Metro to Mountain!

I hiked A Mountain yesterday. It's called A Mountain because of the big A on it! Took the metro. I totally miss the metro and the interesting people that ride it. It was great to see them again! I really loved hiking this one. It's not long so you can get to the view sooner. The city is great way up there! Gives you another perspective and clears your head. Felt great! I think I'm going to start hiking a bit more...

ASU stadium.

Tiny little metro.

Metro Monday???

I took a little trip on the light rail today, all the way to downtown Phoenix. I was visiting an old college professor.  It was nice to be on the light rail once again. I know it's been awhile since my last ride cause I don't recognize any of the metro security. I saw a lot of the usual characters:
The guy with too much hair
The guy who looks like he'll cut you
The girl talking way to loudly about her "crazy love life"
The general creepers
The obvious druggie
The half asleep college students
The man mumbling to himself
The foreigners speaking their languages
And the lovely lady with her 15 bags.
They brought back a lot of the old memories and smells that the powerful AC can't hinder.
Good times.

Metro: Washington DC edition!

So it's been awhile since I rode a metro, but I did today and I got lost. I was riding from my sister's in Virginia to my brother's in Maryland. And they said take the orange line all the way down and I did and I was in the wrong place. We figured out that there were two orange lines and I had gotten on the express one. Oops! It all worked out in the end.
There were more normal people than I'm used to. A lot of people use it to commute to work. Phoenix metro riders are weirdos and strange college students. Still miss it though.

Metro Special!!!

It has been a while since a metro post...I haven't been on the rail for a good 2 months. Thursday, my family and I went to a D-backs game in Phoenix. Here we are my nieces, nephew, and all the family on the light rail.

 Here we are at the game. We were fairly close, just behind left field. We had two home runs hit to our section. Very exciting!

Sadly the game didn't end in favor of the D-backs. Silly Dodgers and there silly fans. The game ended late and we were all very tired on the ride home, but still happy that we got to spend some quality time together. At night is when the crazy people of public transportation come out, so we saw a few of the usuals. The muttering man. The stoned and/or drunk man. And the crazy man that yelled at my niece and nephew to stay away from the tracks or they would die! He was very emphatic about it. Look how sleepy we all look!

 The game was fun. The light rail was fun but long at the end. It was a very fun day and at the end we were very tired. :)

Metro Grad

So I rode the light rail for the last time (school related at least!) to get downtown for graduation! I went in my outfit, but I was not the only one! Most of them got off at Tempe. It was an adventure. Everyone was staring at me, but some people congratulated me and were very nice! Many were so pleased that such a nice looking nurse was graduating. :) I am nice looking!

I will miss my light rail! I hope to ride it every once in a while to go to events and to party! I will miss my metro people and all the silly things they do and wear!

Metro Monday

I am still alive I promise! End of school has kept me busy. Here is another Metro Monday! (Aren't many of those left...sadness!) I'll have to do something else...
This post is mostly of random pictures that I sneak-ly took!
SO these two guys sat next to each other and I swear they are twins...except the guy on the right is Mexican...

Serious bike.

So this is very common on the metro. People are always bringing there cans on board. Show offs...

Her bag was made of snack wrappers...stylin.

Indiana Jones was on the lightrail. Sadly, not the real one. I doubt Mr. Ford uses public transportation.

The metro is full of characters. I might write a book...Public Transportation: Sitting Behind the Scenes and a Big Smelly Guy! I'll try to have stories for next week!

Criminal Metro

There are criminals on the metro. People who drink from cups without a lid. People who eat and play loud music. They disregard the signs. People who don't get up for people in wheelchairs or old people. And then there are the worst: the people who think that they can just ride the metro for free, but they can't. They get on without paying for the ride. The security guards have a trick to catching those people. They get on just when the doors are about to close so you can't escape and then they try to check everybody before the next stop. It's a hit or miss. You might be lucky and get a free ride or you might get trapped by a security guard. They have whistles and badges and everything, so beware. And play fair, pay your fare! :)

Here is some metro fashion. This guy got on and the first thing that came to my mind was "Hey, more power to you!"

Mushy Metro

Confession. My metro riding days are beginning to dwindle. I won't be riding it much for the rest of the semester and then I will be done! But I hope to do my best till the end of the semester. So, February is the month of love and that was seen way too much on the light rail. People need to learn where and what kind of PDA is appropriate and public transportation is not the place for most kinds of PDA. It is cute when older couples are going on a day activity to downtown and they hold hands on the way to and from Phoenix, but those love sick teenagers mackin in the back of the train (or in the middle of the train) need to be told that's disgusting. On V-day I wasn't so stealthy, so no pictures but there was a lot of red and hearts and oversized stuffed bears and roses and cheap chocolates to remind anyone that it was Love-Day. Love was on the lightrail.

Next Metros will have pictures I hope.

Family Metro!

Last weekend I went to a concert in Phoenix with my family! It was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and it was for the celebration of Arizona's Centennial! We rode the light rail into the city! It was a lot of fun and they were all depending on me and my vast knowledge of the light rail! :) The concert was awesome, but the light rail was really really crowded. On the way home I made friends with a drunk man who said I was cute and then apologized for being so forward. He then tried to sneak his arm around me, but I've learned a few tricks to get away. He was like 60 years old! Just another interesting, metro experience. Anyways, it was a lot of fun to ride with family. Here are some pictures!

