10:56 p.m. | 2005-08-03 Trains And Tofu. Much like I expected, my foray into the public train transportation system was not particularly dramatic. Most people are hesitant about the train due to the sketchy nature of some of the passengers. That was not my worry. Hello. I live and work downtown. I encounter the sketchy people every single day while I do ordinary things like dispose of my trash, make my way to lunch or even walking to and from work. No. In my little somewhat OCD life, my fears were about the schedule, ticket machine and actually boarding the thing. In other words, my worries were all rather technical. Well, and stupid. Much as I expected. I had no problems and it was really fun actually. See the train, in this case, traversed an area where cars can�t go so I got to see MyTown in a whole different way. That part was very interesting and enlightening. And, I�m glad that my fear wasn�t about other passengers because during my maiden voyage, I sat across from a guy had just been released from jail. I know that because he felt compelled to share that and more. To me? Yeah whatever. Jail, smail. Being downtown it�s not unusual to be approached by men who have just been released from prison. Hard core, gangsta felons. Whatever. But, I can see why that might make some people a little � or a lot � leery of taking the train. No matter. I met YoungerSister (YS) on the other side. We had decided to lunch at a kind of health food place. A place where I knew I could get heart-healthy stuff but YS could get other stuff. The special of the day? CARNITAS. Which was just mean. I have a profound weakness and particular love for carnitas. So much so that it�s hard to explain. That�s what YS had for lunch. I, on the other hand, was captivated by my own adventurousness and had an �eggless tofu salad� sandwich on rye. We were both confused about what I�d actually ordered since an eggless tofu salad sandwich, by its very name, doesn�t include eggs we couldn�t figure out why it wasn�t just called a �tofu salad� sandwich. We understood when it was served. Basically, it was an egg salad sandwich with tofu acting as the egg part. Topped by what appeared to be clovers � which made me happy because I�m just as apt to eat clovers as to admire them � but that I think were actually some variety of sprouts. This all sounds hippy-dippy I know and that�s fine because the important � and somewhat shocking � part to me was that I didn�t covet YS�s meal and I was completely happy with mine. If you don�t really know me, that�s HUGE. It�s beyond HUGE. YS�s weakness is baked goods which I don�t care for. My weakness is red meat which she doesn�t (normally) care for. It was a wonderfully odd lunch. And, I found out that YS holds the family medical history knowledge. She�s actually done a family medical history tree. I learned a lot. Truly, A LOT. Generally speaking, I hold the family history but I never thought about the medical stuff. I�m happy she�s got tabs on it though because I�ve got my hands full with all the other historical stuff. What a great thing to discover. She�s been tracking it since she was in college. I had no idea. Anyway, after lunch we went to her office so I got to see where she works and her space. I met several of her colleagues too. Then she walked me back to the train and made sure I caught the right one. Which was really sweet. In a strange coincidence, at the very first stop on the way back, one of my colleagues from MyOldWorkPlace hopped the traincar I was in and sat across from me. I spent my short trip back getting caught up with her which was great. So no drama really outside the fact that I voluntarily ate a vegetarian lunch while rejecting CARNITAS of all things and simultaneously getting the whole run down on our family�s medical history. And, I had a great time too. Jailbirds and all. your thoughts? seed flower