March 1, 2008
· Filed under On the Subway · Tagged hiding under blanket, homeless guy, people who smell bad on the subway, subway
I was getting on the subway the other day, and this homeless guy (whose resemblance to Santa Claus was uncanny, btw) was sleeping on the long dark blue subway seat/bench. It was one of those moments when you walk on and then realize that you have definitely chosen the wrong car. His smell was amazingly potent.
When he saw that many people were getting on, he sat up and moved his crushed miller lite can and paper bag so that someone could sit next to him. Very considerate, I thought.
Shockingly, no one took notice of this gesture and the seat remained empty. One woman chose to stand next to him. The man who sat closest to him immediately regretted his decision to do so, as evidenced by his not-so-subtle body language. (see photo)
I guess this upset him, because his next move was to take the blanket he had with him and put it over his head.
That’s all.
January 27, 2008
· Filed under On the Subway · Tagged barnes and noble, borders, eat pray love, fortune 500, little girl, ostrich, ostriches, seattle's best, sing, singing in public, starbucks, subway, ymca
Yet another subway story…
On this particular day I’m not listening to my ipod, for once, but just reading a book.
(Specifically I’m reading “Eat, Pray, Love” and I generally refuse to read any book that one can find on that pretentious rack in Borders where they basically put up a sign saying “these are GOOD, read THESE!!!!” but my roommate Grace told me it was great and I should read it. So, while I will not listen to the opinion of the fortune 500, second largest book selling chain in America -behind Barnes and Noble, and I ask you, what the hell is the difference besides the fact that one sells Starbucks and the other Seattle’s Best?- I WILL listen to whatever Grace tells me to do)
That was an unnecessary tangent.
So I’m reading and this man gets on the train with his daughter, who looks to be about 9 years old. There are no seats so they both stand at the same pole. She is humming quietly to herself. At the next stop the woman next to me gets off and the little girl says in a sing-song voice “Oh look, a lovely seat just for me” and saunters over to sit down. I wish I viewed the subway in such a magical/fancy way.
Suddenly the little girl starts singing.
“It’s fun to stay at the YMCA! It’s fun to stay at the YMCA-aaaaa”
I was pretending to read my book and stifling a giggle.
The she laughed and said, “Dad… what if it was YMCO?”
Barely hesitating, her Dad responded, “Young Men’s Christian… Ostriches?”
Then they both laughed…. a LOT. Like… A LOT.
They proceeded to discuss how the YMCA would be different if it were for Ostriches.
Their stop came and they both walked off, still discussing this topic quite seriously.
It was a great start to my morning.
That is all.
January 19, 2008
· Filed under Around town, On the Subway, WTF Mate · Tagged acts of kindness, bitch, chivalry, dude, mcdonalds, michelle vargas, new york, r train, random, rem, subway, tylenol
I have witnessed three random acts of kindness in the past day and a half. This is uncommon in New York any day… but 3 times in less than 2 days?
1. I am on the subway at night – diligently ignoring everyone around me and listening to all REM albums on shuffle (can’t go wrong) – when an older, cracked out woman limps her way onto the R train and sits across from me. I can see from her exaggerated body movements that her ankle is in pain. The girl next to me immediately whips out her purse and produces a bottle of Tylenol. “You want an asprin?” she asks loudly. The cracked out lady says “Yea. Thanks.” The exchange is made. I am dumbfounded.
2. This morning a big sort of scary lookin dude gets on the train (did I just use dude seriously?) and he has a bike with him. He tries to balance the bike on the pole in front of his 3 seater. The train jolts forward and his bike starts wheeling away. He grabs it. “Phew, that was a close one huh?” he tries to say to me with his eyes. I look away. I’m still scarred from my last incident with trying to relate to strangers. Hypocritical of me? Absolutely. Then he takes out a sandwich, and I’m mostly staring out the window at the passing patterns of concrete, but when I do glance over he is always having some sort of trouble. He is dropping a piece of lettuce, or a section of newspaper, etc. Eventually a girl sits next to me. I glance over at the scary dude and he has just spilled some of his coffee on the seat. With lightning fast reflexes, girl next to me produces a napkin as if from nowhere and lunges forward to come to the man’s aide. “Thanks!” he says. And begins mopping up the mess. What is this world coming to?
