but I guess she deserves it. LOL. He ended up living with his sister in NC and one day he heard that his young high school love was also divorced. He could not believe it and they started to talk over email. Eventually the found any reason they could to meet up, even though they lived like 2 hours away from each other. Then 5 years ago they got married. Now they live her close to her daughter and grandkids. I was so touched by how much he loved his wife and how much he smiled when he talked about her. He shared a lot more with me…he really was a great man, with a very big heart. While we talked, we were joined by an older lady (probably the same age as the man). She told us a lot about her life as well. She was on her way to see her granddaughter. She told us about her marriage and that her and her husband fought daily, but if they didn’t then she would know something was wrong. LOL She said she was very hard to handle, I could not even imagine it. We ended up talking about Autism and our feeling on the subject. They both questioned me on what I felt caused it, how to work with them and then they just listened.

My PM drive was boring, so I will take this time to tell you a great story about work. Every Thursday there is a farmers market across the street from our building behind the city hall. They had great veggies and fruits. They also had fresh breads, lunches and flowers. We went for two reasons: fruits for me and secondly to meet the guy the makes the candied nuts. Background on that guy is I guess he totally flirts with Terry from work. Terry said he as gone with a few different ladies and a couple of other guys and the “nut” man always flirts with him and totally ignores who ever he was with. So Terry wanted to see if he would ignore me too. I am VERY PROUD to say that not only did he talk to me I also got a few very cute smiles and some eye contact. BTW he is HOT! LATIN!!! GREAT ARMS and did I say hot? So after we shopped Terry decided he would be adventurous and eat at a different booth…ok BTW he never does this. We take our stuff back to the office and prepare to eat. (Oh yeah he said I could blog about him) So I warm up my lunch and we sit down to eat. He eats a few bites of his chicken, all of his rice and heads to start on his salad. One glance at the salad and you’d be unsure if there was dressing on it. He takes a couple bites and then looks at me and his eyes are so big. Ahh I think that there is vinegar on this salad he says. I say oh hmm that is interesting. He says no not really, I am allergic to vinegar! OMG I was like well are you going to die or do we have time to get you some benadryl? He says well my throat is getting scratchy and it is hard to breathe. So then we walked 2 blocks to CVS…needless to say he went home and fell asleep and all ends well.

Casualty: Terry – get my bad luck for the day.

Wednesday 9/24/08 (Post #4)

Picture this: Ma and Pa Perkins leave the house daily at 7:10 am to commute together daily. Pa Perkins drops Ma off at work and then heads to his office. Ahh so cute, can it get better? Of course…today the Ma, Pa and Middle Perkins commuted to work together. It was a picture of green peace waiting for a cover of a magazine. We will save the planet a little at time. Pa dropped me off at the Redondo Station to start my uneventful commute in.

Here is what we looked like:


Green line and Blue lines were unexpectedly boring. Except for the fact that only one person was getting off and 20 people were getting on. Can you say sardines? It was such a mix of people. My only highlight of this leg of the trip was that there was a man – let’s call him Budda. He started talking loudly about how much meditation relieves stress. Then he started to say “you just need to say (for lack of the real words) Kasha basha fasha.

Here is the best conversation to date: Ok so I am on the red line on the way to work. These 3 African American ladies get on. One of the ladies was talking about her job and how she never wears her jacket because people always ask her questions. She said she couldn’t stand it when people walk up to her face and start asking all these questions.
“Like that one big bitch (some homeless) she gets all up in your shit asking questions and she stinks. “
Then another lady said “oh yeah that girl stinks. She gets so close to you and all you want to say is get the hell away from me you smell like shit. I always tell her to get off the train there is no begging on the metro.”
Then another lady say “You must be talking about Crystal, she is one big bitch. Yeah she gets all up in your shit.”
“You’d think she could smell herself”
“No girl, people who smell like that don't think they smell. They all think you are the one. Girl they don’t need to shower, their shit smells like roses.”
“I was like shit girl you want some deodorant.

I could not stop laughing. We’ve all met someone that stinks.

