Complaint I Submitted to the MBTA website

Hello,

This is my first complaint to the MBTA in almost 9 years of weekday ridership. I regularly ride both the C and D lines of the Green Line, and was particularly upset about the following incident.

Last Friday, 11/14, there had been an accident in the Green Line tunnel which caused me to be over an hour late for my destination. While these things do happen, it should have served as a reminder for T drivers that they need to be fully present while driving the train.

Unfortunately, that evening around 5 pm I was on the C Line, train 3816b. I boarded at Park Street, and once we exited the tunnel, the driver's cell phone began ringing constantly. Near St. Paul Street, the driver finally answered her phone, while driving the train. She informed the caller that she was driving and not supposed to be on her phone. She ended the conversation, and her phone continued to ring persistently until I departed the train at Englewood Avenue.

Please remind your drivers that they should not, under any circumstances, be using their cell phones while driving the train. In fact, their phones should be turned off and stowed, so that they cannot pose a distraction. There have been too many recent incidents on the T, and while these may not all be attributable to cell phones, the risk seems to be increasing.

I greatly appreciate being able to take the T, and even purchased my home based on its proximity to the T. But lately I have felt that my safety while riding the T is in greater peril, and I would hate to have to stop riding the T.

Thank you for your consideration,
Cheryl Stober

Historical Hangover

As Marc also has pointed out, I finally know what it's like to be a bleary-eyed Red Sox fan staying up way too late to watch championship games. Last night was wonderful. I broke out a bottle of Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) around 8 pm and watched the early predictions roll in. Two glasses of this definitely helped calm my nerves, and I was excited but reserved as the map slowly turned blue. When they called Ohio for Obama, I got tears in my eyes. I was so proud of my home state, finally coming through with a decision I could support. I cheered as the CNN strategists showed that there was pretty much no way McCain could pull it off at that point.

I fell asleep and awoke at some point during McCain's concession, smiled and fell right back to sleep. Marc awoke me shortly before Obama took the stage at midnight. It was a wonderful speech, a wonderful display. I can't wait to see the Obama family puppy. I checked on Max and Hannah, and woke Hannah briefly to tell her that Obama had finally, really, truly won. She smiled too.

I supported Hillary Clinton in the primary, but always said that I would support Obama if he was the nominee, and I'm very happy to have done so. Voting yesterday was amazing, filled with neighbors and friends at the polls and speedy, efficient voting. When the church bell rang at 7 am, people cheered and someone lit sparklers. The enthusiasm was contagious.

Hannah's TK class also elected Barack Obama. Their recent homework assignment was to list some facts about the candidates (boys had McCain, girls had Obama). Hannah had listened to the radio and watched the Obamercial with us, and dictated the following facts, which I wrote down for her and which she copied again:

Barack Obama wants to:
1) keep good schools
2) help people go to the doctor
3) keep people in their homes

While I know she'll grow up and have her own opinions, for now it's nice having her agree with her parents.

So I'm a little tired today (Max waking for a bottle at 4 didn't help matters), but it's worth it. I'm so happy that Barack Obama is President Elect. I know that the road ahead is a difficult one, and I am confident in his ability to lead our country in the right direction and restore our place in the world.

October Wrap Up

The month of October went in a blur as we celebrated four Jewish holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. We were actually at home in Newton the whole month, which was unusual but nice. The highlight of the month for me was the sukkah party we threw, which went really well. We had many friends come by and spend some time eating and chatting in our sukkah, and we had a great time catching up with everyone.

I also turned 31 this month, which was pretty low key. The four of us went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate, and both children were very well-behaved for a change. It was like they knew to be nice to mommy on her birthday. I also got some lovely presents as well as some time to myself the following weekend in order to enjoy them.

In other news, Max is finished with his helmet. His head looks a lot better than when we started the process back in August, and I'm very happy that we did it. Max seems very relieved to be done with it though, and has been sleeping a lot more in these last few days. While he tolerated the helmet very well, in retrospect it definitely seems like his sleep was impaired by it.

We had a fun Halloween. Hannah dressed as a "Barbie" cheerleader, and Max was an astronaut. I'm not sure which costume is more likely to occur in real life, though. :) I took the kids to trick-or-treating in our village, where all of the stores hand out candy. It's funny though, practically as soon as Halloween was over, Hannah forgot about her candy, and hasn't been asking for it.

Marc is out right now making calls on behalf of the Obama campaign. I am very ready for the election to be over, though I'm sure Saturday Night Live will suffer for lack of topics after it ends. I will also be supporting Obama, and I hope my home state of Ohio will be with me on that one. I think it's the only time I wish I still lived there, so that I could vote! But one moment every four years is definitely not enough to make me move back.