There are three things I love about the subway, and by love I really mean hate. Actually there are more than three things I hate, but these are kind of always things. Some things just bother and annoy me, these things, when they happen bring the rage to the top of my head. While I have thought about violence as a response to them, my brain reminds me that a) violence is not an appropriate response and b) you worked in prison, and therefore know you don’t want to live there.
The first thing is when the train is crowded and five people get off and ten people get on. So I’m getting squished and people are pushing up against me to move in, normally I’m standing against a metal pole, the metal poles don’t move! So stop pushing on me people because I can’t move my body is squished against this metal pole.
The second thing is, well let me explain first: if you have never been on the NYC subway, the seats are benches. Some are molded so there are ‘seats’ on them, some are just flat. Sometimes a person will sit down, in a space big enough for two people in the middle (I’m not talking about someone big enough to need two spaces, I have no problem with someone taking all the space they NEED) so there is not enough room on either side of them for another person. Most of the time, if you come over and start to sit they will move over, sometimes it leads to the third item in my list.
People who stand in front of an empty space. There is room for someone to sit down, or would be if the person moved over, but they don’t because this other person is just standing there. They aren’t sitting, for whatever reason, but they are blocking others from sitting down! Makes the rage come up to the top of my head. “EXCUSE ME SIR/MA’AM, DO YOU REALIZE YOU ARE BLOCKING A SEAT A LOOK LIKE A GIGANTIC JERK?”
**climbs off soapbox and packs it away for the next time**
Belleza
just a (transplanted) city girl 
Overwhelmed, but thankful
When I checked my e-mail, I saw a lot of e-mails from WordPress. It surprised me, I get a few comments now and then, but this was highly unusual. As I read through the comments they seemed to have a theme, “Don’t quit.” One comment by Rex: “Well, Bella, if you don’t get a lot of comments today, I don’t know what else would work.” Then I read this comment by Debbi is 24atHeart and the last sentence was: “(BTW – congrats on being recognized today by The Daily Post!)”
My response to that was “What?” I played with my iPhone until I figured out how to show the sidebar, clicked on the link to The Daily Post to find a blog post titled: Help a friend not quit Post a Day. In case you don’t want to click on the link I’ll summerize, in this post Scott mentions that someone, who may or may not be named Bella Foxx was thinking of quiting Post A Day.
People came, I got 474 hits on my blog that day. That is the most ever, today I have 115 so far. And comments were left. Every time I checked my e-mail there were more comments. 31 on one post (Topic #107: What percentage of Americans believe in the devil?), 9 on Baseball season and a few others scattered around to other posts. Some people even left multiple comments. I was, in a word, overwhelmed.
The comments ranged from “Don’t quit” and “Maybe you could try Post A Week” to “You might need to take a short break from blogging”. Some made a comment about the post and then said very briefly, “Don’t quit”. Some were quite complementary, like this one: jerzygirl45: “At least your stuff is incredibly coherent and readable.”; and Chuck: “Well, if an excellent writer is thinking about giving up her blog, then a hack such as myself, should bury his or her head under piles of crumpled virtual paper. Don’t stop!” I’m going to have to buy a bigger hat.
Seriously though, I have gotten some good ideas and some encouragement and a whole lot of, “People are reading my blog! Squeeee!” Most of all, if you can feel love coming from a website, I have felt the love and it has given me the energy to keep going, to muddle through this dry spell and keep writing.
My heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you.
And that is all, says she.