3. I am exiting the local McDonalds (I had a moment of weakness today that I scarcely allow myself to have. Sue me.) and as I’m leaving I see that there is a bit of a confused little shuffle going on at the door between about 4 different people, all trying to decide who is holding the door to let someone in or out and who is accepting the gesture. There are 2 sets of doors. The innermost ones have to be opened, but one of the outer doors is propped. I wait for the shufflers to move away. I see the clear path. I open the inner door for myself and as I approach the outer door, a guy comes from the outside, and upon seeing me there, about to walk out, he does a little panicky dance and proceeds to hold the open door open for me. Chivalry isn’t dead, but it’s not too bright either.
I’m such a bitch.
That is all…
January 9, 2008
· Filed under In my head, On the Subway · Tagged ipod, ipod touch, subway
Everyday I take 2 subways to get to work. The first is a local. The second, well I can take a local and be let off right by my work, or I can take an express that gets me about 7 walking minutes away.
If I want to be let off by work, it’s best to be on the front of the train. If I’m going to walk it’s better to be at the back. So, I generally stand right in the middle of the platform and when the train comes, I see if it is local or express and book it to that respective end of the platform.
Today it was local, and I took off to get as close to the front as possible.
Suddenly, I felt a strong tug on my headphones. My ipod touch had slipped out of my pocket. I spun around and looked down. I saw the ipod crash down on the ground, and the cute little pink case I just bought for it spring open, sending the ipod cascading across the pavement. Sliding… sliding… sliding… and stopping RIGHT next to the edge of the platform where the oncoming train was currently whooshing in.
And here is what I found amusing:
I started laughing.
Yes, my gut reaction to seeing my $450 (including tax) ipod nearly be mutilated by an oncoming C train was… to laugh.
I bent down to retrieve it and I tried to do that thing where you look knowingly at the people around you as if to say, “Phew, close one huh?”
What I got from the first and only three people I dared to look at were three equally hate-filled glares. Apparently, they could not relate. Their looks collectively said:
“You are a stupid little girl and I wish that your fancy ipod HAD gone over the edge. It would serve you right for being in such a rush that you had no regard for your valuable belongings. Did your daddy buy you that? And how about those Ugg boots? You must have everything handed to you. Life bores the shit out of you. Here I am living paycheck to paycheck, working two jobs to support my kids and their deadbeat father, and you’re just living it up without a care in the world aside from wondering which outfit you’ll pick out to wear in the morning, you ungrateful little bitch.”
In response, I glared right back as if to say:
“I saved up for months to buy this ipod and I’ve never spent that much on anything before.
These are not Uggs, they are a cheap imitation.
YOU’RE a bitch… bitch.”
That’s all.
January 9, 2008
· Filed under In my head, On the Subway · Tagged harry potter, jk rowling, michelle, smush, smushmusement, subway, vargas
The other day I got on the subway and I noticed a rather large middle aged man sitting across from me, and reading an unidentified book.
Unidentified, that is, if you aren’t a fellow fan of the popular series that this man was currently being entranced by. I saw through his clever plan of taking off the colorfully illustrated book jacket. I do the same thing when I re-read HARRY POTTER books.
Right away, I got excited. I felt that sort of nerd-kinship that you experience whenever you come across another person who has the same appreciation as you do for this sort of cult-creating societal phenomenon. In this case, someone else who knows all too well the sensational, dazzling, brilliance that is J.K. Rowling.
I wanted to go sit next to him, lean over, and very softly whisper this:
“Did you get to the part where Ron and Hermione kiss yet?”
If I just ruined anything for you, get over it. You should have read the 7th book by now if you care that much, and if you were just watching the movies, the pathetic excuse for “subtle” foreshadowing they employ has -I’m sure- led you to believe that it would happen sooner or later.
Anyway…
My urge to talk to this man was overwhelming. I found myself staring, STARING at this guy, while also trying to figure out what chapter he was on.
If nothing else, I just wanted to let him know that he was NOT fooling ME. I knew perfectly well what he was trying to conceal.
But then, my stop came, and I had to leave him. He’ll never know that we had such a connection.
He’ll just never know.
That is all.
