And all those good songs about trains…
I got coffee at the T station yesterday. There’s something about train station consumables - just a secret, unspoken thing that’s hard to define. They always taste a bit like fuel, always a bit too dry or too sweet, and always a bit stale. Not stale the way food usually tastes stale, but stale like elevator air.
Despite the disgusting taste of train station consumables, and the disgusting way you feel covered in grease from head to toe after eating them, they always seem to kick off some lovely endorphins in my body. I’m starting to figure out the many feelings that contribute to this happy buzz.
- I’m usually listening to some really good tunes on my iPod. I’m traveling, so it’s music that rolls in continuous motion. You know what I’m talking about. Think “Run” by Collective Soul. (Remind me to blog about Collective Soul sometime. Good story there.)
- Traveling long distances by train has become a therapeutic need for me. I’m quite happy shoved in the corner of an Amtrak train - even happier if I wind up on a club car. There’s romance and relaxation in every tree you whiz by. So just entering a train station puts me in good head-space. Then add food, and I’ve wafted up to heaven.
- The first thing we ever did as husband and wife was to hop the train from Boston to NYC for our week-long honeymoon in Manhattan. Between the Parker-Meridien, roasted peanuts, cool fall afternoons spent hunting down our favorite musical haunts, and seeing Les Paul live in concert, it was quite possibly the best week of my life. And for some reason I always equate getting on a train with good things to come.
Now if I can only fulfill my lifetime dream of taking the train from Chicago to Frisco Dean Moriarty-style. Although I’m sure I’d eat so much train food that I’d probably wind up killing a good thing.
