Brendon

Week One:

So...not much to report yet. It's only been a few days since this challenge began. On Friday, I needed to get to St. Joe's to help hang and focus lights for Storybook Musical Theatre. This is one of the many jobs I have that takes me to far-flung corners of Philly for random amounts of time. I had no trouble finding a Honda Fit down the street at the Rocket Cat Cafe. I'd never been in one, so that alone was a treat. It's a fun car. It's a tad more expensive than the Prius, which I never knew. I needed the car for 6 hours...and at that rate, I'll easily go through my free PhillyCarShare credits. I'll have to get used to using public transit more. St. Joe's is definitely a place I could have taken SEPTA. Lesson learned.

I did get back a bit early, so I called to shorten my reservation....this was its own challenge. I wanted to access my account, but I didn't have my PIN. So, I attempted to talk to an operator. It takes a bit a doing to find the option to speak to a human. I ended up having to call back several times and try different paths down the automated highway. I found myself stuck in a few different voicemails that wouldn't take my message anyway. Sometimes the operators were just busy. At long last, I talked to a person and did get to shorten my reservation by 1.5 hours. I have to check to see if that paid off.

Tomorrow I'll take the EL to the Comcast Center where I'm rehearsing for The Sharing Show, a new puppet show on the PBS KIDS Sprout network. Then, I'll need to take another 6 hour trip to Red Bank,NJ. But this time it's in a Prius, so the price isn't so bad. Until next time...

Week Two:

This week has been crazy for me. I've been waking up at 6 am and not getting back some nights until 10pm. Feast or famine, as they say. Right now I'm feasting on jobs, and starving for sleep.

From Monday to Thursday, I rehearsed "The Sharing Show" for PBS KIDS Sprout network in from 7am to 1pm, and then drove to Red Bank, NJ to teach theatre for the Two River Theatre Company. Sprout has their offices in the shiny new Comcast building in Center City...which is great! I I can take the SEPTA El directly to work and back in 1/2 hour straight. The drive to Red Bank is the challenge. While I've given up my car for the month, I do still have access to my fiance's car. I have to admit that on Monday, I took a PhillyCarShare to Red Bank, but for the rest of the week I took hers. Now, it's still technically car sharing...just with one other person. But here's the rub: she used my car while I was using hers. I didn't know she was going to, but she found herself in need of it, and what can she do? She doesn't have a free SEPTA Transpass, she doesn't have $250 in PhillyCarShare credit. It's a tricky deal. We're going to be better about it for the rest of the month. It also helps that I don't need to be in Red Bank quite so much next week....and I may just sell my car altogether to resist the temptation. Well, more than just that....I want to give it up anyway, and this is a great catalyst. My fiance recently signed up for PhillyCarShare on my account so she can take advantage of the credits...but we still have to wait for her application to be processed. They don't call this a challenge for nothing.

I have to say, I appreciate the chance to walk to and from the El these days. I like the exercise. and the slower pace. I'm looking forward to riding my bike more...that really is my favorite way to get around....which of course begs the question, "What if we were doing this in January?"

Week Three:

This week was a commuting breeze. I've been rehearsing at Mum Puppettheatre which is an easy ride on the 5 bus, or an easy 15 minute bike ride. I've also been filming at Sprout in the Comcast building...another easy ride on the El. I live with in walking distance of three El stops, so I'll change up my walking route to keep things interesting ( And sometimes to predict which might be the safer way. It's only a 10 minute walk, but it's not the coziest most well-populated, well-lit route.) A few hiccups: One of my rehearsals got out at 11:30pm, and for some reason if you wait at Front and Market you will see four 17 buses and four 48 buses before you see one 5 bus...which is the one I need to get home. So, I gave up after a while and grabbed a cab home. I also had to go to Red Bank, NJ on Monday, for which I used my fiancé’s car.

Since this is the Walk Ride Share Challenge, I'd like to focus on the "Ride" portion of this for a moment. I wish I could "Ride" all the time. Nothing makes more sense than public transportation in a big city. But what do you do when it's late at night, and the El or the bus is running so infrequently that you can't get home at a reasonable hour? Tonight, my fiancé is going to call me when she gets to the York-Dauphin stop, because it will be after 10pm and she doesn't feel safe walking those 10 minutes. So, I'm going to get in her car and pick her up. It's small, but it's another car ride burning fuel. There's a laundry list of well-known gripes about SEPTA...I don't need to tell them all here. But it does beg the question: How are we going to become Nutter's green city (or even Penn's green country town) if we can't make the backbone of city transport work and work well for everyone? Can we as a Car Share community put the pressure on SEPTA to clean up their act?

Week Four:

Not much to report this week. Fairly hum-drum commuting. I took the 5 bus and/or the El to Mum Puppettheatre a few times. Other than that, It's been a quiet week. That's how it goes in the theatre world: some weeks you're busy as hell, others are much calmer.

Week Five:

Here is is: the mother of all PhillyCarShare stories! I got married this weekend in Ridley Creek State Park. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding and reception. Now, both of us are artists, so we don't have a ton of money...plus we enjoy leading a simple life that eschews the popular desire for lavish weddings. So for our wedding, it was all very home-spun: Mothers and aunts made the food, other relations made centerpieces from flowers in their own garden, and acoustic music was provided by close friends. This meant that we had a fair bit of things to bring to the park, and that we were going to use the same chairs from the wedding for the reception. So what do we do? We reserve a PCS Tacoma to carry the stuff and haul chairs. Two days before the wedding we get a call that the Tacoma is in the shop and the only other thing that might do is an Element. So we settle for the Element, and remove the back seats completely. Lo and behold, it fits everything we need and then some! It turned out to be better that a pickup by far. Above all, I am proud to say that the car my bride and I arrived in had PhillyCarShare written all over it. And if that wasn't enough, all our Philly friends carpooled in two additional PCS cars! And as if that couldn't be topped, my bride had found Compostable plates, napkins, cups, flatware, and even trash bags. So knowing we had to return the Element in clean condition, the bridal party decided to decorate our car using only strips of compostable trash bags and the occasional corn starch fork and knife.

And this was all today. That's right, I'm writing you on my wedding night. That's how much I dig PCS. I've got a honeymoon to attend to, so let me say thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the Walk Ride Share challenge. I look forward to making it a habit!