Spreading Out

We all feel the need to spread out when we can, especially living in a small apartment or toiling in a small workspace. We are consistently pushed, prodded, jostled and stepped on, but nowhere is this more prevalent then on the subway.

I'm as guilty as the next, if there's an empty seat next to me, I'll put my bag on it, but the second that I see the train is filling up, I'll put the bag on my lap or on the ground and let someone sit down. This common courtesy is not always followed by other commuters. It drives me crazy to no end to see people taking up more that one seat, and then complaining if you ask them to move their bag so you can sit down. Like these women, for example, whom I photographed last week:

They didn't just take up one extra seat with their bags, they took up an ENTIRE ROW of seats. It's fine, because I'm sure they bought fares for each one of those bags.

So coming home one evening last week, the train was quite crowded by the time I got on and there were almost no seats available except for one. This one seat wasn't quite "available", however, as it was occupied by an enormous king-sized bed in a bag. You know what I'm talking about.

An unnecessarily large densely-packed plastic suitcase miraculously stuffed with a sheet set, six decorative pillows, shams (regular and European), a quilt, a dust ruffle (a what?), a bed skirt and a coverlet (??). I asked the two ladies, and presumed owners of said bed, if they could put it on the floor so I could sit down. But instead of putting it on the floor, the two of them pulled the package onto their laps, trying to get it off the seat.

Now, try and imagine two heavyset older ladies with good-sized bellies, and breasts the size of decorative pillows trying to set a king-sized bed in a bag on their laps. It really just gave me about 4 inches of room to sit on the seat, so when I squeezed into the seat, I had this wall of plastic pressed against my arm and face. It also was a warm evening so immediately my right side of my body pressed against this package was immediately sweating. That lasted about 10 seconds before I asked them if they could set it on the ground. I got the double eye roll and they did give in.

I understand completely how people don't like to set their packages on the floor of the subway. But I also am guessing that they did not lug that bed in a bag all the way from Macy's to their spot on the train without resting that bed on the ground somewhere along the way. Thank you, ladies, for relinquishing your extra seat. I hope you slept well in your new bed.

A Mess

This was the first sight in my subway station. Now I know that it's impossible to keep everything spotless, but it's a sad way to start the day.

Though not as sad as my pants after I sat down in the puddle of water on the seat after someone thought it would be a good idea to put their wet umbrella on the seat instead of the floor or in their bag. WHO DOES THAT???

I hope...

...never to have a commute like this.

Thank you Tosh for this Friday weekend kickoff.

Sous Chef

A friend pointed me to this great photo.

The bird

This woman was eating a bag of sunflower seeds at rush hour and spitting the shells on the floor. By the end of the trip it looked like a large bird had been on the train. I almost said something to her, but she started yelling to herself so I thought it wise to stay silent.