Saturday, February 14, 2009

On a Personal Note...


The following is a message that I saved on my phone to later be added to the blog and am uploading now:



I'm sitting on a train heading back to New York and I could probably rip apart a phonebook right now. My train was delayed over 2 1/2 hours and I spoke with the person at the ticket counter and she started making analogies about airports and I responded "this is not an airport, you do not work for an airline, I am not trying to take a flight, I am trying to take train, which I already paid for and expected to be here when I was told it would be, so let's talk about that." Her ever popular answer was "talk to my supervisor." When I spoke to this supervisor I asked if I could get a new ticket on a different train and she said "sure, if you pay for it." So I politely explained that I'm trying to get home and I don't have the additional $60 that I would have to pay, and even if I did I wouldn't pay a cent extra strictly on principal. 
She said I could call the Amtrak phone number, so I did, and a very nice woman said that she felt for my situation but could not upgrade my ticket but I could try to talk to customer service. She transferred me and wished me a good day, and I proceeded to listen to 10 minutes of Beethoven. Now if I were sitting on my train on my way home looking out the window and admiring the trees and lakes and bridges I would love to have Beethoven as the temporary soundtrack to my life, but The only view in sight was of a big board of numbers and destinations and the capital letters next to my incredibly late train reading DELAYED. 
As I sat down and put my head in my hands after hanging up on Beethoven, I looked up and Dustin Hoffman was standing in front of me. In times of great stress and upsetment the human mind can often create eccentric illusions, but this was not one of those times. Dustin Hoffman really was standing right next to me, and I didn't even know what to say, so I just looked at him as he was looking back at me and smiled. For those of my readers that may not know me personally, I am an actor, and so this experience went beyond just seeing a famous person, it made me feel like there was a reason for my train being in the end a total of 3 hours late, and
Dustin Hoffman gave me some strange bit of reassurance. Now I'm sitting on the train somewhere in Rhode Island and watching beautiful landscapes go by my window while listening to music to calm me down from the first half of my day, and no, it's not Beethoven.

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