Category: Manhattan


My feet hurt

Filed under: Manhattan, Work
October 9, 2012

After walking 26+2 (that’s 26 blocks up and 2 over) blocks from the subway, in my new dress shoes, in the rain, my feet hurt, however it is making me forget the pain in my back. It’s a long story and it involves the evil green train on the subway line from hell.

My book was in at the library, or so the e-mail said, however when I got to the library it wasn’t in the hold room, and learning that I needed to go up to the customer service desk, where I had already been and had been sent away, I just decided to leave. I snuck out through the side door so the nice lady at the information desk wouldn’t see me. Some of the people at that library are nice, some are ….. not. Em sent me a text asking me to reschedule her appointment at the nail salon, since I was already in mid-town I stopped at the salon, then I walked to 33rd and Park to get on the subway. Not having received any alerts about the 6 train I was expecting a normal commute home.

As I approached the gate I could see a train at the platform, and it was packed, people were hanging out of it, the platform was as packed at the train. 3 trains later I was able to squeeze on, and I do mean squeeze. There was no way I could reach a pole or a door or anything to hand onto, so I was trying to balance and sway with the crowds. A couple of stops into the ride a seat opened up, people were still jam packed in, but at least I could sit, until we got to 68th street, when the train was put out of service.

This sounds really cold of me but I have to say it, DON’T GET ON THE SUBWAY IF YOU’RE SICK! Or if you have the slightest idea you might get sick, don’t get on the train. PLEASE! Yes I realize someone could be perfectly fine and suddenly have an attack of scurvy and need medical attention, but most of the time I am sure it is a person who isn’t feeling well and just had to go …. somewhere …. on the subway, and then realized they were too sick to travel. Just, stay off the fucking train if you’re sick!

We got off the packed train to an equally packed platform and it took me at least 10 minutes to get to the exit, people were inching along, there were so many people on the platform that the people leaving had to wiggle along single file. I had to get out of the crowd, my claustrophobia was approaching panic levels, also I could see myself having to wait for 3 more trains before I could squeeze on, and I had no idea how long that would take. So I got out, figured out which way was Uptown and started walking. When my feet started to really hurt I thought I could stop, then I remembered I had no money to stop and kept walking. If I had been wearing my sneakers it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I just bought new shoes and wanted to wear them. After all I don’t do that much walking at work so I could break in the shoes there, well they got broken in, so did my feet. Even in my crocs I’m hobbling around my apartment.

Once again I say, I hate the green train. 😛

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A moment of silence

Filed under: Emotions, Manhattan — 1 Comment
September 11, 2012

If you follow my review blog you know that I just reviewed a book about the financial crisis that was caused by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. If you don’t follow my reviews, the review is here: Resurrecting the Street.

This was a very difficult book for me to finish, not because of the content, not because half the time I didn’t understand what he was talking about, Govie Markets, Repos, blah, blah, blah. The problem was all the memories that it dragged up. Memories that I had shoved to the back of my head, things I didn’t want to think about. It also brought up for me a sense of shame, embarrassment that I don’t remember what the skyline looked like before.

I walked to the river from my office one day and looked toward lower Manhattan, but I had no idea if I was looking in the right spot, coming back from Staten Island I looked at the lights in the buildings, so pretty! Is this where the twin towers were?

People who know me, who know my lousy sense of direction will tell me (I hope) that I shouldn’t be embarrassed or ashamed, I don’t think that would help. On that day I was at work, I worked in Westchester County at the time, and I remember that day, from the moment someone said, “Someone bombed the World Trade Center.”, to walking down to Cesar’s office and see the flames shooting out of the tower on the TV, running to call my mom so she wouldn’t see the news later and worry. So many details crystal clear in my head, except for that one, where were they and what did the skyline look like? I feel like a bad person.

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Because I have an imperfect brain

Filed under: Manhattan
September 3, 2012

I forgot something about the 59th Street station when I typed that post. I transfer from there to the “F” train to go to Roosevelt Island. What is unusual is one has to walk to the 63rd Street station to get on the “F” train, this is one of the few stations where there is a ‘free transfer’ option. If you swipe with the same Metrocard you used to get on the first train, there is no additional charge. I don’t think of this because I have a 30-day unlimited card, but if you pay per ride this is a nice feature.


Now we get to the 51st Street station. Nothing really remarkable about this station, nicely kept up and a news stand, but no pretty pictures in the tile, unless, you look at the tile in the number sign, I like how they use different types of blue tile, some shiny some matte, makes for a nice effect.


