One Saturday afternoon my wife and I decided to take a carefree train ride downtown to see the chalk art festival at the Gateway Mall. We had a wonderful time leisurely walking in Down Town Salt Lake, the chalk art was beautiful with art depicting mostly Disney characters. Personally I wanted to see the 3D chalk art I see online from time to time, but what they had was good enough. We spent the latter part of the evening sitting on a bench watching little kids get soaked at the splash pad. It started getting chilly so we decided to head home. We walked over to the train station conveniently located just out front and waited for the next train. When the train finally arrived we boarded and sat in the back of the car. We noticed a young couple with their baby sitting in the disabled section near the doors and man with a bowler hat on with a group of friends. Everything was going great until we came to the next stop.
The door swung open and this rough looking gentleman pushing a bike boarded the train. As the train began to pick up speed the man attempted to put his front tire over the hand rail but instead lost his balance and stumbled backward. His bike fell over and nearly hit the couple who was sitting nearby. Angered the man picked up his bike and started to throw his bike around the train, swearing, and making a huge scene. Everyone was staring at him and the man with the bowler hat decided to intervene.
Bowler hat got right up close face to face with the man and stated very sternly, "you can't act like this on the train, you have to respect the train and others who are riding." The man replied, "who's going to make me?" Bowler hat, "I will if I have to." As the two sized each other up, I knew this wasn't going to end well. The bike man made the first move by going straight for the neck pushing bowler hat into the nice couple with their baby. "What the !@#$ are you doing?" screamed the mother. Then the husband got involved and pushed bowler and bike man back toward the door. The three of them struggled for a few minutes with the two trying to detain bike man. The train slowly came to a stop and the two pretty much had bike man at their mercy. The train stopped and bowler pushed the door open. The two lifted the bike man off the ground and literally threw him off the train. We looked out the window and it looked like he landed straight on his head. Next was his bike that landed on top of him. The doors closed and as the train began to move bike man began hitting the side of the train with his bike and hands in anger.
Bolwer hat and the husband gave each other gestures of gratitude and left it at that. My wife and I sat there in shock knowing we had both been witnesses of real life bar scene from an old west saloon.
What did we learn from this experience:
-Never expect cool 3D chalk art at the Gateway Chalk art festival.
-Little kids aren't capable of remembering where the water shoots up.
-Always put your trust in a man wearing a bowler hat.
Have you ever had a scary trax train experience?
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
This is My Life
As many of you know I'm a part time student at the University of Utah studying Marketing. I also work full time at an online marketing company called Gravitate Online in Draper. My schedule gets tricky trying to balance my time getting from Draper to class in Salt Lake with one vehicle to share between my wife and I. On the first day of class this semester I thought I had my schedule planned perfectly using the train and bus systems. This is a story of how desperate life can get as a poor married college student.
On the first day of class I thought I'd leave work around 4:30 to give myself enough time to get to class which started at 6:00. At 4:30 I packed my computer, text books, and calculator in my bag and rode my Razor Scooter from work to the front runner station. I boarded front runner on time and was transported to the Murray Central Station where I got off to board trax to take me the rest of the way to the U. While sitting on trax the conductor makes an announcement over the intercom telling us there's been an accident a few stops ahead and will be unable to proceed to Salt Lake. At this point I thought, "ok I'll just get off at the next stop and board a bus to take me the rest of the way." Easy. At the next stop I gathered my scooter and bag and began frantically searching for a bus route to the U. I sat down at a bench when suddenly the bus I needed to take pulls around the corner. I boarded the bus and sat down at the back and began to plan the rest of my route on my phone.
The bus pulled out of the driveway and started to head up the hill, I felt confident in my route and good that I was going to make it to class on time. As my stop began to creep up I reach up to pull the stop cord, as the bus came to a stop and the doors open I began to realize my horror. I reach for my scooter, "check," as I reach for my bag, "?" Nowhere to be found. As the pit in my stomach began to grow I searched everywhere for my bag and couldn't find it. At first I thought, "someone must have stolen it." Then, "nobody was sitting by me, there's no way anyone could have stolen it." The bus driver yelled out, "did you lose something?" I replied, "Yeah, I lost my bag. Did someone turn it in?" She said, "no, I don't remember you carrying a bag when you got on." Wow, I couldn't believe this is really happening. I must have left my bag at the train station or even worse, on a train. With a bewildered look I stepped off the bus feeling like the stupidest person ever to walk the Earth. How could I have let this happen?
That bag has my whole professional and academic existence inside of it, my computer, text books, and calculator. I spent the next few minutes mentally beating myself and kicking a nearby telephone pole. I decided to do an inventory of my resources and how I might go about solving my predicament. Hoping my bag will be sitting on the bench unscathed my next thought was to just wait for the next bus to take me back to the train station. As I'm thinking those very words the bus rolls passed down the street to the train station. Great, now what am I going to do! It's getting dark its cold and I have no other alternative than to ride my scooter back to the train station.
