I have a confession to make: I love my commute.
I may be cheating: I'm only traveling into the city Monday through Thursday. Perhaps it's Friday that crushes one's soul. Or, perhaps there's still a bit of novelty attached to what is certainly a very new daily routine for me. Whatever the case may be, however, the status quo is such: Every morning at 8 AM I pay three dollars for parking, and another two for a bagel, never having woken up in time to make myself breakfast. I wait about fifteen minutes for a New Jersey Transit train to arrive. I'm not alone, of course; a woman stands far back from the platform so that she doesn't blow smoke in anyone's face. A young guy who doesn't sound like he speaks English tries to decipher the train schedule. I'm enjoying my bagel, with butter.
Everyone piles on board and a somber game ensues: thirty seconds later, scores of dejected early-risers walk the aisles of the train, looking for a stranger that doesn't look too fat or too dirty to sit next to. I take a seat next to someone kind enough not to look like they want to kill me.
And as the train starts gaining momentum on its route to New York City, with a full work day ahead of me and with my two hour (combined round-trip) commute in mind, I smile, and I turn on my DS.
God bless the public transportation system.
So, now that I have an extremely busy schedule and loads of responsibilities, I actually have more time to dedicate to gaming! I've been thinking about giving The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass another chance once of these days; my first try at it didn't get very far and was frustrating. I'm looking forward to trying out some portable games I've never had a chance to try, as well - and I'm open to suggestions!
Can anyone out there relate to the joy I am feeling at the thought of spending two hours a day on the train? Or is this, perhaps, a result of some sheltered naïveté that I am soon to grow out of? Share your thoughts in the comments!
One last thing: if anyone is interested, Bethesda recently released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall as a free download on the Elder Scrolls web site (source: Kotaku). The Elder Scrolls: Arena has also been available there for free for some time now. If you're interested in something a little more modern, however, you may be delighted to hear that hot on the heels of the announcement of a new MechWarrior game, MechWarrior 4 and all of its expansions will be released for free, at the BattleTech and MekTek.net web sites, sometime soon (source: Kotaku).
Enjoy some free gaming courtesy of the wonders of infinite supply and sporadic demand! And help me out in my search for some good commute games.
Image courtesy of JanneM (Flickr).
