a literary commute

Hello hello. How’s everybody doing? I’m currently riding the green line inbound from Boston College, so I thought maybe I’d make this week’s post about commutes, and reading on them. I’m not a regular commuter anymore, but for 6 monhs last spring I took the commuter rail to and from Pawtucket, RI every day. And although catching the train at 6:30 AM Monday-Friday was an adjustement, I came to love my commute for the time it gave me (forced me) to read. There are a lot of variables in the commuter’s reading schedule. Did I brave a heavier bag to bring a book I want to read? Am I rereading for comfort or reading something new for the ~excitement~? It is something artsy that I’m not afraid to hold in my hand or is it something trashy that was free on iBooks that I turn my brightness all the way down to read? Did I nab a perfectly isolated corner seat or do I have to balance precariously around one woman’s five suitcases? Is it a game day of any kind? Because if it IS a game day of any kind, there will be several townie teenagers sipping vodka from their plastic Dunkin cups and cheering every 10 or so minutes (Kind of like professor Stockman! ((If the vodka was seltzer (((And if he cheered more ((((And if he was a 15 year old named Patrick from western Mass who loved the Bruins)))). I did manage to read a number of good books in those 6 months — Decreation (Anne Carson) What The Family Needed (Steven Amsterdam), When My Brother was an Aztec (Natalie Diaz), and, um... others? All my commute memories  blur together in one conglomerate tour of small-town Rhode Island. Get this: in Rhode Island, across from the Hasbro HQ (the biggest toy/game conpany in the world) were not one, but TWO funeral homes. Right next to each other. I’m buying the rights and writing a pilot. There were also several tattoo shops (with big signs that just said TATTOO) which makes you wonder who’s getting a tattoo in Pawtucket, RI. Commuting through Allston is soo much more boring. It’s just ten million BU students and two old ladies. Maybe I’ll read for class (haha*). This has been a piece on commuting and Rhode Island. Tune in next week when I make up for not doing anything last week!


*I won’t.