the commute

I catch the bus every morning at the bottom of the hill, at Queen Anne Avenue and Mercer Street, which is the center of Lower Queen Anne and is a major transfer point for the area. I tend to sleep until the last minute possible, and hit the street during the last-minute commuter rush.

And I really like the experience associated with doing so; it feels like being a part of something great, a mass pilgrimage. I like the communal gravitation toward the node, a small swarm of us pouring down the hill like groggy robots and quietly converging on the bus stop in a line (also like robots) along the building facade.

And I also secretly like it when the bus arrives, and it's crowded enough to make the dozen people getting on at Mercer turn it into standing-room only, with people packed all the way up to the driver. It doesn't matter if it's a long, accordion bus or a shorter one. The 18 and 15, coming from Ballard, are popular enough to be packed regularly.

I like being crammed between a bunch of people while in my own world, plugged into headphones; it's like being on the metro, but with a better view. The route goes along First avenue, and I love riding through Belltown, looking out the west-facing windows to the Sound as the views between the buildings open up and give way to water and distant landscape as the grade falls away. As the bus approaches Broad, I always get to see Calder's red Eagle, framed between buildings, and I love the filmstrip of an experience it's a part of as each view corridor reveals a slightly different glimpse... water, railroad, Calder, cruise ship terminal, freighter, ferry, water, water and Alki, Pike Place Market, Market sign... then it gives way to viaduct and then shortly my bus stop at work, and that sixteen minute ride is just right to put me in the right place to start the day.

Unless, of course, I know the day's gonna suck. (Then I just enjoy my non-work moments while I've got 'em.)

Aside: There is a short, two-block-long street just before Broad that gives the view of Calder's Eagle sculpture at the year-old Olympic Sculpture Park. Its name- Eagle Street. Odd... the street name came before the sculpture was placed there. Serendipitous?