Trainsitting

This Friday, I, along with two colleagues and a professor, will be presenting at the Collegiate Composition and Communication Conference in New York City. You could think of it as one of the largest gatherings of English and composition professors in the country--you could also think of it as a great reason to travel to New York.

We decided to travel to NY via train, probably because it opened up the possibility of partaking in an "Agatha Christie" mystery during our 9-hour trek. This is the first time I have ever ridden on a train, and thus far (since I'm writing this while still riding on the train) it's been a pleasurable experience. In fact, if it didn't take noticeably longer to travel by train, I might recommend that you do it more often.

You have alot more room on a train than you do on a bus or a plane, in fact my first thought when getting aboard was that we have too much room. The seats are a combination between a normal air plane seat and a barber's chair. There are all sorts of pedals and levers, and even an arcade joystick, that adjust all of the various ways to relax.

There's a tray that can slide forward, so that you can use a computer or put together a relatively small jigsaw puzzle. Below the tray is a foot rest that plops down after stepping on a small pedal beside it. The chair itself can recline backwards with the push of a thick button (it's really almost too big for me to consider it a button, but we'll go with button). Then there is this bright blue leg-lifter under the seat, which I believe is operated by the joystick (however my joystick is broken, so I can't know for sure...) The only thing missing in these chairs is the ability to spin, which would make this less like a train and more like one of those Chevy Gladiator vans.

[This entry was written on Wednesday, Mar 21 at 11:00am... on a train.]