Have you ever been to the Porter Square Red Line station? It's probably my favorite of all T stations, simply for the fact that it is deep, deep underground. (If you've never been to Porter, but you have ridden the subway in Washington DC, [if I remember correctly] the stop you take to get to the zoo is very similar, so you can use that for comparison.) To exit the station, you get on this very steep, very long escalator and you sort of just ride it for what seems like a full two minutes to get to the next level. And if you look back or if you crane your head up, you get a wee little momentary vertigo headrush. And that amuses me, because I have never lost my child-like sense of enjoyment for things like that. Shut up.
But if, instead of looking back or looking up, you cast your eyes to the left, what you will see is one or two or possibly three people who have chosen to walk up the many, many, many stairs instead. And, if you are me, you look back away and you think to yourself, fucking overachievers, man.
That is all.
xoxo
11 comments:
Oh yes, I remember that DC stop... it was the same one for my conference hotel in DC a couple years ago.
I'll tell you one thing though, if you use the Porter Square T a lot, you'd better get used to some serious stair time, cause those extra long escalators always seem (or used to seem) to be going out of order much more frequently than the normal escalator, in proportion to their excessive length.
So maybe those overachievers aren't really showing off, maybe they're just staying in shape for the inevitable "service interruption" they're likely to experience all too soon. :)
Please don't defend the overachievers. Thank you :-)
(I know you know the loathing you feel is for yourself, that it bothers you that some folks prefer the stairs). I'm always fascinated by the trade-off in life between leisure and fitness. You can't have both, but one without the other is empty. (Full disclosure: shile I was riding the Fitchburg commuter rail for a couple of years I would always take the stairs at Porter, especially if I was running late for a train and couldn't wait behind the lowing herd on the escalator, and that it may have inspired contempt would only have been a bonus). I figure it's a paradox left over between the biological imperative to conserve resources in scarce environments, and the necessity of fitness to run down the big game. (One theory is that we lost our fur so we wouldn't overheat while running down prey animals). I like to rest AFTER I've run down something delicious.
Oh god, now they're not only defending the overachievers, they're admitting to being one.
Sorry. I'm standing by it. Anyone who would pass up the chance to ride that escalator and get the headrush-y thing is totally beyond my comprehension.
I should have said (but was blogging too late) that I remember that stop in DC cause those were some really fucking long escalators. I think it could took longer to take the escalators than to actually ride the train somewhere.
But I don't remember anyone in DC being stupid enough to take the stairs. I suspect that's a New England syndrome, showing off their ascetism, and their rejection of a an altered state of consciousness (that head rush thing).
Or maybe the escalators in DC just worked all the time, so no one even considered using the stairs. :)
I dunno. DC is full of those really uptight, competitive people who look like they sleep in their suits and ties. Some of them must be stair-takers.
Scully! Scully would have taken the stairs :-)
Yeah, but Scully didn't believe in the supernatural, nor alien spawn from outer space.
Taking the stairs frees both your mind and your cardio system for contemplating that which one does not fully understand.
Bet Mulder took the elevator. :)
Muldar took the elevator so he could stop it between floors and do nasty things. :-)
That was always one of my favorite parts of that show, how they happily and nonchalantly implied that he was a big perv.
Okay, enough of this! I've actually got shit to do today. Over n' out.
Sorry, that should have been: Taking the escalator frees both your mind and your cardio system for contemplating that which one does not fully understand.
Wish one could edit one's own comments!
You're absolutely right about Mulder. I was always surprised how explicit they were in implying what he did with his free time. Always gave me a warm feeling about his character. :)
What escalator experience, head rush or no, can compare to the oxygen dep dizzies from sprinting the entire way up from the depths of hell, I mean the bowels of North Cambridge?
I think you're selling the ascetics short if you miss their similar jones for altered consciousness. Besides, when you get to the top first, you get to pick the best and most comfortable seat for lounging out the entire way to Concord and beyond.
I once had a gig near Porter. I did climb the stairs, then walk 20 minutes, and that was my daily exercise. Pfft!!
Now, I usually ride the escalator up because I was a hick kid and never got over my thrill with escalators. Then I spend a couple of hours doing beverage research at Redbones, and take the stairs *down* to help burn off a little excess...carbohydrates.
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