Departure: 5:55
Arrival: 7:45
I left work, and after having a quick smoke with a friend outside the building, made my way with the huddled masses down 42nd street towards 3rd avenue and the entrance to the 7 subway. One amazing thing I’ve noticed is that I’m still able to walk the NY sidewalks. Now, many of you may say there’s no special technique, but trust me there is, and in fact, there are 3 crucial elements:
1. Walk briskly: You DO NOT want to get in the way of all the people who are barreling down on you, so make sure you keep up a steady pace
2. Keep your chin up, but don’t make eye contact: You need to make sure that people perceive you as someone who’s looking where you’re going, even though, you may not in fact be looking anywhere… because, you don’t want to have eye contact with people. This is NYC people, who knows who’s a lunatic or who’s sane… best just to give the appearance of being unaware, while still being aware…
3. Try not to touch anyone: I know this sounds odd, especially when you have ten people across the sidewalk, and you’ve got to maneuver in between them all, but once again, this is NYC, which is famous for it’s pick-pocketing abilities… best not get close… plus… this city is notorious for being the largest city in the US, and one of the loneliest… and this stems from this idea….
Ok, so maybe my steps are a little archaic, but they’re somewhat real… think about the way you walk next time you do, and you’ll realize that subconsciously you do that… and if you don’t… well, you’re probably not one to walk around NYC too often.
As I skirted into the 7 subway, and slid the magic metro card through the reader, I realized that the descent was quite steep. It was the first time I’d actually noticed how deep underground we really go. The one thing that made me smile, before I had to deal with the fact that I’m deathly afraid of heights, was that before descending I got to see an interesting sight… A man, playing a huge harp, just before the escalators. Now, I’ve seen street musicians and subway musicians. But never before have I seen a guy playing an actual full sized harp. How he managed to get it through the turnstile completely confuses me, but even moreso was the fact that it sounded beautiful, and quite interesting against the screech and hiss of the subway.
Thankfully my subway ride was less eventful than this mornings. Not sure my nose could handle being bashed in twice. However, I did notice that one of the train conductors bore a remarkable likeness to the late Michael Jackson… before he turned white… I’m talking “Thriller Jackson”. Not to mention he wore only one glove… sure it was white, but hey, it just seemed to complete the look. With my “walking music” blaring, I looked around the subway as I leaned against the pole and felt the jolting, bumpy screeching of metal on metal beneath me. There were 2 signs in the window that I could recognize as “travel delay” or “change in travel plans” kind of posters… they were explaining some kind of change in the service of the 7 line… or at least, I think they were, since neither of them were in English. One was in Chinese and the other, I believe to be Korean. I was just hoping that neither of them said something to the extent of “The 7 train will not be stopping at Times Square”… Thankfully, it did stop… but what the signs say still remain a mystery to me. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get a chance to be in a car that has them written in English.
BTW, I love entering the swarm of people… the sea of masses…
I arrived at Port authority just as the bus was about to leave, and thankfully got a seat in the back amongst the “5 seater” portion… but there was only one other person back there, so I could sprawl a bit and take my coat off and really relax as I flipped open my book and settled in for what I thought was going to be a very long ride. Just before we left, I called my father and told him to meet me at the mall in a little over an hour.
Truth is… we made it to the mall in 45 minutes. Frantically calling my father and asking where he was at, I found out he wouldn’t be there to pick me up for another 20 minutes or so… which meant, I was either going to hang out in a very-far, poorly lit back parking lot of a mall… OR I was going to walk across the street and hang out in Borders. As I got off the bus, the 2nd option seemed to look more and more appealing. So… part of my commute this evening resulted in me pouring over the new novels, and trying to decide what my new book would be since I had just about devoured and finished Dan Brown’s new novel. This whole concept of reading on the bus is beginning to really take hold of my ideas for making my commute better… That, and this blog…
Perhaps that what you need. Something to spice up your commute.
What do you do to spice up your commute?
