Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I'd Probably Go To Ogden Today If I Was Homeless

When I lived in DC, most of my travel time occurred underground (ah, except for the lovely three minutes above ground at the Arlington Cemetery stop). And in a city where the pin-striped commuters hit the metro en masse, it's a rarity to see the same people more than once or twice. There was, however, this one couple who occasionally ended up on the same train as me in the mornings and the evenings. I always thought it was so sweet that they shared that commute time together and a little part of me hoped I'd have a similar commute with my sweetheart someday. I wondered what we'd talk about, what we'd do with two hours worth of uninterrupted commute - sans any driving distractions or me falling asleep in the car (very typical of any 10+ min drive we make) or the patchy half sentences that result from trying to apply mascara mid-conversation.

Well, thanks to our trip to Ogden yesterday compliments of Frontrunner, the Rileys now know what we'd do with that time: share the earbuds, listen to Mason Jennings and play "brick" on the iPod. We're a barrel of fun.

Call it fate. My little brother, Collin, had a concert at the Union Station in Ogden last night and it was the perfect excuse to join the hoardes of free Frontrunners for the trip north. So we hopped on in SLC and rode the entire route to Ogden's Union Station. It was a pretty decent ride, but it seems like there are a few wrinkles to be ironed out... like, where are you supposed to park for the Salt Lake station?! We parked down a slightly sketchy stretch of street, but we returned five hours later to find the car intact, so that's a bonus.

As we drove home along the back side of the Gateway, I commented on how convenient Frontrunner must be for The Parc at Gateway and Northgate residents...

A: "I bet this is really convenient for the people who live here."
N: "So they can go to Ogden whenever they want?" (Laced with skepticism.)
A: "Yeah, okay. I bet it's really convenient for the people who live here but work in Ogden."
N: "All right. OR if you were homeless."
A: "Yeah, if I was homeless I TOTALLY would have gone to Ogden today."

8 comments:

Brandon and Erica said...

haha. Once again, a great post by "A".
So cool that you got to ride FrontRunner, that practically makes you famous because all I hear about nowadays on KSL is how people are taking Front Runner.

And you saw it in person.

Me said...

Heh heh...I totally love Noah's response :) And I'm glad that you made a trip down to Ogden...as well as your car being intact when you got back ;)

allyn said...

hey, allison. this is in response to the message you left on my blog.
WE WILL TOTALLY BE HERE FOR MEMORIAL DAY! please come and hang out! if you have a minute, that is. i would give you my phone number, but i am kind of paranoid about leaving private information in blogs, so how about my email? not so private, right? alboney@hotmail.com.
my girls totally ask about you all the time. hilarious, i know. they would love to see you and meet your husband so that they can imagine you guys together. this is perfect timing, too, because we will be moving two weeks later. can't wait to hear from you!

Whitney said...

hahahha, ogden rules! i love you and noah's conversations. classic.

Kami said...

Oh public transpo! I love this post...you and Noah are so funny! I miss you guys...

Nicole said...

Brian and I circled the area around the Gateway for 20 minutes once looking for The Road Home (the homeless shelter). Now that FrontRunner has arrived, maybe all the homeless people WILL go to Ogden. Hahahahaha! (It's funny, because you know they'll come right back once they've seen Ogden.) Great post. :)

su-tang 3000 said...

Sharing earbuds seems unsanitary.

Darby said...

Being from the Ogden area, O-town is not that bad. Let's be honest about where you had to park your car in SLC. Yikes! The west side is tons of fun. Glad you got to make a trip up in style and had quality iPod Brick time with Noah.