![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...
Nov. 3rd, 2005 11:40 pm...the concert was very nice.
Tonight was a Swat alumni event, a classical concert at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Kimmel Center, with a talk by Tom Whitman beforehand. He had asked me to bring a boombox so he could have musical samples with his lecture, so I borrowed one (thanks, Blake!) and took it with me on the train. Tom was coming in from his NW Phila home so could neither offer me a lift nor ride in on the train with me. Thank God, it turned out.
About half an hour before my 5:54 train I turned on KYW and head that there were wires down, causing up to 30 minute delays on all train lines. Yikes! Since there's a SEPTA bus strike, there was no alternative way for me to get into town. Also, I had no way to reach Tom besides email, but I called the PCMS to tell them I might be late and they might have a leaderless and clueless group on their hands. And I sped to the station, hoping I could catch a late 5:13 train. Alas, it hadn't been late. And in fact I began thinking the problem was over (KYW's often behind the times in their transit reporting) since the 5:54 arrived less than 10 minutes late.
We lost only another couple of minutes heading in. I realized that to meet Tom at 6:40 like we'd planned, I'd be taking a taxi. When the train got to UniverCity I stayed on it because I don't think there are often taxis there. Mistake! The train took an hour to get to the next station, 30th St. I was off the train at 7:40, and unable to get a cab at 30th St either -- there was a line 100 people long at the taxi stand! So I hoofed it, finally getting a taxi to take me the last seven blocks, such that I arrived at 7:59. The lecture was over but I got to hear the whole concert[*].
And it turned out everything had worked flawlessly without me! PCMS had gotten Tom (and all the alums) to a lecture room, provided him with their own boombox, and given out tickets that they'd printed out after I told them I was going to be late with their tickets. I never want to have something like that happen again (though I'm not sure what I could have done about it given the situation and when I found out about it), but as Experiences go it wasn't particularly painful. Just frustrating.
[*] Beethoven String Trio op.9 #2, Berg Lyric Suite, Dvorak Sextet, played by musicians from Marlboro.
Tonight was a Swat alumni event, a classical concert at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Kimmel Center, with a talk by Tom Whitman beforehand. He had asked me to bring a boombox so he could have musical samples with his lecture, so I borrowed one (thanks, Blake!) and took it with me on the train. Tom was coming in from his NW Phila home so could neither offer me a lift nor ride in on the train with me. Thank God, it turned out.
About half an hour before my 5:54 train I turned on KYW and head that there were wires down, causing up to 30 minute delays on all train lines. Yikes! Since there's a SEPTA bus strike, there was no alternative way for me to get into town. Also, I had no way to reach Tom besides email, but I called the PCMS to tell them I might be late and they might have a leaderless and clueless group on their hands. And I sped to the station, hoping I could catch a late 5:13 train. Alas, it hadn't been late. And in fact I began thinking the problem was over (KYW's often behind the times in their transit reporting) since the 5:54 arrived less than 10 minutes late.
We lost only another couple of minutes heading in. I realized that to meet Tom at 6:40 like we'd planned, I'd be taking a taxi. When the train got to UniverCity I stayed on it because I don't think there are often taxis there. Mistake! The train took an hour to get to the next station, 30th St. I was off the train at 7:40, and unable to get a cab at 30th St either -- there was a line 100 people long at the taxi stand! So I hoofed it, finally getting a taxi to take me the last seven blocks, such that I arrived at 7:59. The lecture was over but I got to hear the whole concert[*].
And it turned out everything had worked flawlessly without me! PCMS had gotten Tom (and all the alums) to a lecture room, provided him with their own boombox, and given out tickets that they'd printed out after I told them I was going to be late with their tickets. I never want to have something like that happen again (though I'm not sure what I could have done about it given the situation and when I found out about it), but as Experiences go it wasn't particularly painful. Just frustrating.
[*] Beethoven String Trio op.9 #2, Berg Lyric Suite, Dvorak Sextet, played by musicians from Marlboro.
