Can't Stop a Train...*

posted by RICK : 9:39 PM

Today, I missed no fewer than 4 subways by a matter of seconds. This sucks. It doesn't suck in the global sense becaue there's always another train 3-8 minutes away. But it seems to have a metaphorical effect on me, and I would guess, many people. It should be noted, however, that this isn't a New York City-specific phenomenon. This happens to everyone in some form or another. You know your own "missed subway." But, for people in New York there just happens to be a lot of trains around, so we'll go with that. Let me explain:

Every day I that I have to go to work, I have to take a train to get there. When I reach the platform, on a normal day I'll look down the track and see a train not too far away. On a fantastic day (yesterday) I reach the platform and a train is just coming to a stop. On a depressing day, as you might have guessed, the trains doors close just as you reach the top (or bottom) of the steps. At this point in time all you can do is stare at the soon-empty train platform and think, "What could I have done in my life to have caught this train?" And the answer is usually plain as day. You could have listened to one fewer song before heading out the door. You could have opted to check your email at work and not at home. You stood motionless for too long in the shower. There are myriad things that could have been done that would have made you arrive at the train platform seconds earlier, and thus caught the train.
But these are fleeting thoughts. The real issues you start to deal with come moments later when you get over the fact that you aren't sitting on a heated subway seat but instead freezing your ass off in the wind. These issues come about when you're left with nothing but your devices, waiting for another train to come and realizing that maybe it wasn't just the subway you had missed. You start going back through your life. Why am I standing here in the cold? What went wrong? Is this the line of work I really thought I'd be doing? What happened to those big ideas I had when I was a teenager. I thought I was going to go out there, in life, and fucking conquer something. Now, I'm standing in the bitter cold, with wet hair, waiting for life to pick me back up.
It's depressing.
Luckily, another train will come along. You get in and since you had the time, you were able to walk to the part of the platform where you know you'll be able to get a seat. It's cold, but its sunny outside, and as you ride over the bridge you treat yourself to an article in GQ about a celebrity or some such nonsense while enjoying the heat coming from right below the bench you're sitting on. Life isn't that torturous and the decisions you made in the past aren't as permanent as they may seem. There's still a future. There always is.
And you pull into the station to make your transfer feeling damn good.
But then you walk down the stairs only to be greeted by the F train pulling out of the station.
Motherfuckers!

Anyway, that was my day in a nutshell. Was it yours?

Now, enjoy this quite humorous essay by Chuck Klosterman on why he enjoys wathing the LA Lakers.

*Coulter sorry for stealing your title technique.

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