An appointment, and a trip to Shady Grove…
April 7, 2009, 8:09 PM
So today was interesting. I had an eye appointment today in Chevy Chase, and so I only worked half a day, and spent the other half going to the appointment.
I decided to try something different today as far as my commute, to see if a different method worked better. Since my appointment was a block away from Friendship Heights station, and work is at Dupont Circle, instead of taking the 51 to Glenmont and taking the train like I usually do, I drove over to Shady Grove and took the train from there.
First of all, the drive over to Shady Grove from my house wasn’t too bad. I know the way quite well, traffic was moderate and moving, and so I just kind of zipped over and found a parking space. Then I got Rohr 1068 going in. Now that was kind of fun, since I got to see a lot of stations I hadn’t been to since 2006(!). After all, same destination as always – Dupont Circle – but coming from the other way. So instead of my usual run of stations, I got to ride through the other side. It’s been a while since last I saw all of the four-coffer arch stations on the Shady Grove side of the Red Line, and even longer since last I saw the outdoor stations out that way. And it’s very strange hearing “Red Line to Glenmont” in the morning, I must say, since of course, coming from Glenmont, I’ve become accustomed to hearing “Red Line to Shady Grove” first thing, and hearing “Glenmont” means I’m coming home.
However, the fare was a bit of a shocker – $4.50! Ouch! It’s only $4.00 from Glenmont, you see, so this was an added hit. But then from there, it was business as usual, walking the rest of the way to work.
Then leaving work around lunchtime, I got back on the Red Line, and rode out to Friendship Heights for my eye appointment for $1.35 off-peak. That was interesting, since the place was hopping. Turns out a number of the doctors were behind schedule (not the one I was seeing, though), and thus the crowd. The place cleared out, though, when they announced that one doctor had to go do an emergency surgery and thus be gone for about an hour or so, and thus people could either wait around or reschedule. I think a lot of people rescheduled, because the place emptied out pretty quickly after that. Then the lady at the reception desk came to find me – she had called for me, and I never responded. She had paperwork for me to sign. I apologized because I didn’t hear her call me, and signed.
The appointment was as expected. They gave me the dilating drops, and sent me to the other waiting room to ripen. One thing I noticed, though – they have no less than TWO fire alarm strobes in the waiting area where they send people to dilate. Think about that for a moment – eyes that are all dilated and thus can’t adjust to light, and two bright flashing lights going off in the event of an emergency. GAAAAAAAH! That’s reason enough to get the hell out of there quickly if that starts happening, if you ask me.
Then getting looked at, it turned out I was healthy as a horse, and was asked to come back in a year. Funny… near the end, the doctor said “Questions” to me, so I waited for him to ask the question. Then, getting no response out of me, he clarified, “Do you have any questions?” I was like, “I’m sorry, I thought you were about to ask me a question! No, I don’t have any questions at this time.” Yeah, I’m really with it today.
And then of course, even with the sunglasses, it’s a cruel trick to send someone out into the world with dilated eyes. It’s like staring into the surface of the sun! And of course, luck would have it that my appointments get out on beautiful days when the sun is shining. A little cloud cover would have gone a long way.
And then I got an eight-car train back to Shady Grove. I got the first car, and so I got to do some impromptu railfanning (yaaay!). Like I said, I hadn’t railfanned that section of Red Line since 2006, so I was quite pleased. However, from Friendship Heights to Shady Grove was $3.80 during peak hours. That’s a lot, if you ask me, especially when you consider it’s $4.00 to Dupont Circle from Glenmont, which is a much longer ride.
So there you go. Kind of fun, but I doubt I’ll be doing that method again for appointments out that way. Too much money, even without the parking fee. It was definitely shorter than going back around on Metro to Glenmont, though, and I didn’t have to wait for a 51 or a Y bus to get back home, and half the reason for driving to Shady Grove was to avoid waiting outside for the bus while dilated, and since I was already in the car, shorten the Metro ride, too. We’ll see what I do next time this comes up.
Song: The chime on my phone that I have for text messages. I was in the men's room today before my appointment, washing my hands, and my phone went off. This man two sinks down from me was looking around like, eh? I had to tell him, "It's my phone." I still remember when it went off at the train station in Staunton, and the entire station was like, eh? in unison.
Quote: So I had a productive day, if I do say so myself...
Categories: Personal health, WMATA