For the last few years, I've attended PrinceCon by traveling by train. The trip is in multiple legs; first on Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express, and then on NJ Transit to Long Branch and then on down the Jersey Shore to visit my mom. In 2024, no issues. Last year, the Ethan Allen Express was so delayed that I had to run to my 5:59pm NJ Transit connection and only made it because the boarding platform was so close to where Amtrak had disgorged us. The next NJ Transit train would not leave until 7:59pm, so I was *extremely relieved* to have made the 5:59.
This year, the Ethan Allen Express took a little nap on the tracks shortly before 4pm, and by the time they convinced the little engine it *could*, we were running half an hour late. Starting around 4:42pm, I began receiving texts from Amtrak every 4-8 minutes confirming that we were, in fact, still running half an hour late. Prepared for this from the previous year, I stood up early and positioned myself at the exit so I would be the first person off my train car. The Ethan Allen Express pulled in, I oriented myself towards the side where the platform was, and launched myself out when the doors opened.
I quickly found the escalator, strode confidently up, found Track 4 where my NJ Transit connection would be, went down the steps, and walked towards the train with several minutes of breathing room. I reached for my phone to activate my NJ Transit ticket, and... my phone wasn't in my right pants pocket.
My phone wasn't in my left pants pocket; that's where my wallet has been this whole trip, but my phone wasn't in my right pants pocket, which is where it had been this whole trip. I'm wearing pants with zippers so that valuables can't fall out, but my right pants pocket is unzipped. How could I have left it unzipped? How could I have not noticed my phone falling out? Had I been *pickpocketed* and somehow hadn't noticed? I was wearing my jacket, which had been stowed on the rack above me during the initial leg of the journey, tapped my left breast pocket (the right is where my gloves and hat are stowed; my jacket doesn't have any other pockets) and didn't feel the hard plastic of a phone.
Ran back up the stairs from Track 4 and frantically looked for a way back down to the Amtrak train. Couldn't find one and ran out and across the street to Amtrak's desk to see if there was some way to get to the train I'd just come in on. At this point I didn't care about making my connection, I just really needed my phone! I helped an older confused person in front of me recognize that they had been called by an Amtrak employee at the desk, and while waiting, tapped my left breast pocket again, this time lower, and felt the hard plastic of a phone. It's a large pocket, and the phone had slipped sideways and was lying just below my ribcage.
I resigned myself to having missed my connection over nothing and camping out until the 7:59pm NJ Transit train, and noticed it was still 5:57. Ran back across the street, through the station, patiently down the stairs as the family in front of me was also trying to catch the same train, and made my connection just as it was leaving!
Addendum: I continued to get alerts every 4-8 minutes that the arrival of the Ethan Allen Express was delayed by 30 minutes until 8:22, two and half hours after the train had arrived at NYC.
