The People on the Subway

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

These were the people I observed on my subway train today:

* A young woman applying mascara while looking at her reflection in the back of her iPod. Kudows for ingenuity.

* A man in a suit clutching his briefcase to his chest as if his newborn child was in it and quickly darting around the subway looking for a mythical attacker, indicating he must normally take a taxi to work.

* A woman grabbing the overhead bar while reading The Wall Street Journal and sheltering an iced Dunkin Donuts coffee between her flip flopped feet. Very impressive!

* An older woman with remnants of her breakfast still on her chin.

* A man reading an Arab newspaper and another man reading a Japanese paper, but looking at the comics.

* An unwell man steps on the train and SHOUTS nonsense about God while staring out the dark window, he yells, "God's a pretty God, yeah he's pretty. God is a princess. An angel." The man standing near him jumps, a teenage couple laughs, the boyfriend mimicking the "he's pretty" part but looking more like Bernie Mac than the screamer and the iPod woman puts up the volume on her mp3 player. Luckily the man got off at 28th street, the following stop. The train is eerily silent in his absence.
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Last night while coming home from the Cheesecake Factory (yum) for Yellow's birthday dinner, I met two men coming back from the U.S. Open. They asked me if I liked living in the city and if I felt safe etc (yes to both). When they heard that I work and am a student, they asked me if I was an actress. I think this is funny. They are not the first to assume that I'm a struggling actress trying to make it in the city. I'm not sure if I'm flattered that they think I can be an actress or annoyed that they are assuming that I'm not capable of a professional/corporate job and am going for my master's degree. I usually try to make it clear right away that I'm in Graduate school and not an undergrad, but people hear NYU and because I sometimes look younger, they just assume. Anyway, I digress, it was one of those fun quick subway meetings that happen in New York.

Afterwards I was walking to my apartment and contemplating eating my massive leftover sandwich tomorrow for lunch, when I spotted the group of homeless men in the little park near my place. They are often there drinking, laughing with each other and asking the passing cars and people for money. I sometimes give them my spare change, but they sort of leave me alone now that they know I'm not a tourist. Feeling guilty that I had a such a nice meal, I gave them my still warm leftovers.

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