UPDATE: A travelin' (wo)man

UPDATE: It's been almost two years since I posted all the cities I've traversed their mass public transit systems, so I wanted to provide an update. See my newest cities (in purple) since early 2015 that apply. Not many, but I'm making progress!
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I was thinking this morning that I've traveled a lot in my life and in recent years have found myself wanting to take public or mass transit when visiting other cities and countries, if nothing else, to see how their systems compare to my beloved DC. 

So I cataloged all the US cities and international cities where I've utilized their public or mass transit systems. First note to mention: I say 'mass transit' in addition to 'public' because a lot of time overseas their transit is actually privatized, at least in Europe, and that's a whole 'nother discussion for a different post (andwhyIthinktheUSisbehindontransit, coughcough).

I also would like to define what I consider to be "mass or public transit". This is city/county buses, commuter/regional rail, subways, trolleys and light rails. This does NOT include passenger rail (i.e. Amtrak), planes, ferries, taxicabs, or ride-share services. 

So without any further ado, here is my ever-growing list that I would like to continue to enhance! (ordered by proximity to where I call "home")

Washington, DC (obvi) and surrounding jurisdictions and nearby cities (MoCo, NoVa, etc.)
Baltimore, Maryland
New York, New York
Columbus, Ohio
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts 
Chicago, Illinois
New Orleans, Louisiana 
Las Vegas, Nevada
San Francisco, California 
Seattle, Washington

London, England
Paris, France (twice!)
Pisa, Italy
Rome, Italy
Athens, Greece

Sadly, I've been to plenty more cities and places than this, but either due to circumstance, stupidity or age, we didn't utilize the public transit systems in those places, walked, drove, or cabbed A LOT, or I just don't remember it. Here's to hoping that changes and I can teach my future children about the importance of it someday and cities continue to improve their transit so that tourists feel compelled to use it! 

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Addendum: I also am proud to say that I've now conquered public transit with a baby -- albeit, just the Washington, DC metro, but still, I feel like that's an accomplishment and definitely one to write home about!

Offense of the day

Hey there, ho there, faithful readers (hi mom!).

Since my last post, I had a baby. So, there's that. It happened about 2 1/2 weeks after my last entry to this blog, to be quite honest; my little one made their debut much earlier than anticipated and still weighed over 8 lbs. So, yeah -- way to be wrong in calculating due dates, doctors. Now I understand why I was so miserable those last few weeks in the DC heat. 

What I felt like during the last months of pregnancy.

Anywho, I returned to work last month and am back to the commuting. Overall, it's been OK. I know Metro is going through it again with large swaths of firings due to budget constraints. And Mr. Wiedefeld is definitely showing his exhaustion with this job. But overall, I haven't had too many issues that I can recall enough to complain about, but I'm also a new mother, so that might just be the lack of coffee in my system for not remembering.

This is not my child, but man, can I relate some days.

I also spent part of my first month back to commuting coming in from West Virginia on the MARC train. Well, kinda West Virginia. I stayed with my parents who live out there near the Harper's Ferry/Charles Town area, but I drove over to Brunswick, MD to catch the train for the few days I was staying there. There's ample parking at that station and more options for getting to DC each day. Even so, it led to much longer days than I wanted -- getting up at the same time as I would if I were home, to travel further and longer. Then I was arriving to work a bit later and getting home later in the evening. It was do-able, but I'm glad I don't do that everyday. It also was worth it so my parents could enjoy time with my little one and I didn't stress about him very much.

Love me some Atlanta housewives. And me at the end of my long WV commute.

So here we are today, and I've found my first offender since back on the commute. You all might know him as "The Leaner". You know, the guy who leans all over the poles of the Metro car, not giving you any spot to grab on when the train decides to herk and jerk its way to the next stop. 

Thanks, Patrick Stewart for contributing to this madness. 

(Note: I did not see Patrick Stewart this morning.)

So there I am, all 5 foot 3 inches of me, bundled up in winter gear, carrying two bags (one being a heavy-ish breast pump) and trying to strain my dominant arm up to the only available place to hold on to, about 2.5 feet above my head. And he's just straight chilling next to me, leaning up against the only pole I could realistically reach -- one of the handicap accessible areas by a door (which, of course, leads to less places for people to grab onto in general). 

How I felt rolling into Judiciary Square today.

Then as the train came into my station, since he is by the door, he proceeded to NOT step out of the train to let people exit. He just stood there. Still leaning. Still being oblivious to his rudeness. I hope my breast pump hit him on the way out. 

Happy Monday, y'all. It's good to be back!