What do I do while waiting at the airport?
While waiting for my significant wife -
To scoop me up from the trials of life,
Which is wrapped up in work and public commute -
On the system that so politely answers to “Marta.”
“Hey sweetie, can you take me here and then there
And basically anywhere I please.
I’ll ride you till midnight and do so with ease…”

What do I do while waiting at the airport?
Site seeing is what I see,
Of pure, unadulterated diversity, between you and me.
Some call it “people watching”, others compare it to stalking.
Seriously; if I’m not touching, nor gawking then watching is as polite as talking.
A conversation between my eyes and your movements,
between your written journey at THAT moment and the comma in my sentence.

I’m done rhyming and stretching my stiff-poetic ligaments.
My ride is here, so I must continue with my movements.

Background

I take the Atlanta public transportation system, known as MARTA, almost on a daily basis back and forth to work.  Luckily for me, I’m a “people watcher” so I find enjoyment out of simply watching people pass by.  Wondering where is life taking them today, what made them put on that extra shirt or coat, etc.  So; I start my day being dropped off at the Atlanta International airport (which doubles as the train station) and at the end of the day I’m back at the airport – waiting for my wife to pick me up.  I started out this poem on my Blackberry and finished it in WordPress.

Feedback

I’d really like to see if I can get some feedback from you.  Please leave a comment, it doesn’t matter how positive or negative it is.  Any feedback is better than none.  I hope you enjoyed the passage.  Thanks.

It’s interesting taking the transit, here in Atlanta, Georgia, US. Compared to the place I spent most of my life – South Florida. I can rely on the transit system here, which is called MARTA. It has some funny colors, but I’m guessing because there are a lot of homosexuals here – dunno. The bus and trains are scheduled to run with each other – so that you simply migrate from one vehicle to another, but the problem with that is… there are people operating these vehicles and most of the time they are not on “schedule”.

Taking the MARTA sure helps in saving some money. True; gas prices are going down, but when it was high – I only paid $13/wk to commute from home to work. My wife keeps our one car, to run errands and other things related to her graphic design business, Katina Ferguson. So; we’d fill up on gas one time during the week. So many folks complaining about how much they pay in gas; we would snicker to ourselves.

Pros and Cons for Business

One good thing is I can work my web development business, Digital Alias, while commuting. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to work so, in the morning, or evening, I can get some things done. Compared to the days I had to drive to work – no good. I spent more time fighting traffic than getting any work done.

In regards to meetings, MARTA is not the way to go. You should have a car for that. Unless you live in the city or can quickly get to the train/bus station – I’d suggest you use a car. My wife and I ran into an issue with that; especially having one car. I wanted to go to some meetings, that were evening meetings. I can get to MARTA and get around to the meetings (thanks Google Maps for incorporating the transit systems in your application), but getting home was a problem. We live in the “country” part of Georgia, a little place called Fairburn. Funny thing is most native Georgians, don’t know where Fairburn is. Well; the bus would drop me off in downtown Fairburn, but I’d have to walk 45 minutes to get to my home. My wife couldn’t leave the kids, sleeping, to come pick me up – so meetings where I don’t have a ride home are meetings I can’t use MARTA for.

Not much to write about, actually. I’m on the south-bound train to Atlanta’s airport, to be picked up by my wife. I thought I’d jot down some of my thoughts about this money-saving system. I like it, just wished we lived in the city to be able to totally take advantage of it.

Katina and I talked in the train, laughing like we do and Katina thought she saw someone from America’s Next Top Model on board. She didn’t engage an conversation with her, but thought of an elaborate scheme to do so – she forgot about it and we continued to talk and look at Alex enjoy the simple train ride.

We reached to Linberg Center and proceeded to Chilies, for dinner. Alex was not happy that we got off the train. He started to cry and carry on – luckily Katina was able to help him understand that we’re going to eat and then get back on the train. He quickly calmed down and we had fun at Chilies.

We got back on the train and he was way more comfortable with it this time. It was dark outside so there wasn’t much to look at, but he tried anyway. When it was time to get off the train he did so with no problems and even told the train “bye”. When we got to our car he wanted to go back on the train and we told him next week. Obviously; he didn’t like that answer so he carried on a bit – almost all the way home, but that’s expected. Overall; we had a good time.

Today, Katina and I plan on taking Alex on a train (MARTA). Every time Katina picks me up from the airport he carries on about the train. So; we thought today would be good to finally get him on the train. He’s taking a nap now and we’ll see how it goes when he gets up. I’ll try and Twitter the events while I’m out.