I got started when I was 7 years old and moved to L.A. from Wichita (of all places). My parents only had one car, a '78 Cutlass Supreme with 80,000 miles on it, and my grandma had to go to temple. So, my mom would make me go chauffeur her to the temple (because she didn't understand English at the time). At that time, RTD was still operating the local lines in my area, so we took the 484 to the 70, taking almost 2 hours one way. My dad had to work many a Sunday, so that's how I started riding the bus.

We had some bad experiences at El Monte station, so my grandmother ended up calling friends and paying them to take her (she still does when my dad can't make it). Out of ending boredom, I counted the seats on the bus. I then started to notice some of the differences between fleets. A few years later, I went to El Monte station and got all the schedules I could hold. (Although much of them were thrown away when I was forced to clean my room, I do have some schedules that date back to 1991.)

Also at that time, I was in a gifted program and we played SimCity. I enjoyed the game, and I would dream up all these weird ways to enhance the cities I created. (I still play it, though not to the same extent or fervor than in the past, because of time constraints.)

Near that time, the Foothill Transit system was starting to take hold in my area. I began becoming more interested into the history and policy aspects of it. I payed more attention to what was going on in my bus trips (which were now once every two weeks at the most, since school was across the street and I would go shopping with my parents most of the time, this time in a Geo Metro). In 7th grade, the honors class took a trip on Amtrak, renting a train car to go to Sea World. It was fun, and we did awful things on the train like play double-dare and doing things that I don't want to mention on the newsgroup. ;-)

In 1995, I began having to take the bus to my high school, located on the Cal Poly campus. I rekindled that interest in policy, and checked out books from the university library on this topic. I payed close attention to the new restructured lines in my area in 1996. At that time, I got a bus pass (right after the Foothill strike), since in the past I would take MTA to school. That year, I also rode Mterolink, and met up with a certain board member who lives in Duarte (you know the one :). This was the first time I had met someone directly involved in policy. At that time I was impressed, though currently I am not particularly impressed with what he is doing (re: privatization). Also that year, I began reading and posting to this newsgroup, and met up with Charles Hobbs and So.Ca.TA (although I was already aware of them through a flyer in the library). And, when we had teacher training days, or the teachers were busy "assessing" other people, I would ride the bus and see where all these places were.

I joined So.Ca.TA in late 1996 (after receiving three sample issues). I still am active on the policy front, examining proposals and commenting on them (a comprehensive recommendation to Foothill Transit will come out next month). I still collect bus schedules, and have expanded to collect road maps as well. Just last week, I completed riding all Foothill Transit local lines (the only ones left are 481, 494, 701/702, 721, and 731), for at least half of the line, and I continue to be active in railroads and passenger trains, though due to economic reasons I'm not as active as I'd like to be. And, because of time constraints (juggling two college classes along with high school and transit is pretty hard), I'll be staying on the bus until the end of 1998. (I plan on taking drivers' ed in the summer, the only time I am free).