I can't forget about crazy Mary Smith, who gets right into your face and says, "Beautiful, could you give me some money? I'm real hunger" or "Handsome, could you spare some change?" This woman has no regard to personal space and her voice is the right on the verge of annoying. It's sad, but if I gave every person who asked for money some of mine, I'd have none left. (Unfortunately, I could only help about 37 of them anyways... I'm a person in need of it myself.)
Oh, and I'll never forget Mr. McCreepster who fell asleep on me for about 30 minutes of my subway ride home one night. This over sized man, who was overly tired, sure found me as a comfy pillow. I pushed him so many times, but his head (and whole body) still ended up leaning right on me. Unfortunately I was in one of the seats by a window on the old train, so I was trapped... and a point of laughter for some "sympathetic" commuters. I'm watching for those tired ones from now on, I'll give up my window seat so they have a place to lean, because I'm not really into being a pillow!
Or what about the guy who FREAKED out and threatened death to two people (one being a subway operator)... all because they closed the windows in the subway car that needed to be closed anyway! It's miserable to get on a hot subway car because some jerk decided to open the windows and waste the cool air!... Yet, I wasn't going to speak up against Window Guy and tell him my opinions. He was missing a few too many bolts. The train conductor was calmly speaking codes into his walkie, and I was making a plan for escape. Luckily, before any murdering was committed, we stopped and I bailed to the next car up.
There's always that guy who's snoring that you just want to punch... or the one who is listening to horrible music on the iPod, but you get stuck dealing with their terrible choice of music because they don't know how to monitor the volume (thank you Purple Shirt... right NEXT to me this morning). Yet, I can deal with these things. I just remind myself that these people have to be getting off eventually.
This morning, though, I really hated the subway. I got about 3 stops from the one I needed, and the train just decided it wasn't going any further. Last stop!? What? I don't know how else to get there! I don't even know if I've ever been above ground in this neighborhood (or if I have any desire to be above ground in this neighborhood!) What in the WORLD am I supposed to do? Get a cab... good luck with that - hundreds of other stranded people have already got them! Take a bus? What bus? I don't have a bus map??? Of course, after many moments of panic, I realized I could try to get to the line my friend takes and take the bus that I think she takes which eventually goes right by my school. I had to just go on my best memory, because, as I was underground, it was impossible to call and ask to make sure I was doing the right thing.
After 3 extra transfers, almost getting on a subway running the wrong way, and running after the bus to get them to stop for me, I made it to school 15 minutes before the day started. Ms. B said it was because the President was in town today. Traffic was horrid for drivers too... she was later than me! I think the President should go ahead and stay out of NY. I'd prefer to have an uneventful commute to school.
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