Friday night I stayed in and watched 20/20 reruns and an episode of Dateline, all of which were about murders. My roommate was out of town and I was here, getting the freak-out royally. It didn't help that the MTA was running these utility locomotives up and down the subway tracks behind our apartment. The subway is loud in its way, but I'm completely used to that noise now. The trains are light and fast moving so its more of a 'clickety-clack'. These utility locomotives are huge, heavy and slow-moving and they grind and moan down the tracks. They come by rarely, bearing dumpsters of trash from one part of the city to another for who knows what reason, and sometimes equipment when there is track work. I've probably seen four or five total before this weekend. Friday night it was constant and spooky as the trains roared outside and sometimes stopped just behind our building for five minutes or more. I was plenty jumpy when I went to bed that night.
Saturday morning I woke up and was having a leisurely morning getting ready for work when I realized I hadn't heard a train go by in a while. Like I said, I'm used to the sounds and figured one had gone by while I was busy but I'd better get a move on as trains are always few and far-between on weekends and I did need to get to work. Just before I left, almost as an afterthought I checked the mta website. BUSTED. No train service all weekend. They stopped our train line four stops away at Prospect Park and you had to catch a shuttle bus to get there. I ran out of the apartment not even knowing where to go. I went to the train station hoping for an informative poster and found none. I went inside and luckily there was an attendant whom I asked and who rudely informed me it was two blocks down on Ocean Ave. Thanks lady, and sorry for whatever got you so grouchy. I headed over to Ocean and waited under an MTA poster for a bus. Unbelievably I got to work fifteen minutes early!
After work I met up with Sarah who took me to her new favorite spot: Life Cafe. This cafe is famous because the play RENT was written in it. We sat eating and talking for hours. Afterward we went back to her apartment and watched the last half of Pretty Woman with her new roommate Liz. Then Sarah and I watched 102 Minutes That Changed America, a documentary about September 11th. After that we thought we'd go up on Sarah's roof, which was a little creepy, to see the Memorial Lights shining over at Ground Zero. It was amazing to see from the rooftop and Sarah even got a picture.
After that I had to head home but was super nervous about catching that shuttle bus at night alone. I checked with Jake and my sister and they both said I should take a taxi, which I felt guilty about because of the money. I'm SO GLAD I did though! The taxi driver took an unusual route for me, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel instead of the Brooklyn Bridge like usual, and lo and behold, while on the phone with mom talking about this taxi ride I had to take I drove directly beneath the lights! I can't even tell you how amazing they were up close. The lights seemed to be made of many beams set in a square pattern so it really looked like a ribbed sky scraper at the base. They went up forever and ever and within the beams all the way up were a billion moths going every direction, creating the illusion that the beams were filled with white dust motes or glitter. I can't think of a better angle to see them from and was trying to describe every detail to mom on the phone as I looked out of every window in the taxi in wonder and awe! What a treat! I got home safely too.
Yesterday I worked again and after that I met Sarah and Tasha, and later Sarah's friend Meagan at a bar called Redemption on the Upper East Side. Redemption had advertised, via a Redskins forum, that it would be hosting Washington Redskins fans for all the games this season. I brought extra sweatshirts and jersey's for the girls and was really excited and nervous to go. What if they weren't really a Redskins bar? I'd feel so silly. I was so relieved upon arriving with Sarah, to see the place FULL of Skins jerseys! We got a table and I passed out the Skins gear and that's when we got the specials menu from our Redskins halter top clad waitress! $3 for burgers and $8 for a pitcher?! I had died and gone to heaven. A heaven full of Redskins Jerseys, where they sing Hail to the Redskins after every touchdown, and when the Redskins win. Which they did! Against Dallas! The place was wonderful, clean and nice, the crowd was mostly great, with the exception of the guy who temporarily blocked my view of the game to get a better view of the MTV VMAs. Some people just aren't raised right. Sarah, Tasha and Meagan were great company too and it was a completely successful evening. I was thrilled.
Tasha lives right around here, in the same apartment as my friend Laura DeWitt, so I thought we could manage the bus together last night. Good thing we didn't go it alone. We did catch all the right trains in a timely manner, which is important on a weekend night, and then did manage to find the bus. Unfortunately as soon as twice the capacity of the bus had crammed inside and it departed things got rocky. The driver headed immediately in the wrong direction and didn't stop for a long long while. Keep in mind he was supposed to be following the route the train would if it had been running, so a few blocks south for Parkside, a couple more for church and two more for Beverley. It instead headed east blocks and blocks. People began to stir, not easy on an overcrowded bus. People got upset. People shouted for the driver to stop or at least tell us where he was going. He did neither. Finally he stopped on Church and Bedford, skipping Parkside altogether and many blocks from where the train route and my neighborhood are. If I weren't with her Tasha would have had no idea where she even was and I would have had a very long walk home alone. Luckily I walked Tasha to her street and then got on the phone to Jake for the remainder of my walk. Yuck. I am NOT looking forward to doing it again next weekend. What an awful thing the MTA did.
Tonight I'm wearing my Redskins sweatpants in celebration of our terrific win and watching Steel Magnolias and eating Tootsie Rolls. Happy Week everyone!
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