So I crossed the street and and rode with traffic down the hill praying I didn't slip on ice, or get hit by a car, or basically stay alive. In my head I'm thinking about not dying, and how crazy my life is, and how there is no way my bag will still be sitting there. I decided to give the prayer of all prayers and said, "If there's anything I ever ask in my whole life I hope that it would be that I find my bag." With a prayer in my heart I continued on trying to avoid being killed in traffic.
Out of breath and muscles burning I rode into the parking lot and steered toward the place where I had been searching on my phone for a bus route. I looked and I searched and looked some more and not to my surprise there was no bag to be found. Noticing a man standing near the bench where I had been searching I decided to ask, "hey man, have you seen a black bag around here anywhere?" He replied, "yeah, I saw it and gave it to that bus driver up there." With hope restored I hurried and rode over to the bus and asked the bus driver if he had a black bag turned in. He pointed, with a slight smile, to his dashboard. I looked over and there it was just as I had left it. Searching inside I found that nothing had been stolen and all was well. I couldn't believe it. With a smile on my face I walked to the back of the bus and took a seat still in awe. From there I was able to make the bus transfers up to the U and was only about 45 minutes late to my first class.
Here's a list of items you may want to consider should you ever find yourself in this situation.
-don't set anything down when riding public transit.
-always bring a scooter where ever you go.
-always have a prayer in your heart.
-approach un-attended bags with caution, they could be bombs.
I hope you liked my true to life story. Thanks for reading.
Bryce
On the first day of class I thought I'd leave work around 4:30 to give myself enough time to get to class which started at 6:00. At 4:30 I packed my computer, text books, and calculator in my bag and rode my Razor Scooter from work to the front runner station. I boarded front runner on time and was transported to the Murray Central Station where I got off to board trax to take me the rest of the way to the U. While sitting on trax the conductor makes an announcement over the intercom telling us there's been an accident a few stops ahead and will be unable to proceed to Salt Lake. At this point I thought, "ok I'll just get off at the next stop and board a bus to take me the rest of the way." Easy. At the next stop I gathered my scooter and bag and began frantically searching for a bus route to the U. I sat down at a bench when suddenly the bus I needed to take pulls around the corner. I boarded the bus and sat down at the back and began to plan the rest of my route on my phone.
The bus pulled out of the driveway and started to head up the hill, I felt confident in my route and good that I was going to make it to class on time. As my stop began to creep up I reach up to pull the stop cord, as the bus came to a stop and the doors open I began to realize my horror. I reach for my scooter, "check," as I reach for my bag, "?" Nowhere to be found. As the pit in my stomach began to grow I searched everywhere for my bag and couldn't find it. At first I thought, "someone must have stolen it." Then, "nobody was sitting by me, there's no way anyone could have stolen it." The bus driver yelled out, "did you lose something?" I replied, "Yeah, I lost my bag. Did someone turn it in?" She said, "no, I don't remember you carrying a bag when you got on." Wow, I couldn't believe this is really happening. I must have left my bag at the train station or even worse, on a train. With a bewildered look I stepped off the bus feeling like the stupidest person ever to walk the Earth. How could I have let this happen?
That bag has my whole professional and academic existence inside of it, my computer, text books, and calculator. I spent the next few minutes mentally beating myself and kicking a nearby telephone pole. I decided to do an inventory of my resources and how I might go about solving my predicament. Hoping my bag will be sitting on the bench unscathed my next thought was to just wait for the next bus to take me back to the train station. As I'm thinking those very words the bus rolls passed down the street to the train station. Great, now what am I going to do! It's getting dark its cold and I have no other alternative than to ride my scooter back to the train station.
So I crossed the street and and rode with traffic down the hill praying I didn't slip on ice, or get hit by a car, or basically stay alive. In my head I'm thinking about not dying, and how crazy my life is, and how there is no way my bag will still be sitting there. I decided to give the prayer of all prayers and said, "If there's anything I ever ask in my whole life I hope that it would be that I find my bag." With a prayer in my heart I continued on trying to avoid being killed in traffic.
Out of breath and muscles burning I rode into the parking lot and steered toward the place where I had been searching on my phone for a bus route. I looked and I searched and looked some more and not to my surprise there was no bag to be found. Noticing a man standing near the bench where I had been searching I decided to ask, "hey man, have you seen a black bag around here anywhere?" He replied, "yeah, I saw it and gave it to that bus driver up there." With hope restored I hurried and rode over to the bus and asked the bus driver if he had a black bag turned in. He pointed, with a slight smile, to his dashboard. I looked over and there it was just as I had left it. Searching inside I found that nothing had been stolen and all was well. I couldn't believe it. With a smile on my face I walked to the back of the bus and took a seat still in awe. From there I was able to make the bus transfers up to the U and was only about 45 minutes late to my first class.
Here's a list of items you may want to consider should you ever find yourself in this situation.
-don't set anything down when riding public transit.
-always bring a scooter where ever you go.
-always have a prayer in your heart.
-approach un-attended bags with caution, they could be bombs.
I hope you liked my true to life story. Thanks for reading.
Bryce
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