Can't run a train without power

Why is it that when we're in a rush, all the forces of the universe seem to conspire against us in order to make our lives more difficult?

This morning, I had a rehearsal in New York at 10 AM. Now, if I still lived in New York, I would be rejoicing that I could wake up a little later, maybe meander over to Lincoln Center, stopping off at the bagel place for some breakfast. But since I live a good 100 miles away in South Jersey, I have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn in order to get to rehearsal on time.

I've done this commute so many times I have it down to a science: if the rehearsal is in the morning, I take the train, because an express train from Trenton can go much faster than a car sitting in traffic on the NJ Turnpike. However, if I have to leave the city late at night, I drive in, because the trains only run once an hour after 10 PM, so I actually get home faster in the car.

So far, this method has served me fairly well, except for the few days like today, when the trains aren't running. As soon as I got to the train station platform, they announced that there was a power problem and "no trains were running at this time." The announcer also said that they had no estimate for when the problem would be fixed. I waited around for about five minutes and decided to take my chances on the road.

I got back in the car and headed out onto the Turnpike. Wouldn't you know it, a tractor-trailer overturned in one of the truck lanes, slowing down traffic for a good ten miles at least. On top of that, there was a 45 minute delay getting through the Lincoln Tunnel (par for the course on most morning commutes), and although I left a good hour earlier than I might have, I got to rehearsal with extremely high blood pressure and ten minutes to spare.

All in all, it's a good thing I ended up driving, since the radio traffic reports first reported the power outage (Amtrak's fault, by the way) as delaying the trains 30-40 minutes, then 60 minutes, then suspended altogether.

You know, when I first moved to NJ, I thought it was odd how native New Jerseyans seemed to be able to talk about traffic and driving routes the way most people talk about the weather. Now I think I may be turning into one of those people.