Due to an unfortunate series of missed alarms and phone calls, I ended up taking the train back to Philly Saturday afternoon. I really enjoy taking the train---it's fast, you can show up 5 minutes before departure, it's comfortable, and aside from rush hour it's relatively empty (and when I do have to sit next to someone they tend to quite nice to talk to)---but now that I have a car and peak train fare to Philly is practically a day's wages for me my trips are few and far between. On Saturday, however, I got a ticket, settled into my seat, and dozed into that travel half-sleep. At New Carrollton I stirred and saw the guy angrily throwing his book in a bag while muttering expletives, stomping up and down the aisle, then coming back to his seat still muttering the same few words. He quiets down, then the muttering starts up again, stops, starts, and so on up the northeast corridor. I'm assuming he had Tourettes, because other than the outbursts he was reading what looked like scientific textbooks and appeared to be an educator of some sort. That was actually the least annoying part of the ride, because meanwhile, also at New Carrollton, Shane had gotten on the train and sat diagonal from me, put his feet up, and got on his cell phone. At first I thought he was just making a courtesy call to let someone know he was on his way and also relay essentials like Laura stayed behind to watch the kids since her sister had to go to Florida, his truck was parked at the firehouse, he'd be home about 8:30, the boat's going in the water in a few weeks but don't come visit until at least July 4th because the water's only 55-60 degrees. But then he hung up and got back on the phone and proceeded to repeat this process for the ENTIRE ride, having the exact same conversation with each person and telling the people who didn't answer to call him back right away. At one point I counted 7 phone calls. I don't know if it's harder to believe that this guy thought nothing of spending 2 hours talking on his phone on an otherwise silent car or that he found it entertaining to make the same phone call a dozen times while an entire train listened. I considered moving or causing a fuss, but once he made the 4th or 5th call it was like watching a car wreck, plus he technically wasn't doing anything wrong. Between prices and things like this it's no wonder ridership is down, but I guess Amtrak has bigger things to worry about than inconsiderate cell phone users.