Early morning naps....

Every morning, I take the D line train from my house to north station (between 25-40 minutes depending on the time of morning, number of people, etc). Then, I take the commuter rail out to Lynn (2 or 3rd stop depending on the train). The ride on the commuter rail is usually about 25 minutes - and sometimes they let us on the train 5-10 minutes early - that gives me a good 25-35 minutes to nap!

Most mornings I read my book. Some mornings reading makes my eyes burn (because I'm so tired) so I just listen to music. Other mornings, I lay across the seats and "rest my eyes" so to speak.

This morning, I decided to sleep. Not nap. Not rest my eyes. But sleep. Well, I guess it wasn't really a decision. I thought I was awake. Its sorta like - in the morning, when your alarm goes off and you hit the snooze and decide to just keep your eyes closed for a "few minutes longer" - and when you open them, you are fairly certain only 10 minutes has passed when in fact its been 45. Ya, I had one of those.

I got on the train at 7:55. Foregoing the usual make up and reading ritual, I just put my headphones on and lay down. I opened my eyes once and noticed we were just barely rolling - the train had just started moving. 25 more minutes to go! I closed my eyes again - you know, to "rest" them. At our first stop, I jumped awake. I knew it was our first stop - I had been half awake and felt it was the first time we had stopped - but, I had this sudden fear that I might have actually been asleep and have missed my stop. Luckily, we were only in Chelsea (stop one). I put my head down again. One other time I popped up to see that we were not yet at Lynn but probably halfway between Chelsea and Lynn. I closed my eyes again. Somehow, in the next 10 minutes, I fell into a deep sleep. When I opened my eyes again, I caught a glimpse of the last person stepping off the train - and no one was really getting on (which means, the train was about to close its doors and take off again). I frantically sat up to look around at the signs... SWAMPSCOTT?!?!?!? WTF? Where am I? Yep, I had "overslept." I grabbed my pass (thank god i didn't forget it like that other time), gathered my purse, did a check of my "area" to make sure I had grabbed "all my personal belongings" (you know, like those flight attendants tell you to do) - and ran down the aisle to the exit. I'm sure I knocked some people out with my big bag swinging all over the place.

I got on the platform and gathered my thoughts - WHERE AM I? HOW DO I GET BACK? Obviously I could catch another train in but I had to be at the office by 9:15 today because we had to leave to go elsewhere for a meeting... and the commuter rail does not come often (sometimes it doesn't come for over an hour!) I noticed many people standing on the opposite platform - indicating that there was most likely a train coming in soon.... but there was no way to cross the tracks. OH! there must be an underpass by the little makeshift station. So I walked down a ways - nope, no underpass. AHHHHHH! Then I heard a tractor which I thought was the train so I started running. Right as I found the underpass, I heard the train coming (the real train - not the tractor). Luckily, I did manage to run and catch it in time! Yay. I got a few strange looks - I wonder if people saw me get off and on - and I also wonder if I had strange marks all over my face (from falling asleep on my bag). Oh well. I made it to the office in time and thats what counts right?

So I guess the next time someone says, "How do you nap on the train? Don't you miss your stop?" I won't be so quick to say, "Of course not, I just always know when we get to my stop - even when I'm half asleep!"