A Post on Why I Love Public Transit (Sometimes)

Whoops. It's been another three years of not blogging. My bad.

What It Is

Do I need to explain this? Public transit or mass transit is an area's system of high-capacity vehicles, for which you pay a small fee to travel back and forth from places you go. 

What It Costs

Metrorail (henceforth referred to as Metro, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail system) fares are based distance time of day and distance traveled. Each fare period (peak/off-peak) charges a base fare ($2 off peak, $2.25 peak) and adds distance fare based on where you tap in and out of the system. It's kind of expensive. My office is about 7 miles from home by car and a one-way Metro trip costs $3.70.

Why It's Awesome

I live near Washington, DC and work in the District. My daily commute is nearly an hour and a combination of walking, trains and a work-provided shuttle bus. When WMATA works, it's awesome. I can drive to work and sometimes do, but despite a shorter commute by car, I arrive to work angry. I don't like shouting at other cars when they inevitably do something stupid in my way. Metro saves me the frustration of sitting in traffic and the anxiety of trying not to get in a wreck. I also get to read the paper during my commute, which keeps me informed and entertained most days.

Why It Might Not Be Awesome

Sometimes Metro is decidedly not awesome. They've recently completed a year-long compacted maintenance plan designed to reduce delays and improve safety, which itself created delays and impacted commutes across the city. While they have reported fewer fires and incidents this year compared to the last few, when there is an incident it can cause widespread issues across the system because of a lack of redundancy within the routes. Unlike NYC's subway system, each line in DC only has two tracks (most of NYC's have three, with the third used as express unless needed because of track problems), meaning trains must share a track around problems, which causes backups in both directions. 

Verdict

I like public transit. Of course now that I'm putting this in writing, I'll end up with a nightmarish commute for the next three or four weeks, but it's been generally good lately.

Evaluating Apple Chips

I am OBSESSED with the apple chips my employer (AU) serves with "healthy staff" luncheons. So naturally I've been trying to find how to purchase them myself. I haven't been able to figure out exactly how AU does these chips, if they purchase them from somewhere else or quite what the process is to end up with crispy apples that aren't greasy. I rank the AU chips 5/5 and they are the baseline against which I measure other apple chips.

I have tried the following brands:

Seneca Apple Chips

These are fried, as far as I can tell, and a bit greasy. The density of the chip is similar to the AU chip, but I don't believe AU's chips are greasy like these are. These are kind of expensive at our grocery store ($3+ for a little bag). I rate them 2/5 

https://www.senecasnacks.com/product/original-apple-chips

Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Fuji Apple Slices

These are a bit thicker than I wanted, though I like the freeze dried texture. They are at least all sweet, which is not the case with all apple snacks I've found so far. They're also inexpensive ($3 for a good sized portion). I rate them 3/5 https://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article/1685

(Target Brand) Simply Balanced Freeze Dried Apple Slices

Again, these are a bit thicker than I wanted, though the texture is ok. They're a mix of sweet and tart apples (some have green skins so I suspect they are Granny Smiths). Quality was similar to Trader Joe's. I rate them 3/5 https://www.target.com/p/freeze-dried-apple-slices-1-25oz-simply-balanced-153/-/A-15909821

Brothers All Natural Freeze-Dried Fruit Crisps - Fuji Apples

These had the best texture and width of the freeze dried apples. Also no peels, seeds, or stems to be found. I ate the whole 1/2 cup package in a few minutes! These were available at Wegmans for 99¢, though the portion is pretty small. The texture is still not quite AU level, but I'd eat these again. I rate them 4/5.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0019413WA/ref=twister_B01LXTEWT4?th=1

Bare Baked Crunchy Apple Chips - Fuji & Reds

These came closest to the texture of AU's chips, so I suspect AU's may also be baked. These were still slightly thicker than AU's final product and some were a little soft. Overall I liked the texture and thickness of these though and I'd definitely buy and eat them again. I think this brand is pretty widely available too, so they'd make a nice snack. I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Sheetz. I picked these up at Wegman's for something like $3.50 for a 3.4 oz. package. A little pricey, but certainly not at the top of the spectrum. I rate these 4.5/5

https://smile.amazon.com/Bare-Natural-Apple-Chips-Gluten/dp/B007TG662Y?th=1

Verdict

I haven't quite found commercially available apple chips with the same texture and thickness as AU's, but plan to continue trying them. The Bare Baked Crunchy Apple Chips seem to be the closest of the ones I've tried so far.

Holy crap, I still have a blog?

Forgot this existed again.

I've moved to Virginia with a new job as of March 2015.

I still have too many hobbies.

Maybe eventually I'll start writing again.

Fabric is Heavy: Or, My Adventure in L.A.'s Fashion District

Last week, I had the good fortune to visit a dear friend in Los Angeles. I had no idea what I wanted to do in the city; I've never been that far west. In fact, I haven't been west of the Mississippi River in about 20 years! (I'll be 29 next month, just for reference). I thought about the usual tourist-y stuff, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the museums, the bus tours past stars' houses... and decided they were mostly not for me. I mean, I love the movies, I'd probably enjoy the Walk of Fame and maybe visiting some of the big theaters out there, but not so much on the bus tour. I did visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on the last day of my trip, which was a lot of fun.

Abandoning Format

I'm abandoning my established format in favor of something more conducive to good writing.

