I’m sitting on my Amtrak loving the train and wishing for the days when this was the only option for semi-long distance trips when public transit’s stupidity rears it’s ugly head.

Amtrak doesn’t have very frequent offerings on a Saturday night. Trains leave about 3 hours apart. It makes sense its $$$ to run. But in its infinite wisdom Metro LA decides to run its last train northbound 1 minute earlier then when the last Amtrak train arrives. Yes exactly 60 seconds. Would it kill them to leave at 11:56 or even better 12:00am? Apparently. Because efficiency or practicality is not the #1 thing on public transit’s mind. Being as inane and ridiculous as possible will always be the priority.

I’m one of those weird people who love making lists and in particular setting up their resolutions for the coming year. I’m not very good about keeping most of them, but setting my mind on a new goal is exciting nonetheless.

So here’s a few that I’ve come up with over the past week.

1. Eat more food I prepared myself. This goes for all meals, but is particularly important for lunch at work. Although I work near many amazing eateries, the cost and calories of eating out daily does start to add up.

2. Go for more mid-day walks. I spend 9 hours a day sitting in front of a computer staring at a screen in a 5’ x 5’ cubicle. This is not only killing my eyesight but must be ruining my spine and other vital organs. A five minute walk around the building in the am and pm might just prevent me from becoming a permanent hunchback.

3. Ride my bike more often. The bearded man and I recently replaced our stolen bikes with some retro used bikes. Given that its January and the sun goes down at 4:30pm this will also require me to get over my fear of riding my bike in the dark.

4. Explore LA more. There are so many places to eat/visit/shop in LA and I take advantage of so few of them because I rely primarily on public transit to get everywhere. This is a good excuse during the week, but on weekends I really need to start branching out to the Westside or maybe even the Valley (WHAT??!).

5. Finally find a REAL hobby. I’m already set up with a groupon for a crocheting class and will try my first cooking class at Hipcooks courtesy of a gift from a dear friend. I don’t know if crocheting or cooking might be my next REAL hobby but it’s been 13 years since I’ve had a steady extracurricular (Mexican folk dancing) and my year of half marathons is definitely over (I am not a long distance runner).

So one of my few complaints about living in SoPa have always been the lack of reliable and affordable late night hotspots. This is particularly the case if you’d like to travel via the Gold Line. Old Town Pasadena (between the Del Mar & the Memorial Park Station) have always offered various eateries/bar, but they’ve all been around for awhile and lack a certain oomph (i.e. Happy Hour). Luckily for all those Gold Line commuters and ‘Dena residents Congregation Ale House has chosen Pasadena for its 3rd outpost.

The bearded man and I tried it out last night and its awesome! A very large and rotating selection of beers are complemented by excellent pub food. I had the turkey, jalapeno and cheddar sausage, he had the turkey burger and we shared an order of belgian fries. All the buns and flatbread are baked freshly at their Azusa location and delivered daily. As for beer it was a Great Divide event, a brewery in Denver, so we tried the Yeti, Hades, Hercules & the 17th Anniversary ale. I also love their technology-savvy system of service. First order at the front bar, leave your card and they deliver food/beers to your table. If you want a second round, just hail down one of the servers who will enter your order on one of their fancy tablets they carry around.

Congregation Ale has definitely filled a void in the area by providing both affordable pub food (that’s good) combined with a variety of craft brews that aren’t super expensive. Add to that an extremely friendly Metro accessible location (1 block from Del Mar station) and I can’t wait to become a regular!

So living in Southern California, I have never had the privilege of really living in the eye of a storm, until last week. South Pasadena was hit by hurricane winds that took out not only our power but even affected water service. It was Little House on the Prairie in our apartment for about 24 hours with no internet, no hot water, no heat and no use of the stove. 

The damage was limited on our street. I was happy that our one car, Vespa and our two new-to-us bikes were all tucked safely away underneath the carport. The Gold Line even survived pretty well although power outages forced trains to stop at EVERY track crossing for two days. This made the ride twice as long (30 minutes vs. 15 minutes), but my coworkers report it was still better than driving through streets without street lights or closed due to fallen trees and debris.

The storm did make me happy about one thing I’ve been struggling with a lot recently- the idea of not being a homeowner but yet still being an adult. The Bearded Man and I have held off on purchasing because everything in our price range is either too small or far away from where we’d like to live. This means that I’ll be entering my 30s as a renter, which in most big cities is par for the course.

As I watched all the homeowners spend their weekend, cleaning up all the leaves, fallen branches and dislodged roofing materials it made me thank my lucky stars. As a renter there was no clean up besides the sink full of dishes that hadn’t been washed in 2 days. I think we’ll wait a little while before we jump onto that “adult” life goal.

One of the things I love to do most on my transit commute is listen to This American Live via their iPhone app. It makes my ride feel like a little more social since someone is talking to me, telling me a story while I sit in a train with 50 or so strangers. This past week’s show was all about stories of people loving their car. It started me thinking do I love my transit commute the same way I used to love my car?

I really only loved two cars of the five I have driven. My first car, the Toyota Corolla aka LoveBus, was my pride and joy. I was 16 and 2 months when my Dad took me down to the Enterprise Rent-a-car used auto showroom and first laid eyes on it. It was a standard white 4 door Corolla, with absolutely nothing fancy about it except for the automatic locking doors my Dad put in. (Unfortunately, that led to me locking my keys inside 5 times over the next year and we finally learned how to disarm it.) I totaled my first love approximately two years later when a car pulled out from a parking lot to make a left and I t-boned her (it was her fault and the 2nd in a series of 6 car accidents that were not my fault).

The second car I loved was my Mini Cooper aka Winston. I bought him my senior year of college and would drive anywhere and everywhere behind that beautiful dashboard. I sometimes wonder if I might have even enjoyed traffic as my commute went from Orange County to Los Angeles and everywhere in between. I had to say goodbye almost four years ago when the automatic transmission decided to go on the fritz. I was brought to tears as I took out my personal items from him at the dealer to transfer over to my brand new Subaru.

Its not that I don’t love my current vehicle, Hamachi, but its not just “my” car anymore. The bearded man drives it more days than I do and since we don’t have a daily relationship I don’t feel nearly as attached as I once may have. Which brings me to my current mode of transportation, the gold line. Do I love it? There are certain things I enjoy: almost always being able to find a seat, the free air-conditioning on hot days, the low cost, and the excellent reliability (considering I’ve only been stranded 3 times in 2 years). Yet I don’t know if I would call it love, because its not fully mine, which makes me think we love our cars not only because of the freedom they bring us, but because they are our personal space in the world.