Here’s a close-up of the blue tile.

This was the last stop for me this trip, the next stop on the green train is Grand Central Terminal. At Grand Central there are many tiles with “42” on them, they are just white tile with black letters. I found a picture on my flash drive.

So I hope you have enjoyed this trip on the ‘Evil Green Train’. Now I am trying to decide if I should continue past 42nd Street for my next series or if I should pick another train line. Stay tuned.

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Back to hell er my commute

Filed under: Manhattan
August 27, 2012


The next stop is 59th Steet. A little better shape then the previous station. I have used this station, there is a library near here that I have been to.
There is some pretty tile here.

And a newstand and most importantly,

Not only can you transfer to an express here, you can change directions. There is a tunnel under the track. If you realize you are going uptown and need to go downtown, you can walk to the other side and not have to pay again. I would prefer to run across Lexington in front of 50 speeding cabs before I would walk through this tunnel. But this is the Evil Green Train or the Train From Hell, so why would I walk under it?

The reason this post was so long in coming is this: after I took all the pictures I noticed some shoes at this station, but they weren’t in the photos I took. It was perplexing, but I figured it out, when I took the pictures I was on the local, I take the express to work and that is when I saw the shoes. The reason I couldn’t get a picture before tonight was because the green is always so crowded (every day!) that I couldn’t take pictures from the train and since I was on my way to work I couldn’t get off and wait. Today I went down to the express platform and took these picture.

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It’s the weekend

Filed under: Manhattan

Since I live in the city, I still take the train when I want to go somewhere. Sunday I was hanging with a friend, we ended up at Port Authority, after getting shakes at Shake Shack (caramel, so good) where we parted ways. I now had two choices, either get on the shuttle to GCT or walk down 42nd Street. Through about 6 billion tourists, all the tourists in the world were in Time Square on Sunday. That may be an exaggeration. Saturday I bought this nifty bag and in my bag I had my camera.

These pictures were taken inside Port Authority, on the Subway side of it, not the bus side. I don’t know if these circles mean anything, I just thought they were pretty.

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There’s a delay

Filed under: Manhattan
August 25, 2012

On the evil green train.

Rather on my posts for the “Evil Green Train Pictorial Essay”.

This is what happened. I looked through my pictures of the 59th Street station, and there are no pictures of the shoes. I have seen them there, before I write my post I need to go back and photograph them, and figure out how I missed them the first time. I have an idea, but before I put anything in writing I want to be sure I get it right.

Stay tuned, enjoy the hold music.

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New York City

Filed under: Manhattan, Miscellanea
August 24, 2012

Where the stores are all closed but the sidewalks are crowded.

Where a sweet-voiced girl offers you a ‘song for spare change’.

Where a stranger will pick up your sunglasses for you even when he knows you dropped them because you’re tipsy.

Where the cost of public transportation keeps going up but the ferry is free.

Where the MiLB teams are affiliated with the local MLB teams.

That’s all. For now.

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Guess we don’t care about Hunter College

Filed under: Manhattan
August 19, 2012

This is another stop that I have never gotten off at. This sign looks nice but, This picture seems to indicate that this station is not on the cities priorities of maintenance. Overall a rather depressing place.

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A further descent into madness also known as MTA

Filed under: Manhattan
August 13, 2012

77th Street stop, I don’t think I have ever gotten off the subway here.

The only thing here is Lenox Hill Hospital. If I have to go to the hospital, I’m going in style, in an ambulance with lights and sirens!

Live music! They were willing to let me take their picture, one asked me if it was going on You-Tube. They played a cool song, I wish I had written it down because now I can’t remember. There is also a news stand here, I didn’t take a picture because the man seemed kind of grumpy, I just bought a blue Gatorade and went on my merry way.

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Continuing the journey

Filed under: Manhattan

86th Street is the next stop, here you can transfer to the 4 or 5 trains. You will still be on the green train, but the 4 and 5 are express trains. This makes them evil on speed. They go the same direction but they make different stops when you get to Brooklyn or the Bronx.

This is something you need to know on the subway, you do not travel north or south. You go uptown or downtown. Uptown takes you to the Bronx, Downtown takes you to Brooklyn. We are not discussing Queens, the green train does not go to Queens.


This is a Mets hat. This is a good place for a Mets hat, any other team the owner would have climbed down into the muck to get the hat but Mets fans ….. I might be a little biased.


Here are some examples of the ornate tile work. If you click on the pictures they will get bigger. Don’t worry it’s safe, it just links to a full-size image, you won’t go to another website.

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