7:11 am: I haven't been home in four days, and right now I'm freezing my ass off at the Hayward Amtrak station. It's okay though, 'cause I got to spend time with a friend.

Living in Berkeley and working in Sunnyvale has distinct advantages to go along with the 100-mile roundtrip. Like I mentioned when I was barely a month into my position at Yahoo, it's a matter of parallax; no place in the Bay Area seems distant when each eye, the one at home and the one at work, sees it in a different relative position.

My primary means of transportation (and, as it's turned out, inspiration) is the Amtrak Capitol Corridor train which, for all its benefits, only goes down to Santa Clara twice in the morning, and only comes back once, so if you miss your ride home, there's no chance for a do-over. (fingers getting cold).

Anyhow, that's what I've been doing this week, in addition to working, I've been spending evenings (and grabbing crash space) with friends.

7:27 am: Train's rolling up... stopping, pulling away, as I sit unable to move, frozen on this bench. That's okay though; this train's on its way northward, and I still have another day of work before I'm going home.

My powerbook's starting to get warm, creating a strange heat transfer from the book to my lap to my ass to the cast-iron bench of frigidity. Word of the day? Frigorific, meaning something that makes things cold.

This is a fucking frigorific bench.

7:36 am: Sun is just peeking over the Hayward hills, and it's such a clear morning that it went from twilight to full-light in about 45 seconds. Feels like the snow scene from Ladyhawke.

I should paint a picture here: I'm sitting on a bench (damn heavy metal heat conductivity, I not only have to warm up my spot, but the whole bench, before my ass will stop freezing) at the Hayward Amtrak station. I'm the only person here, and have been since i got here about a half-hour ago. It's about 40 degrees out which, I'm sure some of you will say, isn't that cold, but it is if you only have a light jacket and thin jeans. I'm a wuss: If my breath makes clouds that drift away, it's cold.

Okay, I realized I'm not alone anymore. With my hood up to protect my ears from the wind, I didn't see them. There are actually about 10 people at the station now, all waiting warmly in their cars, listening to their radios, sapping the heat from (stopping to warm numb fingers, hold on..), okay, sapping the heat from their cars' engines, sipping their coffees, and compulsively calling on their cellphones to find out whether the train will be on-time or two minutes late.

I really sholdn't berate them. On any other day, I'd be one of them.

7:44 am: Okay, the train's at least one minute late. I'm tempted to knock on a window ("WelcometoamtrakcanItakeyourorder?") and ask them if they know when the train's coming, since I neglected to pay my cellphone bill and am now carrying around a dead weight instead of a communications device. Still, before service was cut, I did get one last cellphone horoscope. Let's see what it says... "Downhill is a seductive direction. Save energy for your return. Try another method." Har-har. Fuck you Cingular Wireless.

7:48 am: Okay, people are actually on the platform now, talking, but I'm the seated statue with the wiggling fingers. You know, it's funny, but I think laptop batteries last longer in colder weather. Maybe I should close the powerbook, save some energy for my return. But no, I have an adapter at work. I can charge up (fingers again...) there.

7:51 am: I envy Ben Brown. I want a video recorder. I want to make little vignettes about my day, compose video on the train, just like I was in an Apple commercial ("We have iMacs in any color you want, as long as it's white."), and I could upload it when I get to work. Oops, train's here. Hold on...

Holy sweet Jesus of blessed warmth.

Hold on. I'm gonna sit here with my hands under my thighs for a minute...

7:57 am: Much better.

8:03 am: amazingly, my Elph, which two days ago refused to take a picture because its battery was too low, not only had enough juice to take a couple pictures this morning, but even was up to transferring them and the rest of my photos on to the powerbook (mmmmm... iPhoto.....).

Can you see me on the bench? Of course not! I'm taking the picture!"

Okay, so I suppose I am a little bit of an Apple commercial, especially when you consider that I've been listening to my iPod this whole morning (current track: "The Million You Never Had" - Ani DiFranco).

Wow I use the word 'Okay' alot when I'm cold.

Maybe it's all the dialog boxes.

8:23 am: Browsing through my Expo pictures (ooh, I should make an Apple slideshow when I get to a network connection) I just noticed that the iMac keyboards are white too. The mice might be white as well, but I can't tell.

Well that's it kids! The train's pulling in to Santa Clara station. Thanks for keeping me company!