Fashion It's Not

My "commuter" shoes.

Anyone who has walked along a busy city street on a weekday knows about the tennis shoe fashion rule. This rule states that if you walk to work or walk from public transportation to your place of employment, you are allowed to wear comfortable walking shoes, even if it looks ridiculous. I'm not sure what fashion guru Tim Gunn has to say on the subject, but I, as a general follower of fashion trends, think it's a necessary fashion faux pas. That said, most people who ride the Coaster don't do this. Generally, I've noticed, they wear practical shoes to begin with—no stiletto heels for these casual So Cal office workers.

I, on the other hand, like to wear heels or otherwise not-so-comfortable-but-fashionable shoes to work. So, I am one of the few Coaster riders who wears "commuter shoes." I don't wear tennis shoes but unassuming black slip-ons in colder weather (see photo), and flip-flops when it's warm. I find it strange when I see women in heels on the train, and wonder how far they have to walk in those things to get to their office.

The best part about wearing commuter shoes is the end of the day when I can take off my office shoes and slip on flat, comfortable shoes to walk to the train. Ahhhh.

Train Delays: Still Better than Traffic

The train schedule, which, barring a disaster, is pretty accurate.

Long delays on the train are rare, but they do happen. And when they do, after getting over how totally annoyed I am, It actually makes me appreciate the train more for getting me to and from work, on time, almost every time I ride. The four major delays that occurred while I was riding were all the result of a major event that directly affected the rail line: a fire, a "flood," an earthquake, and a train crash.

The fire happened in the afternoon, at about the middle of the train route. I was excited because I was able to leave work early that day and catch the earlier train. That proved to be a moot point, since we sat at the station for about an hour waiting for the fire to be put out. This meant that two trains were now combined into one, and I didn't get home any earlier.

The flood was the result of heavy rains that lasted for more than a week. Since the train rides through a pretty extensive wetlands area, rising water can occasionally be a problem. This time was also on the train ride home, and we actually made it to the second station. There, we waited for about an hour while a crew came in to check the tracks. I was with my friend and co-worker Shirley, so at least I had company. And they let us leave the train, so Shirley went to a near-by deli and bought us a six-pack of beer. We shared with a few others around us, and generally enjoyed ourselves, even though Shirley had to cancel a dinner date.

The earthquake, although not large, was apparently pretty jarring. None of us on the train would know, though, because we didn't feel it. It happened about 5 minutes into our ride home. We knew it happened because people's cell phones started ringing and the news quickly spread. We again made it to the second station, and waited there while they checked the tracks. This took about 30 minutes.

The train crash was more dramatic, as it involved riders actually getting off the train and being shuttled on buses. After getting on the train one morning, an announcement was made that we would go as far as Sorrento Valley (about 30 minutes into the 1-hour total ride) and be shuttled to the last two stops by bus. We weren't told the reason at the time (maybe they said "cars on the tracks"), but we later learned that a freight train (no passengers) had jackknifed off the tracks the night before in an area that only has one set of tracks. Many people, upon hearing this, got off the train, presumably to drive or maybe just ditch work. I stayed, since I didn't want to deal with traffic and then parking downtown. The ride was typical except that the train was pretty empty, since many people made other arrangements. At the Sorrento Valley station, we were all herded off the train and into about 10 waiting buses, which then got onto the freeway (into morning traffic) and drove us to the last two stops. This made me about 30 minutes late, but it actually wasn't too bad. The train was back to normal for the commute home, and the derailed cars could be seen on the side of the tracks for the next week or so.

Despite these four pretty serious delays, the train has been good to me. I don't have to deal with car traffic every day, two times per day, and I get to relax and read or sleep to and from work. That's a pretty good trade-off, I'd say.

I Only Read Dostoevsky in the Winter

Some light reading for the train.

As a general rule, people on the train don't comment about what other people are reading. We all go about our business, ignoring others as best as possible. Most people read the newspaper in the morning and the latest spy novel or cheap paperback in the evening – generally no-brainer stuff that doesn't require much thinking. (I can't account for the handful of commuters who read e-books.) I usually ascribe to this rule, although I'll occasionally pull a "classic" off my bookshelf that I never got around to reading to see if it's worth all the hype.

To this end, I recently started reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov – a tough read at times, especially after a long day of editing, but altogether a good book. As with every other book I've read while on the train, I didn't expect anyone to comment on it. So, I was quite surprised when I got not one but two comments in one week, and rather odd ones at that. My favorite comment was a man who said, "Dostoevsky, huh? I only read him when I'm depressed." Another man said a few days later, "I like Dostoevsky, but I only read him during the winter." What?

I have two theories about why I got more comments about Dostoevsky than all of the other books I've read combined:

1. Maybe more people have read this book and so there is more of a probability that I'll get a comment about it (although I didn't get any comments when I read Mark Twain).

2. Or maybe people want me (and others around us) to know that they are just as into the classics as I am, and are bragging a bit.

Either way, the comments I got cracked me up. I think I'll pick another classic for my next book to see if the trend holds.