Not Advised for the Claustrophobic

Hey! Remember me? Ya, it's been awhile. I haven't had to ride the bus. So I didn't. Although I have to admit I miss it. I miss not having to worry about the traffic. I miss just chillin' while I let someone else do the driving. I miss giggling inside at some of the strange people on the bus. I miss gaping in shock at others.

I'm considering taking the bus again. On occasion. But I do have to go from one office to another for work sometimes. Without my car, that would be a bit of a challenge. I don't want to have to walk a mile each way....I'm just kinda lazy like that I guess.

So what am I doing here? Well, I was summoned for the dreaded "J" word.

JURY DUTY!!!

I had been on call all week and thought for sure I had escaped having to report in so far. You know how they do that....call every night between 5pm and midnight to see if you'll have to go to the court house. (In my case, I was assigned to the court downtown. Nooooooooo). Well, last night (Wednesday) I forgot to call. I don't know what happened. I looked at my jury info at one point but figured....eh, I'll call later.

Well....I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and jumped out of bed!!! OMG!! I didn't call!!

They say if you don't call, your service week will start over on Monday.

Holy Crap....I didn't want to go through this again. I mean I had already gotten through half the week, right?

So I figured....hmm...lets call at 4:30 am and see what happens.

Well damn....the recording told me I had to be downtown by 7:30 a.m. geeeeesh. Now what? If I go back to bed, I'll sleep in too late. I couldn't reset the alarm clock without waking up the husband and getting all sorts of crap. (NOT a good way to start the day). So up I was. I did doze off on the couch for about 30 minutes though.

Now...the transportation dilemma. Do I fight traffic and parking and all that crap? I seriously hate driving downtown.

Nope....I take the redline. Also known as the subway.

Who decided that it was a good idea to build a SUBWAY in Los Angeles?? I wonder how many faults that subway crosses. And being underground...you KNOW that it's even closer to the actual faults than what's above ground.

It scares the hell out of me.

I mean, eventually, somethings gonna shake, right?

But tons of people take it anyway. Are they all lulled into a false sense of security since nothing's happened so far?

I sucked it up though....despite my fears, and took the subway in the middle of earthquake country.

And I lived to tell about it.

This is the entrance to the subway in North Hollywood. It looks rather grand. Almost like you're entering some sort of arena and about to have a lovely time.

(from this man rushing towards the depths of L.A., you can see that plastic bag lunches have replaced the brown paper bag lunches these days)

Let me tell you what it's like once you're inside those lovely arches. You descend. Down the longest escalator I've ever seen. And it keeps going and going. To a platform where you purchase your ticket ($1.25...not bad). Then you get on another escalator and descend some more. To what seems like the center of the earth.

How close do they want us to be to those damn faults anyway?

The place is clean though. And the people aren't quite so weird. I bet that scene changes at night, right? I mean, it goes straight through Hollyweird and into downtown Los Angeles.

The Orange Line (bus) is much more entertaining during the day.

But when I got off the train at the Civic Center....I looked around to see where to go. And I looked up.

WTF? What are those! and Why?

These...."people" were randomly strung from the ceiling!! Are they falling?? Cuz if we had an earthquake, isn't that what would happen? People from the streets above would fall through the gaping cracks in the streets and sidewalks and fall into the subway!

Who's idea was this?!

I don't get it. It kinda creeped me out.

Jury dury is another story, if desired. I slept through a lot of it. (if I snored, please don't tell me. What I don't know will make me feel better about myself)

Guess what I found out on the way home? There are 2 subway trains down there. The other is called the Purple Line. But it still has a red "racing stripe" across each section of the train. And for a while it uses the same track. Then heads off into another section of Los Angeles.

I got on that train by accident.

How was I to know? The little header on the train is to small to read...especailly as it zoooooms by when it pulls into the station.

No worries though...I got off at the next stop and found the right train. I found my way home. I didn't get stuck in the subway. I didn't get crushed. I didn't have any random flying bodies fall on me from above.

I hope I don't have to do it again anytime soon though. I mean.....it's not my thing.

I'd much rather ride the Orange Line.

I think I have some photos from last year and a few little stories I could share with you. Hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon.