Someone asked me how I get to work. I chose the path of most detail, most explanation, most retentiveness. The routes are not always the same but today it was the N from Broadway to Lexington, where there is a magical wind effect that precedes the arrival of the R train that I connect to there. It must happen at other stations as well but I appreciate the earthy, ephemeral form of this alert that the train is soon arriving. The wind picks up as the train nears, rising from the underwater tunnel. I choose the last car of the R because that is where I frequently see an interesting woman who I wish I had the nerve to talk to. She has impressed me in various ways just by her attitudes and appearances. Her face seemed alive and so did her mind. But lately hse looks more reserved, huddling under a hoodie and half-sleeping on the train. She exist at 57th\/7th.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I connect to the R when it makes sense. There are no stairs, it’s a same-platform transfer, but it does not always work. Sometimes the R gets ahead of the N, in which case I go down an awful lot of stairs to get to the 4 or 5 express down in the dungeon-like lowest levels of that station. I’ve waited as long as a half hour for a train on that level, watching with chagrin as the app and digital signs at the station all report trains arriving, trains arriving, while nothing happens. These are ghost trains that exist only in the MTA’s fantasy. Do they serve any purpose? Are they planted into the system ato look like genuine trains that arrived on time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But today it was the R, which I take for another reason. It has an elevator right at the location where I exit, and it gets me down to the passage that connects the Oculus to Fulton Center. I choose this path because it keeps me from crossing Broadway. This passage is directly underneath that roadway, which I find can be a bit treacherous to cross on account of delivery bikes and people just ignoring the traffic signals. It has evolved over time that this passage might be even more dangerous than crossing Broadway, as people on e-scooters and even motorcycles have discovered the passage, creating more hazards than I might face upstairs on Broadway. I found no rules posted prohibiting scooters or any kind of motorized vehicle in that passage so maybe it will become a drag racing scene for the scooter crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon passing through this space I hear almost every single day I make this journey I hear a few moments of a Frank Sinatra song, playing through one of the digital screens. I rise up on the escalator to John Street, where some derelict and directionless individuals seem to be standing all day every day. Someone is typically lying down on of the sidewalk grates, which is known for its considerable amount of heat that it emits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Someone asked me how I get to work. I chose the path of most detail, most explanation, most retentiveness. The routes are not always the same but today it was the N from Broadway to Lexington, where there is a magical wind effect that precedes the arrival of the R train that I connect to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paumAn-csV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}