Amy

Scenario


 * Maria, the Pin in a Haystack called TTC**


 * As usual Maria Rai is running one subway train late on her way to work. She is a 24 year old single woman that is over worked and under paid at her very stressful job in the Downtown Toronto core. She wasn't the only one, there were many like her on the TTC. She of course was an extreme case, with a late streak of 3 out of 5 days. She blames her lack of punctuality on her stressful lifestyle and the stressful lifestyle on her lack on punctuality. Apparently, an unending cycle.**


 * One morning, she was supposed to meet Amit Sanghvi who was a friend and a colleague who never failed to be punctual. They decided to meet and go over some tactics for a meeting that afternoon. Unlike Maria, Amit was always on time, for everything. You would wonder how they ever managed to get their meetings to coordinate with Maria always running one train late. It was a chronic problem. To make it worse, the subways were always crowded with hordes of over worked commuters, each equally stressed and psychologically drained and under slept officer goers. If Maria and Amit did not get onto the same train, consider it as problematic as finding a pin in a haystack.

Until one week, when both Maria and Amit decided they would both log into Springboard as soon as they loaded the subway. He immediately ordered his list to show all users who enter their destination the same as him : Jane Station. As Amit expected, Maria had not logged on. She isn't on Springboard! Amit is not pleased and shows it by pouting his lips. Amit was a terrible worrier. He knew he needed a distraction, something to keep his mind off Maria's inability to be punctual. Amit decided he isn't going to stress out about this, not again. He begins to browse through the numerous profiles, and actually becomes interested in one profile, alas his mind is off Maria. Delightful. Great! Hmm.. he sinks into his seat and gets all comfortable.

Until.. an invite arrives.

Well what do you know, Maria has just sent him a invite, she writes: "Sorry! Meet you at Bay?" He has just reached Sherbourne station, so Bay is coming very soon (two stations after). For a second, Amit initially feels indifferent to her attempt to make the situation any better. He takes a few seconds contemplating on whether he should just ignore her, as he is still a little angry at her carelessness.

Good thing for Maria, Springboard does not encourage disrespectful behavior, forcing him to reply to her invitation before he gets back to the browsing. He cannot ignore her, but he can show his disappointment by simply declining her offer. He clicks reply with this thought in mind.

But somehow when he looks at the screen with the invitation, and although he was upset, he overcomes his initial feeling just by seeing the pleasant invitation screen. He notices for a split second, the smiley face besides the "Accept" looks much nicer than the frown beside "Decline" option. Amit is transformed. He decides to Accept with a quick message: "Bay, sure". He walks off the subway cart when the Bay station arrives. Maria recieves his acceptance, and also exits at Bay. Instead of re-notifying the system about the change of destination they both intuitively switch off their Springboard application by clicking the quick "off" icon at the top of the screen.

When the train had collected all passengers off the Bay station, the sound that signaled the closing of doors could be heard. The station became empty except for a few new passengers. They both now got their que to look sideways to find each other. There they were, a few feet apart. There was very little one could do about Maria's lateness, but with Springboard, finding Maria in a haystack called TTC wasn't a problem anymore.**