ATPo'ing to Chicago
Jul. 13th, 2004 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fidhleI attended the All Things Philosophical on Buffy meet in Chicago over the July 4th weekend. Had a great time meeting all the people who came, most of whom I knew only by reading posts or LJ's. It was really great to meet the people in real life and to get to know them. Next year, the group is planning to meet in NYC over the weekend of the 4th again. Should be a great event, and hope to meet even more people there.
I travelled to Chicago by train from Wash. DC and back. The trip out was uneventful, but long. The trip back, on the other hand, had a couple of interesting aspects. First, I figured out how to get electric power to my laptop so I could watch several eps of Buffy and Angel on the way back. Turns out the key was getting to the lounge car in time to snag the available outlet. Secondly, the first part of the trip back was fairly crowded, so I had to share my seat with a seatmate. The fellow who wound up sitting with me was a bit strange. First of all, he dressed nicely to ride the train. Not many people do that these days, but once it was the standard. That being said, he was a smoker and his clothes smelled of smoke, and that was not at all pleasant. But the strangest thing to me was that, although only a few years older than me, he seemed to be a generation or two removed from me. He apparently has never used a computer, he has not credit cards and didn't know what a debit card was when I mentioned it to him. I marvel at the work he has to go through to do something as simple as take a train trip. I got on line and ordered my tickets that way, and they were mailed to me. He had to determine what the fare was, and then go the the bank to get out the money, and then go to the station to get the ticket. I found this out because the train was late getting back to DC, and he was concerned with running out of money if he missed his connection, a commuter train from DC to Baltimore. Obviously, since he didn't have either a credit card or a debit card, his ability to get money in DC was going to be severely limited.
Amazing how the way we do things has changed since the 50's, which is about the time I think this fellow was stuck in.
I travelled to Chicago by train from Wash. DC and back. The trip out was uneventful, but long. The trip back, on the other hand, had a couple of interesting aspects. First, I figured out how to get electric power to my laptop so I could watch several eps of Buffy and Angel on the way back. Turns out the key was getting to the lounge car in time to snag the available outlet. Secondly, the first part of the trip back was fairly crowded, so I had to share my seat with a seatmate. The fellow who wound up sitting with me was a bit strange. First of all, he dressed nicely to ride the train. Not many people do that these days, but once it was the standard. That being said, he was a smoker and his clothes smelled of smoke, and that was not at all pleasant. But the strangest thing to me was that, although only a few years older than me, he seemed to be a generation or two removed from me. He apparently has never used a computer, he has not credit cards and didn't know what a debit card was when I mentioned it to him. I marvel at the work he has to go through to do something as simple as take a train trip. I got on line and ordered my tickets that way, and they were mailed to me. He had to determine what the fare was, and then go the the bank to get out the money, and then go to the station to get the ticket. I found this out because the train was late getting back to DC, and he was concerned with running out of money if he missed his connection, a commuter train from DC to Baltimore. Obviously, since he didn't have either a credit card or a debit card, his ability to get money in DC was going to be severely limited.
Amazing how the way we do things has changed since the 50's, which is about the time I think this fellow was stuck in.