Mom and I

Grandma & Grandpa

Dad & Uncle Rick gave up their seats

Uncle John took a nap

Concert at U.S. Airways Arena

Happy 100th Birthday, Arizona!!!

Metro mementos

I am not the only one who sees interesting things on the light rail...

See what some of my friends captured.

Never travel alone!

Suspenders!
Talk about matching your bag to your outfit!

Apparently this kid was licking the window...yucky.

I love it when my friends share there adventures. I heard there was a guy wearing chain mail made out of soda pop tops. I've seen Dracula three times this week. The light rail is an experience that everyone should experience. Go on. Make it an interesting day and ride public transportation...then you will see what the public is really like!!! :)

Check out my other great metro stories by clicking here!

Loud Metro

People yell on the metro and it can be loud. Some people yell crazy things. Some people just talk real loud on their phones. Some people snore real loud. Some people wear loud clothes. The AC on the metro is really loud and it makes you feel more comfortable to talk to your neighbor, but every once in awhile the air shuts off and there is an awkward silence. No one wants to say anything because they are afraid of being heard... except the one person who is already talking real loud about there really dramatic life. I can't help but eavesdrop. I am glad my life is fairly normal!

Metro Challenge

I had the most amazing idea... So it's hard to come up new metro stories every week. I know that I have friends that also ride the metro. If you ride your local metro and have a story or crazy picture of the metro and it's interesting people, PLEASE comment or share it with me through email or facebook and then in a few weeks your story may appear on Metro Monday!!! Remember to be kind! :)

Sorry for the lack of metro this week, but I will post next Monday.

Metro Men

The Urban Dictionary's definition:

A heterosexual man whose secure in his sexuality, and his sensitivity, intuition and penchant for grooming, style and fashion doesn't make him feel any less masculine or any less heterosexual. A metro man is the image of a modern man.

My definition:

Men who are secure enough to ride the metro in modern day!

Happy Civil Rights Day!

Metro is back!

I am back in school and we all know what that means!!!

METRO MONDAYS!!

So I actually don't ride on Mondays (don't have class!), but I'm still going to blog about the adventures of the light rail on Monday! So this week was the first time that I didn't ride the metro at the wee hours of the morning. My class didn't start till 9 so I was on with a regular crowd instead of the normal abnormals.

There are more students on at this time and a lot ride bikes. Every light rail car has four spots to hang bikes to make the car less clutter. Do you want to know what's really annoying??? When people don't use the bike racks and block the doors with their bikes!!! People can't get on or are tumbling over your dumb bike (Sometimes funny, but usually sad)!! Do the right thing...hang up the bike.

Last Post of 2011! A Good Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Just want to reflect on this last year! I made a lot of new discoveries about life and myself. I made new friends and connected with old ones. It was a good year!

NOW TIME FOR HILAREE'S TOP 10 FOR 2011!!!! (blue are links)

10. Blog! -Metro Mondays

9. Westwood 50 years

8. Community Nursing: This was an awesome class and it started me thinking about do public or global health a little later in life.

7. Shoulder Surgery again: I had surgery in 2008 because of a torn rotator cuff. It tore again in May and I have been grinding down the bone over time. It dislocated at the end of the spring semester this year and had surgery a week later. Kept me from doing much this summer.

6. September 11th 10 years

5. Girls Camp

4. Heart Surgery: In my adult health clinicals I was able to be in the OR during an open heart surgery and it was amazing. When I was in 9th grade, my English teacher told a story about when he saw open heart surgery and that it was a very intense experience. It's true. It was awesome and I won't ever forget it!

3. General Conference

2. Trip Out East

1. 3 new baby girls (I love my nieces...and nephews!)

Kayli Mae

Alexandra Kensington

Phoebe Ariona (I actually haven't met her yet, but I already love her and think she is super cute!)

It was a great year overall and I am really looking forward to 2012!!!

The Metro

I have finals this week and need to study, but I didn't want to miss Metro Monday.

It rained today.

A little message from the light rail. :)

Cool wall.

Sorry, but that is it! Got to study...I'm obviously avoiding it. I need to study!!!

Sleeping Metro

It was dark the entire ride. The sun was barely coming up when I got to my stop in Phoenix! One of the best sites of the light rail is the bridge over Tempe Town Lake! I wish I took this picture but my phone is not that cool. But I promise it did look this cool at 7:00 am! Half of the passengers were sleeping and I was about too as well. The worst is when the train is packed and the person next to you is sleeping and keeps leaning on you. It's even worse when they smell! Well, this is life on the metro way super early in the killer morning! I don't like to wake up early...but it can be pretty.

The Kind Metro

I had a test this morning and I was studying my notes on the light rail. It's a great extra hour of study. This old man who looked like a cowboy sat next to me and like 15 minutes later he was getting off, but before he did, he said, "Don't worry. You'll be fine!" That made me feel a whole lot better about my test. And guess what?! I did great! It was so nice what he said! There are a lot of nice people on the metro. Young men and women give up their seats for older people or those who look like they need to sit down. Just a lot of politeness and common courtesy. It makes me happy.

Here are the pretty sunrise pictures that I promised. Taken at 7 am over Tempe Town Lake!