Acela-rating

I spent the weekend visiting family-- always a fun thing to do, especially on such a glorious sunny weekend. We had a picnic at the beach, where I enjoyed observing the contrast between my niece, who spent the whole time splashing around in the icy cold water and smearing mud on every inch of skin left uncovered by her diaper, and my nephew, who is currently terrified of the ocean and preferred to stay near our blanket. I tried to build a sandcastle for him, but he kept asking for a snowman instead. It turns out it's not that easy to build a snowman out of semi-moist sand, so I ended up laying 3 sand-balls next to each other and telling my nephew the snowman was taking a nap.

My trips to family almost always involve a ride on the Amtrak Acela train. Ever since they introduced this service, I've found it hard to go back to the regular Amtrak trains. It's a bit of a paradox:the Acela is maybe 45 minutes faster between New York and Boston. The cars are cleaner and more modern. And there is the beloved quiet car. Otherwise, there really isn't any difference. Is that really worth the extra $20-30 each way? I guess I have decided that it is. And so have a lot of other people. The Acela train is basically a tube-shaped terrarium exhibiting a selection of Eastern seaboard upper-middle-class life. You've got your business people, your Ivy League professors shuttling between schools, your blondes in pretty flip-flops with their calico weekend bags, your law students with their big textbooks open on the tray table... and all sorts of other people too, who at least have in common the preference and ability to pay for a comfortable, fast train ride rather than using the various cheaper methods of transportation available.

Other than that, I had a pretty cheap weekend. I spent about $32 on various food and snacks, including $9 worth of chocolate covered pretzels-- I don't know where that weird craving came from! I also spent $68 on a shirt, and $32 on some little treats for myself: another bottle of perfume and some hair products. I guess that is another weird craving: the desire to have one's head smell like a coconut just because it's summer.