PM Drive:
Ok the brainchild that I am set my alarm for 4:45 pm…I have to LEAVE at 4:45pm not start to pack up. I got out of the building and went running at 4:53pm. I ran and ran and ran. Wait maybe now is a time to tell you about the make up of the stations. I walk up and down 200-300 stairs daily as well as dealing with 2 hills. This time I promise I am not exaggerating on the amount of stairs. Yes of course there are escalators, but when you are late you can’t wait for those. I got to the train and found my seat. This time I sat with two young girls. One from bear valley going to Fullerton and one from Russia who was working here for the summer and on her way to SD. She spent the summer working at the Hacienda in El Segundo. So far she went to San Francisco and Vegas. She was her on a work visa and had to go back to Russia in two days. She was with 5 Russians did not know each other and were now friends. We talked about site seeing in Los Angeles. She said that our museums suck. HAHA She said they went to the Getty and they told her that she may need up to 4 hours to see the whole thing. She laughed. She said you could spend 10 hours at one museum in St. Petersburg Russia and only see the 1st floor. She went on about how beautiful it is and how amazing it was. She made me want to go.

I got an email from Terri – from Canada and she was going to meet up with Kristi to give her my book. But my phone DIED and neither one of them had each other’s number and I of course did not have a phone cord for the car. Still no book!

Lesson learned bring phone charger every day!
Casualty of the day: my right foot…monster size blister!!!!! OUCH

Tuesday 9/23/08 - Day two (post #3)

Day two of the commuting: well to say that today started any better than yesterday ended would be a lie. So where did I leave off, hmmm…oh yeah my book being lost. Ok so this morning at 5:30am I start to get out of bed when I got that very sick feeling like I might have lost more than just my book yesterday. I reach for my purse and low and behold I have. No only did I lose my book I have also lost my TRAIN PASS! Ok people those things are not cheap. I lost it. Of course KP kept me sane and helped me out. So with another pass in hand (No Amtrak does not reimburse you for lost or stolen passes) I headed for the station. Today I was a bit more tired then yesterday and I really did not feel like talking. I hoped on the train, sat in my usual spot…yes I have a usual spot. What so who cares if I have only taken the train once you can still have a usual spot. Ok, so I sat down in my usual spot…umm yeah so actually it turns out that it was not the same seat I sat in yesterday I landed up next to the potty. Which of course is not a bad thing, since I never put on make up or do my hair in the morning before I get on board. Oh well, I guess maybe I can make this my usual spot, right?

On to the people, remember I said I did not feel like talking so I sat down pulled out Anthony’s ipod and my memory foam travel neck pillow. Yes, I am that cool! So in walks (let’s call him) Sleepy guy with a raiders tattoo and he sites with me. I should probably tell you that I like to sit in the seat reserved for parties of 4 (two seats next to each other facing two other seats.) Yes, I realize that I am only one person…but who cares. Sleep guy proceeded to SLEEP…can you believe it? Here I am sitting there ready to talk and he goes to sleep. Ok, so then I went to sleep. Next, after sleepy guy got off at his station I was visited by Skinny guy with crazy scary clown tattoo. He was quiet for about two stops and then when we got to Anaheim he started to talk pictures of the big A. I asked if it was his first time here and he said no…he grew up here but it had been like 8 years since his last visit. This guy had little to say, but I did find out he grew up in Laguna Beach and now lives in Portland and HATES IT. He is a surfer at heart and says the water is so cold there and the beaches suck.

PM Commute – Today was different because I stayed in LA last night. Instead of taking the Amtrak home I got the pleasure of riding the Metrolink. Now some people – my dad – would say that figuring out how to get from one place to another on the metro is easy. For me it makes me anxious. After much anxiety I found my first train. It was the purple line subway to my next connection. Have you ever seen the Harry Potter where the bus comes screaming down the street and comes to a immediate stop and that shrunken head guys says Hi Harry…or something like that. Well EVERY time I am about to get on the subway and the doors open I just expect to see this shrunken head guy pop out. Now I have to go from the Purple to the Blue line. The Blue is hmm how should I explain this? I’ll just tell you where it goes through…downtown LA, Arlington, Watts, Compton, Inglewood…should I go on?