I bought a new(er) car a little less than a month ago, a 2007 Toyota Prius. I had to take out a small loan from the credit union, but so far it seems like a worthy investment. It's name is Turtle, and buying it accomplished the few things I wanted in a new(er) car: a hatchback with as good or better fuel efficiency compared to the 2001 Nissan Sentra I was driving before. Turtle has a few more features I like in a car, namely, a tire pressure sensor and an auxiliary plug for the stereo. Since Turtle is not a brand new car, I've already had to replace the windshield wipers and a tire (a second will follow with my next paycheck next week). That tire pressure sensor has already come in handy!

Turtle and I took our first road trip this past weekend, heading to Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Symphony's Singing City event, a concert with a mass choir of 2,000 singing the finale from Mahler's Second Symphony ("Resurrection") and a bit of Verdi's Requiem, among other things. Dear friend Z kindly lent me part of her floor and an air mattress so I didn't have to shell out for the hotel. This turned out to be a fantastic decision, as the hotel was at the Waterfront and the Squirrel Hill Tunnel was closed, meaning there was a ridiculous wait to get off at that exit. I sat for an hour in traffic on Saturday night with one of my fellow EPC members, waiting to take her back to the hotel. The concert was wonderful, though acoustics in the Petersen Events Center are... less than ideal for classical music. Still, a great experience with a wonderful ensemble.

Boyfriend graduates from law school in a little less than a month. I'll be traveling down to VA for that, then up to Baltimore for the AAM conference, then back to VA to pick up Turtle before coming home. Still trying to work out how to get from VA up to Baltimore as there are no MARC trains on Sundays. Amtrak may have to substitute, I haven't quite decided yet.

I've recently discovered that mini blinds are the scourge the earth. They collect dust and mold like nobody's business and can't be cleaned with a vacuum like dust on the floorboards, windowsill and floor. I don't understand the terrible magic that holds dust onto mini blinds, but I don't like it. TWO HOURS, a quarter bottle of Method cleaner and most of a roll of paper towels later, mine are clean. But my hands hurt. Ow.

I am hoping blogging more often will help to improve my writing. We'll see how long that lasts.

Things I've learned:

1. I am a terrible blogger. There. I've said it. It's out in the open.
2. I enjoy reading other people's blogs and I enjoy writing, thus I feel I should be a better blogger. Mostly I forget that I have these things and ignore them entirely out of existence. That's what happened with my LiveJournal, although I think that still exists in some form??

Things that are awesome:

1. Anything with toffee in it. Yum!
2. Frozen yogurt.
3. The immensely large crane I can currently see out of my window at work. I think it's building a parking garage for Erie Insurance or something, but looks entirely out of place in Erie, PA as it's of the "almost fell over in NYC during Hurricane Sandy" sort.

Things That I've Learned

1. BEST CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH IN THE WORLD can still be found at Union Station, in D.C. It comes from a gelato place. When in D.C., go there, try a sample. If it doesn't make you want to immediately buy said sandwich, then you're not human. Just sayin'.
2. There are shockingly few Christmas light or window displays in D.C. Exception: Giant wreathes at Union Station which look like they are made from crystal. This said, the White House is incredibly beautiful on a clear cold night, perhaps more so since it's not covered in twinkly lights.
3. People LOVE Christmas music. Even hastily put together or incredibly tacky Christmas music, it doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm OK with that. I've had two holiday concerts with EPC, played Christmas duets at two different churches four times, played twice at the Museum for MDAB:Holiday Edition and will play at both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services this coming weekend. Oh, and a huge New Year's Eve concert later this month for which I am currently in rehearsals. I literally had only two days without something on them in December and they were both at the beginning of the month.
4. I need to remember to update my blog more often. Might start another one for movie reviews, which I used to do occasionally on LiveJournal, but haven't in a long time. I saw quite a few films in my theater worker days, not so many now, but I still enjoy watching and thinking about them.

Things that are Awesome

1. My dad fixed my car! It doesn't do that weird coughing thing when I'm idling at lights anymore. Woohoo!!
2. I spent last weekend in NYC with my dear Uncle Duane and his partner Lee. It was refreshing to see them in the context of everyday life, outside of visiting with family or them visiting here. NYC is smelly and dirty though and I don't think I could live there.
3. Traveling by Amtrak, assuming the trains are relatively on schedule. My ride home was pleasant and quick (by Amtrak standards anyway). The ride to NYC, on the other hand, was a complete disaster. Twelve hours on a train that should have taken something like ten. Amtrak shares its rails between Erie and Albany, NY (and other routes in the US, not necessarily just that one) with a myriad of freight lines, so unfortunately, traveling can take much, much longer than expected. Especially if the train is delayed by something before it comes in to Erie. I don't mind traveling by train, it's comfortable and pretty cheap, but it just doesn't go anywhere quite fast enough for my liking.
4. New York City Museums. OMG. Visited MoMA FINALLY and it is AMAZING. Want to go back, like tomorrow. Also saw more of the Met's 20th Century collection (I refuse to refer to this as contemporary or modern art, the terms are pretty blanket and I truly think that in 2011, 20th century art, like Warhol, is no longer quite contemporary). I'm slowly becoming an art snob the longer I work for the museum, so now I'm starting to recognize certain artists' works before looking at the labels, at least enough that the names aren't an incomprehensible jumble anymore.
5. MTA/the public transit system in NYC. Despite the map looking like a pile of multi-colored spaghetti, the buses and subways in NYC are quite efficient. I'm glad I didn't have to figure them out myself though, or I'd probably STILL be standing in Penn Station from Thursday night going, but if I take this train, will it get me where I'm supposed to be going??