Today’s commute was not a CFH, in fact it was the exact opposite. I did leave 15 minutes late but then I got to the bus stop before the bus. At the subway station, train pulled in when i was at the bottom of the escalator. Queensboro plaza the train was pulling in as i got to the bottom of the stairs.
The result was, i was only 10 minutes late to work.
There is no place like New York and nothing like the NYC subway system. I have determined there are three types of people that talk to me on the subway.
There are the people who ask for money. From what they say, none of them do drugs, none of them drink, all have suffered some unimaginable tragedy and can’t get government assistance.
There are the people asking me for directions. “Do I look like Google maps?”
There are the people offering to help find your train, this is usually followed by a request for money, so they could fall into the first category. What is really annoying is some of them feel they need to lead you to the correct train and “STOP TOUCHING ME”. I should get a medal for not stabbing people.
Then there is your random crazy person, like the tall skinny black man that told me I was “a white whore and you’re going to die of AIDS and cancer.” And the woman who offered me oral sex. She was convinced I would love it and I was just, “Ew no, germs.” Like I said, I should get a medal.
This morning’s commute was bad. I confess most of it was my fault.
First I overslept my alarm. I had a headache and sat around waiting for the Aleve to kick in, by the time I got to the subway I knew I wouldn’t make it in time, but then … People were running up the stairs screaming – there’s a man on the track! – They seemed to be mad at the man in the booth, but what could he do? He grabbed the phone as soon as he could.
So I got on the bus. Limited so it only went as far as 68th, I needed to go to 59th. I walked it, then got on the “R” train, which is not the right train. I got off the train at Queens Plaza to catch the E to Court Square, instead I got on the M and ended up … back at Lexington and 59th. Which is weird, cause I didn’t think the M stopped there. From there I got on the right train an went to work. Only 2 hours late.
Most of the time, when I am having a commute from hell and watching over-packed train after over-packed train go by, I berate myself with the every pertinent: If you had left home on time, this wouldn’t be happening! Today as I watched one, two and then stuffed myself onto the third train I thought to myself, “Today I left on time. This is so not fair!”
Leaving on time has it’s rewards however, in that even though the trains were crowded and I couldn’t get on the train until the third one, and I couldn’t read my book because it was too crowded, I got to work on time. Or at least before my boss came in.
Last night I went to see the Staten Island Yankees. Yes I know this is not my sports blog, while the game was fun, except we lost, and I found out that Richmond County Bank Ballpark serves Honkers Ale, but we lost, and a helmet bowl serving of nachos is enough for two (maybe three) people, which I should have realized when they gave me two forks, instead of thinking, “Hey a fork for each hand!” The fireworks were nice, I watched from the pavilion next to the ferry station because I wanted to get home before midnight.
The reason I am writing this here is I wanted to write about my commute home, which was pretty bad but kind of funny at the same time. You can imagine that after eating all those nachos, which were pretty good by the way, and drinking a couple of Honkers Ales my tummy was not feeling great. Ferry ride was rather uneventful and while on the ferry I was trying to figure out how to get home. Normally I would walk from the ferry to the Green train, but that would mean walking past the park and there are rats in the park. I’ve never seen them, but people have told me they are there and while we were docking I saw one on the dock. The Red train is right by the ferry terminal. That was the train I wanted to take, I just had to figure out how to get home.
In the first car I got in was a little girl with a very loud and very shrill voice, she was accompanied by her mother who also had a very loud and very shrill voice. At the first stop I got off and got into the next car forward. Which was crowded and also pretty loud. There was one man who was especially loud, I could hear him over everyone else, and he was laughing. Sometimes I get very agitated by noise, this was one of those times. He was also smoking, which I didn’t notice at first, when I noticed the smoke I at first thought it was because someone next to me was a smoker, you know how smoker’s clothes will smell like smoke, then a woman started shouting about “The smoker on the train!” Which added to my upset frame of mind. I really don’t know why she was shouting since he was already out the door when she started yelling.
Time Square was where I planned to change trains to the Yellow train that would take me to the Green train. I got on the “Q”, which was only going to 47th Street, which I didn’t realize until after I was on and the doors closed. That meant another train change, but when the “N” train pulled in I could see the car wasn’t crowded so when I doors opened I entered and headed for an empty seat and stopped, right in front of the seat I was going to sit in was a puddle of vomit. I looked at some women sitting across from it, they both gave me the “Yes it’s vomit” smile and nod. So I stood until we got to the Green train station. The Green train was crowded. Not horribly, but uncomfortably so. New York is the city that never sleeps, so there is always people on the subway, even at midnight.
Outside my apartment door.
There is still snow in the playground, park.
I keep forgetting the subway stairs are being repaired.
My eczema is getting worse. Need to use my cream more.
Finally headed home.
One of the advantages of living in the City is not having to drive in the bad weather. The disadvantage to that is having your train delayed or not running when you need to get somewhere. Like home from work.
So I have to find a way home without taking the evil green train from hell, also know as the Devil’s train. Yesterday I walked, it was only 37 blocks. I don’t want to do that again, so I have been on the website trying to find an alternative route. There isn’t one. The #4, #5 and #6 are the only trains that go up the east side. I may have to take a bus home. Stupid Green train.