Set Scene:
Large African American woman on my left directly
Larger African American man behind me
In walks skinny sort of young AA girl.
“Hey girl, wherez you going? LG AA W said
“Huh, do I know you?” S AA G said
“What you mean, remember (insert inner city school here)? LG AA W
“Oh shit yeah, howz you doing?” S AA G
“I’m good. Howz your brotha?” LG AA W
“Oh girl did you hear he got shot?” S AA G
“No girl, where?” LG AA W
“He got shot in the leg, but he al right. Did you hear about (insert inner city kids name here)?” S AA W
“No girl, what happened to him? LG AA W
“Oh girl he got shot, he dead.” S AA W
“Oh shit! Hey Mike…did you hear that (same name as above) got shot?” “Yo I think I did hear that shit.” LG AA M

Yes at this time I cringed and said many a prayer that I was going to get home safely. 7pm pull into the Redondo Beach station. Ahh home.

Casualty day 2: my 10 day train ticket

Monday 9/22/08 - Day one (post #2)

AM commute- Ok it is 6am and I have just arrived at the train station for my first day of commuting. I have the 2 hours all planned out. Find a good seat and sleep the first hour of the ride away on the nice memory foam pillow my great big sis gave me for taking care of her last week. I park the car and walk up to the station. First thing I hear…”I’m sorry we don’t have your reservation.” Oh great I think here we go. “Hold on Miss let me try another way. Ok Yes I have it now Miss Perkins.” Sigh of relief. Grab my ticket and head down to the platform. There are about 50-70 other people down there and it is dead quiet. I stood like a zombie just like everyone else, I mean really it is 6:30 am and is anyone really up for some witty conversation at that time of day?

And we stand. And we wait. The announcer comes on to say “This is your last call for boarding the 6:45 Pacific Surfliner in route to Los Angeles.” I giggle a little at this since it is kind of hard to board a train that is not there, right? 6:45 comes and goes, 6:50 comes and goes. I laugh again, more because I have just noticed that the running LCD board says 4:55 PM March 2, 2002 then the fact that everyone looks distraught. So I break the silence and say “Well hey it is 5PM now I guess we can all go home. That was a great day huh?” A few people giggle and the 35-40 year old handsome man behind me says “Yeah 5 o’clock 6 years ago.” This then spurs another conversation with 40 something guy on my right side and 50 something guy on my left side. We decide to discuss how immensely difficult it must be for the challenged people who work at the station to change the LCD board to actually have the right time and day. Then we start talking about the date and time significance and what possibly could have happened that day for the station to want to remember that date. Did I mention it is now 7 AM and I am now going to be 30 minutes late for my FIRST day at work? But who cares the adventures have just started. So around 7am the announcer says “We are sorry for the delay but a passenger on the train has pulled the emergency break. Of course! Well the train arrive at 7:05…Finally!

I found the first seat I could by myself. A few people walked by, I smiled but no takers. Do you think it might because I had no make up on? Oh well. This one cute guy walk by and smile at me too…but kept on walking. About 5 minutes and one coffee later the same guy came and sat with me. It was the 35-40 year old handsome guy I previously mentioned. We talked about all his traveling and of course he made sure he mentioned he had a WIFE. Yeah me. They were planning to spend the next few years traveling around the world a few weeks here and a few weeks there. Then a day before their trip to Panama the wife came out and said ahh I am pregnant. They now have a 6-month-old little girl and want more. His Wife – teaches preschool, piano and English. He just got new job and he was on the train to Irvine to pick up his new company truck. Since he travels a lot he recommended some books for me to read. He had recently traveled to Panama, Hawaii, and goes to Japan a lot. He was very nice to talk to we had no political or religious conversations. Wow I like commuting

PM Commute- I left work at 4:45pm and had to head up hill to metrolink. Hop the purple line for one stop and get the union station at 5pm. At this point I should let you know that my train home leaves at 5:10 pm. I check out the station list and see that my train leaves from platform 9 3/4…haha I am just kidding it was further down the station on platform 12. Then I hear “This is the last boarding call for train 728 bound to San Diego and all stops in between. SHIT!!!!! I started to run through the station with my 700 bags of crap and my mug of coffee and water bottle in my hands. In work shoes with my new PURSE around my neck!!!!! Reaching my train and hop on to a full train, shirt buttons popped around my boobs of course (had a tank top on thank God) and sweating like a pig!!!! I found the seat where I sat earlier today and met up with the wonderful ladies.

