On Wednesday, I traveled via Marc Train, Metro and shuttle bus to the main location of my (very soon to be) employer in DC for a “benefits briefing.”  Calling it a “briefing” makes it sounds spookily official.  It really wasn’t such a big deal.  A nice young man from Human Resources explained the choices within the benefits package and how to enroll.  It’s quite remarkable that I am eligible for benefits as a part time employee and I am quite grateful for them.  I wish they were a tad less expensive, but I do have some interesting “perks” such as steeply discounted prescriptions if I patronize a pharmacy within the hospital system (there is one 5 minutes from here).

I’m sure the veteran mass transit patrons in DC had me pegged as a newbie pretty early on in our journey together Wednesday morning.  I enjoy observing on these little excursions.  Because I know this about myself, I did not bring a long a novel to read on my travels, but a book EB White’s essays which I enjoy reading but don’t have plot points I have to keep track of in the midst of my out of book observations.  Ironically (upon reflection, this probably more conincidental than ironic), one of the essays was about the rail system in the US.  Observing is a long standing part of my personality.  I remember staring out the school bus window in elementary school, watching other kids emerge from their homes, sometimes catching glimpses of parents or other siblings and wondering what life was like in their family, even going so far as to imagine a my own scenario of their lives.  

On Wednesday morning, I wasn’t in as much of a hurry as everyone else.  I don’t get out of my usual environs very often so I wanted to look around at these foreign ones.  My lack of haste probably showed up first at Union Station.  My husband gave me his smart trip card and I wasn’t sure how to use it.  I first tried to add value to it with one of the regular metro card machines.  There were plenty of people around, but no one offered to help (I didn’t ask either, so shame on me).  Luckily, I saw someone else with a smart trip card, so I watched what he did and managed to accomplish my task.  Meanwhile, people were running, really running up to machines adjacent to mine, slamming money and credit cards into them and snatching up their metro cards as if their very souls depended on those nanoseconds they might have saved.

Then the escalators.  I quite happily rode the escalator.  By this, I mean that I stood and let the machine do the work of carrying me down into the bowels of the DC subway.  It gave me chance to look around.  Meanwhile, about 5 or 6 people ran past me on the escalator.  I recognized them standing and waiting for the same metro as I so they didn’t really save any time.  I guess it’s just the thing to be in a hurry in DC.  I’ll admit I was a little nervous about making connections on time, but I wasn’t moved to a frenzy over it.  It must be a DC thing. 

Of course, I also probably stood out when I tried to go through the wrong turnstile after flashing my smart trip card at the sensor.  That was one of my smoother moves. 

Anyway…that was this week’s adventure.  I go back to DC on Monday for orientation and then I start at the local rehab center on Tuesday.  Our lives will likely feel a little shaken and stirred over the next few weeks.  Hopefully we will weather everything OK.

God bless!