Step In, Stand Clear

The coverstory of New York Magazine this week is "The Blog Establishment' which included subfeatures like the Top 50 Blogs. Tales of the Cupcake Mafia did not make the list; no one is surprised.

In other news, I am becoming a big bitch. For my morning commute the subways went a little crunky again, just temporarily. However, this resulted in trains backing up and platforms being crowded, again. I managed to get on the uptown 6 train with no problem, but with each stop more people were flooding in. A woman got on with two little girls, one in a stroller. The mother was speaking German which is an irrelevent detail but will show how heartless I've become. The stroller was taking up so much room and everyone was tripping over it. At that moment, I decided we should pass a new law: no strollers in the subway during rush hour, at least during morning rush hour which is more easily defined than evening rush hour- afterall, this is New York, some people knock off at 5:00pm some regularly work until 10 o'clock at night at night.

After I made this decision in my head, we stopped at Union Square and people we stampeding in. "Move in, move in!" they yelled.

"We can't," yelled back the people already in the train.

"Move in! There is space right there!" yelled one angry woman.

"There is a child there!" yelled back a man.

"How much space can a child take up?" asked the woman.

There was a pause as we looked down at the girl and her sister in the stroller. "A lot," the guy yelled back. I would also like to point out that the child in the stroller was at least 3 years old, hardly a baby and old enough to walk, sit on someone's lap or be held, all things that would have taken up less space.

But, as I said, I'm a bitch. You see, I also feel this way about the elderly. There is just no reason for a hunched over, 77 year old woman to try to be shuffling her way through the morning rush hour. These people do not work, so where are they going at 8:00am? I'll tell you, they're going to the doctor. Ask anyone who works in a doctor's office, the older the person, the earlier the appointment they want, even though they most likely have nothing going on for the rest of the day. Please, I know you get up at 5:00am every day, but stay indoors just a little bit longer! Take the 11am appointment! There are whole hours during the Monday - Friday work week when subway trains and stations are virtually empty!

One summer in Rhode Island I had to get routine bloodwork done, I forget why. The lab closed at 5pm and since I was working full time there was no good time for me to go. I had to try to get to the lab early and then go to directly to work; if everything went according to plan I wouldn't be late to my job. So I would go to this clinic where they did x-rays and blood work and other tests and try to get there for when the door opened. But no matter how early I got there, there would always be a queue of old people waiting. It was one of those "take a number" places, so I always had to wait for the old folks to pee in their cups, I always had to call my boss to tell him I would be late and I would always get so steamed, I wanted to knock over the slowly decomposing Family Circle Magazines on the coffee table and yell, "I have a job! I have someplace to be! People are depending on me! Do you think I could go first? Do you think these early morning appointments could be reserved for people who need to come in before work?? Come in at 4:00pm! The Early Bird special doesn't start until 4:30pm!" Is it wrong to want to impose a reverse curfew on these people?

In other news: today is the birthday of the homeless guy who lives in my train station. I said hello to him this morning as always, "'I'm having a birthday today," he said and he pointed to a little sign that read "Happy Birthday!!!". I wished him a happy birthday. Yesterday was the brithday of mayor Michael Bloomberg.