Trenton is Nice this Time of Year

A few weeks ago a friend of mine from college emailed to let me know that all those years of taking acting classes as a hobby had resulted in her landing a part in a small play in New York City. She invited me to attend. I called another friend in the city and made plans to meet for a drink before and dinner after the show. I booked a train and planned to leave work an hour early to get up there on time.

I arrived at the train station to discover that my train was delayed by an hour. This was not looking promising. I had a somewhat circular conversation with an Amtrak employee around his level of confidence that the train was actually going to leave in an hour. Doing the math, if Amtrak actually came through, that would put me in Penn Station at 6:30ish. No guarantees.

I decided to take a chance and jump on NJ Transit. If the connection in Trenton is quick I could be there in 2 1/2 hours definitely. So I jammed my Amtrak tickets in my bag and bought NJ Transit tickets. I jumped on the R7 and prayed for the best. I was on my way, hurtling through New Jersey jammed next to a smelly dude who was reading the Metro.

An hour later we pulled into Trenton and I raced to look at the board. I was screwed. The next train wasn't for another 35 minutes. I wouldn't get into NYC until just before 7PM. Given the production was only 45 minutes long and I would still have to get to the theater there just wasn't enough time.

Clearly I had rolled the dice and lost.

I called my friend and told her the bad news. She laughed at me and told me to go home and watch it on DVD some other time. So I bought yet another ticket and headed back to Philly.

So basically I paid $20 to take a ride to Trenton, buy some trail mix and then come back. I love New Jersey.



Photo Credit: www.easternsigntech.com