metrocake

I have two ways I can get to work from the Upper West Side: take the 1,2,3 down to 42nd street, take the 7 from 42nd street over to Grand Central, and take the 6 down to my work stop or take the crosstown bus from my block over to Lexington, and then take the 6 down to work from there.

The former is faster, but requires two transfers and running up and down many flights of stairs. It also offers you more possibilities for things to get screwed up — if there’s a problem on the 2, say, you’ll get backed up…and backed up even more if there’s also a problem on the 7 or the 6.

The bus/subway combo takes longer, but the quality of life part is much better. You can see the sun and Central Park for part of the morning commute, you can always get a seat at my stop, and if there’s a delay, you can pretty much figure out why for yourself (as opposed to the subway, when they rarely tell you what’s up). It’s also only one transfer instead of two, and one flight of stairs as opposed to many.

This morning I opted for the bus — I was in no mood to deal with transfers and crowds. This turned out to be a tactical error; I should’ve known what was up when I saw the crowd waiting for the bus. There’s never a crowd at my stop. I got on, the bus began to move, but then we had to deal with the crowds at all the other bus stops on the trip crosstown…and the reason for all of the crowds? Traffic. Lots of it. No wonder the bus was late! It took us about 20-25 minutes to cross Central Park; lucky me got to spend all of those 20 minutes seated next to a woman yammering away on her cell in the most insipid fashion, ever. At least I got a seat, though.

The crowning moment was when I tried to get off the bus. I had a tote bag with me today, as I’ve got physicial therapy tonight. I may have tapped a man with my bag — I don’t think I even did this, but I can’t deny the possibility — in any event, this guy starts bitching about “Women with their large bags and all their stuff and their large bags taking up room and women and large bags and…” Really, all I could do not to stuff my large bag in his large mouth.

Happily, the subway portion of my commute went just fine. Viva New York…