subway hell

So, to answer Dabich’s question, YES, I did get caught in that tomfoolery yesterday in the city. I was pretty surprised, as was the rest of a very pissed-off commuter population, that rain would shut the trains down like they did. I heard the rain in the early morning and thought, “Oh, how nice; rain.” Then I rolled over and went to sleep.

The next day, my roommate’s boyfriend calls to warn us that none of the trains were working and that everything was flooded. Ah, yes…good old MTA. I decided to stay in a little later and leave at 10:30 since melting in the humid soupy weather didn’t seem too appealing to me. So I headed out as planned only to end up melting for the humid, soupy weather that was turning people into savage heathens. It took 30 minutes for the N train to come (we have concluded that the N really stands for “never” because the damn things never comes). Things were fine until we hit Manhattan and a throng of people shoved their way into the train, causing people to cuddle and get awfully cozy and say sweet things like:

“Don’t start with me! I don’t need this shit today!”

Of course no one had a more affectionate exchange than the two women who got into a screaming match over being squashed and one woman having her leg squeezed and go into an F-bomb tirade. I was waiting to hear the sounds of open hands slapping cheeks but no…just screaming for five minutes, which ended up holding up the train. People tried to calm one of them down and she flipped on them. Eventually they calmed down and were able to proceed, with people practically sitting on top of each other’s shoulders.

Once we got to 23rd street, more tempers flared again when a man stood in a woman’s way as she tried to get on. She scolded him a crisp, authorative West Indian accent, but that wasn’t enough to shut him up. He cussed and grumbled at her the whole way down and had choice obscenities for her when got off. The woman tried to be the bigger sport by saying, “Have a blessed and beautiful day, sir!” This went on for at least a minute, until a fellow West Indian man stepped in and offered to beat the shit out of the guy. Luckily that wasn’t necessary but afterwards, he vowed that if he had hurt her, he would’ve killed the man. I tell you, the heat and the trains bring out the best in people.

I finally reached Chinatown and just walked to work, which is in the Financial District. That took about thirty minutes and by the time I hit the door, I had “attitude” written all over my face. The whole thing took an hour and a half when it normally takes me 45 minutes…I was one of the lucky ones. Some people were traveling for over five hours!

I have so many subway adventures I think I might have to create a separate category for it…

Luckily, getting home was not a problem.

~ by J on August 9, 2007.