Yesterday I rode the bus, it is an event that happens with sufficient infrequency to be noteworthy. It would never have happened if I knew how to cook sausage in a non-stick pan. I suppose I could blame that on my mother, since she had a cast-iron skillet and taught me how to cook sausage and eggs in that instead of a non-stick pan. Or maybe I could blame it on the fact that I now eat chicken or turkey sausage and there is not as much fat draining out into the pan. The fact remains that I ruined my pan cooking sausage in it and when I told Em I wanted to buy a cast-iron skillet she suggested going to Home Goods after the game yesterday.
We took the B train from Yankee Stadium to 103rd, from there we walked to Home Goods, where I found a small cast-iron skillet, mission accomplished! I also saw these green Ramekins which I had to have. They are oven safe to 500°F (260°C) and also microwave, blowtorch and dishwasher safe, except I don’t have any of those. Really! I don’t have a blowtorch, never needed one. Em said they would not be a frivolous purchase because I would make baked eggs in them. I was thinking they would be good for single servings of baked Macaroni and cheese myself, or for heating up macaroni and cheese since I don’t have a microwave. Then we stopped at Model’s for socks, which they didn’t have. After that we went to eat Mexican food.
Em was ready to walk to Grand Central, I was ready to go home, but we were on the west side and I didn’t want to walk across the park since I always get lost walking across the park. Don’t ask and don’t judge. Also I was carrying this heavy cast-iron pan, 4 green Ramekins and 3 yellow bananas. And my knee hurt. That was when I got on the bus. If you’ve been reading this blog you may know that I hate the bus more than the train. Even when a friend tells me, “If you take the bus from church it will drop you right by your apartment.” I will still walk the two blocks to the Green Train and then walk the two blocks back to 2nd Ave. The Crosstown bus is not that bad. However once I got off the crosstown bus I walked up 2nd Avenue home. Which is how I ended up with a bottle of Aleve (that I needed) and a bottle of shampoo (that I didn’t really need but Ricky’s sucked me in).
While riding the bus I was struck by the thought that public transportation in NYC represents the diversity of the city. At one stop a man got on wearing a pale suit and straw Fedora (a different type of hat I would have said he was a southern gentleman), followed by a woman wearing a skirt and shirt (not quite pulled together businesswoman attire, looking pissed off, I wonder if the southern gentleman made a chauvinist comment to her), then a middle aged man wearing shorts and a Mets shirt (EWWW!), a teenage boy was next (he might have been with Mr. Met). There was also this ancient woman with hair down her back that looked like one big dreadlock (please don’t sit too close to me).
At least it was better than the subway ride to the stadium when I saw two women not wearing bras that should have been. One had on one of those strapless dresses that are cute if you’re not a DD cup, the other woman was wearing a white racerback tank top. My eyes, please my eyes hurt after that.
In The Gulag Archipelago (which is about the Russian prison system, and which I have decided to abandon at page #132) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn talks about the periods of mass arrests. He refers to them as rivers, the wave of 1929 and 1930, the size of a good River Ob, and later 1944 to 1946, the size of a good Yenisei. The other day as I waited for the train, I thought about what an accurate description of people that was, because the people keep coming not caring what is in their way. If it is something big, they move around it, something small, and they just run over it, push it out of the way. Even if that thing is a person, like me.
This is what happens in the train, people come like a river, they keep coming even when there is no more room. Even when I want to shout, “There’s no more room in here! Wait for the next train!” On the subway platform when the train has been delayed they keep coming, they look down the stairs at the mass of people and think, “There’s room for one more.” Except everyone looking down is thinking the same thing, so instead of one more there is ten more, then ten more after that.
Don’t do it, just take the bus.
I stopped writing about my commute because I was tired of writing the same thing everyday. I figured everyone must be tired of reading it too. Then I changed to the #4 and it just sat there! There were 5 million people on the train and it only holds 2 million etc. Anyway, things have changed in my commute.
The first thing is my route to the subway station has changed. This is the sidewalk I normally walk on to get to the subway. I don’t know what they are doing here but the sidewalk is almost completely blocked off. This picture was taken on my way home, in the morning the workers are there and you can’t walk up nearly this far. So they have made a ‘pedestrian walkway’.
Which is just cones put out on the road to re-direct traffic, and this is a rather narrow road, it makes more sense to walk on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Which I would do except,
They are working on the entrance to the subway, so I have to cross the street anyway. So walking down to 96th Street is really the best way to go except, there is a fruit stand at 95th and 3rd where I like to get my breakfast, and being human I am a creature of habit and automatically turn left at 95th street. I also don’t like having to change my routine. After two years of walking the same way to the subway I have to do something different and it annoys me. So I come here to vent and to post pictures, I am really just trying to get back into the habit of writing so if this bores you or YOU are annoyed that with all the bad things happening lately I am going on about having to change my routine, I’m sorry I’m not sorry. Meaning I don’t feel bad about writing this. Because of all the bad that happened last week, I need to get back to my routine and the MTA is not helping! If you are still reading this, thank you for reading and I promise I’ll get better.
Thursday, 18 July 2013
May 21, 2008
NYT > THE CITY
Belleza
just a city girl 