While on my way home from work, I often have to sit in the White Plains train station for a bit, waiting for my train to arrive. Oftentimes the seating area is full, but every once and a while it is not.

That is truly when you ought to be cautious. Because a lot of times there are *reasons* why those seats are not taken.

A lot of times those reasons are whom I like to refer to as the drunks of White Plains. My favorite, or perhaps I should say, my *least* favorite, smells heavily of alcohol, and does a pretty poor job of drinking alcohol (out of a large fruit juice bottle, mind you), probably getting more on his body than down his throat.

Another least favorite is a lady who enjoys taking up several of the seats, and stretches out and falls asleep. She punctuates the noise of the waiting area with her own brand of slurred half-asleep gibberish.

In either case, I’d much prefer to stand.

In case you were wondering, trains have emergency buttons that are supposed to open the doors. It might be helpful to actually know where these buttons are. Monday was a most interesting night… we apparently left our conductor at the White Plains train station. She left her little key in the door (which is to prevent it from closing), and went on the platform, to make sure everyone was away from the train and nobody was going to get stuck in the doors or anything. Most unfortunately, the doors closed, and her key did not work.

Usually the conductor knows me and that I have a monthly pass, and I don’t have to show my ticket. Being that it was the first day of the month though, I was reaching into my bag to retrieve my ticket. I looked up when I heard knocking on the window… it was the conductor. She desperately pointed to the emergency button. She wanted someone to hit it.

That is certainly an opportune time to actually know where that button is. The other passenger in the car that was paying attention, in addition to myself, also had no idea where the button was. And so the train began to drive off, with her knocking on the window. I felt pretty damn bad…

…So bad that I made her two cards which I gave to her the day after. One had a picture of the White Plains train station on the front. On the inside it said “White Plains… I bet it is your favorite station now!” The other had a picture of a train on the front, and on the inside it said “Congratulations! I’ve missed my train before, but never so spectacularly.” Underneath that, in smaller letters it said “Sorry I had no idea where the button was!”

Lets just say that I most definitely know where the button is.

Unfortunately tonight was that conductor’s last night on my train. She is moving over to a different train after a weeks vacation. Her name was Gina, and I will miss her. She was pretty cool, and had a good sense of humor. :D