The first was a 30 something Girl from Toronto Canada. She is an independent IT recruiter. She took a month off of work to travel North America. She had a rail pass that she could ride everywhere.


The other lady was a older lady from Kenya. She too was a recruiter, but for colleges for African students. She told us about herself, her job and her trip to California and then fell asleep. Oh yeah she laughed at me for my career change from Advertising to Teaching. So the other girl and I continued to talk. Seems that we had a lot on common. She just lost her grandma and grandpa this year too. She had also made a big career change from restaurants to IT recruiting. At one point this hot guy walked by and she was looking at him and then on his way back I got a good look too. We both just giggled. We talked about so much in our two hours I never even touched my book, except to hand my ticket to the conductor and put it back. Turns out she is staying in PB…that is where I live. We had a great time talking. So as I approached my station I said, “Oh by the way…my name is Terri.” She said “No way, so is mine! With an I or a y?” I said “I of course.” TOO funny huh! Then the hot guy walked by again to get his luggage. She said he is getting off with you, you better go talk to him. I said I’d try. Then I asked her if she had facebook or myspace and she did. So I gave her my email. At my stop I grabbed my backpack and a computer bag. Shoved my book in the bag grabbed the rest of my things and said good-bye to my new friends. As I got about 10 steps off the train, the lady from Kenya yells “wait you have my computer!” I run back and she hands me my computer and walk away. I get another 15 steps away and then…SHIT wait my book! I run back to the train (remember I have 700 bags) and the train takes off.

Casualty of day one commute: Book given to me from Erika a few years ago for Christmas, signed by her and by the author. Along with the announcement from my grandpa’s funeral.

wah wah waaa

Day one complete.

A new chapter of life begins

Today, September 22, 2008, I started a new chapter in my life.  I have moved on from a life of playing, coloring and dancing around all day back to the hustle and busy life of an advertising executive.  As in any new chapter in life things are both scary and exciting.  We look at the new job as a new step in life, but we also look back and think "OMG did I make the right decision?"  Of course only time can answer that question for us.  I look at this as a new chapter in my life and a place that God wants me to be.  

So in true Terri fashion, I have decided that I am going to make the best of my new commute and let whatever God has planned for me happen.  Wait sorry I should back up and give some of my readers some background information.  For the last two years I have been the assistant director of a Kindercare Learning Center and a teacher of a 3 year olds.  I have spent a lot of time playing around and just having a ball. I have met some really awesome people and some hopefully life long friends.  After some turmoil in life and at work, I decided that is was time to go back and get a "big girl" job.  (Ok if you are reading this and you are a teacher friend this is by no means my way of putting you down...If I could teach the rest of my life or run a school I would.  I just don't have the ability to do that at this time in life.  I appreciate how hard you all work and how hard some of you worked for and with me.  Love you all to pieces.)  After sending out a few emails to see if anyone knew of anyone hiring, I got and email from my old boss at AOL.  Julie and I had always said that if I wanted to go back to advertising it would definitely be somewhere I can work again with her.  Enter in my new job at the LAtimes.com.  Yes, you read this correctly I am commuting from San Diego daily to downtown Los Angeles.  Now you are caught up...and now you get the name of this blog.

I have decided that I will be writing my tales of the rails.  I had originally thought I would sleep for an hour in the AM and then put my makeup on and do my hair.  However, today has proved to me that life is too short to sleep it away when you can have great, silly and OMG conversations with new friends daily.  Besides just think of all the people watching I get to do.  So welcome to my tales of the rails...hope you enjoy the ride.