Observational Musings
So, what do I do when I have an essay due for Narrative Fiction class? I blog! Of course you are required to take into account: (a) How often I blog, (b) My unwillingness to blog, (c) The average of how many of my past blogs have been forced into being, or used as incentive for other things I deemed of higher worth, (d) How many were memes and (e)How many I've done, in total, to date; and you'll have yourself a pretty good understanding of what it means when I blog willingly.
Yeah yeah, I'll get on with it.
The subject or "theme" (if you will) of this blog is one I hope to make reoccuring. I'm convinced that I need some sort of "theme" to keep this thing alive, so lets see how this one goes.
Observational Musing, The First:
Riding on the 6 Train (no JLo jokes, please) is a normal 5 day a week occurence, and as per usual, the train is always packed (two colleges sharing the same train? yeah). Fortunately, when the train first arrives at my stop there are usually a few seats available (and this has nothing to do with being lazy because I have 12 stops to travel from school to Brooklyn Bridge, and that's only half way home), so I normally grab one. Along the way, the car proceeds to hit it's max, passengers on top of passengers, cranky tired commuters homeward bound until we hit Bleecker street. Then it's the running of the bulls leaving only a few dazed passengers left behind.
Very detailed, very boring, but I'm getting to my point.
Sometimes during the commute there is a struggle for seats. One passenger gets up to leave and the two or three people who've been eying that particular seat the whole time (and have stationed themselves around it), descend at once, winner takes all. Yesterday, a rare (tho not unseen) occurance happened. A passenger left their seat and the man standing closest (the one most entitled to the seat) decided he didn't want to sit down. Because this usually never ever happens (never ever), it doesn't even occure to people that it could, so they assumed he'd take the seat and looked away. A woman just getting on zeros in on the unoccupied seat (right next to me) and claims it as her own before I could blink. The train gets closer to Bleecker street, and when it finally arrives, the car empties out. Now it's just me, the woman seated next to me and four others in the car. Nothing of significance makes this moment noteworthy other than how I perceived it. I found myself wondering if there were any train ethics I should be following by this point. There were rows and rows of empty seats available and I was still seated directly next to the woman. I'm sure this has happened to other people, when you question whether or not you feel awkward enough to get up and put some space between you and your fellow passenger, or if you should stay where you are, both pretending that the newly available seating doesn't create an uncomfortable vibe that says "of all the places you could sit, you still rather be seated on top of each other." Is there a subway code that dictates whether or not it's polite to get up or not get up? Is it insulting to the other passenger if you do get up? If you are required to get up, how do you decide which person gets to stay? Does the last person seated need to get up, or the first? None of this crap matters, most of it is BS, but I was amused by how the awkwardness made me question whether or not it indicated a problem that needed solving, and/or as normal subway riders there are unwritten rules that we naturally follow when we ride the subway, and whether or not we're even aware of following them. If you're curious to know, I didn't move and neither did she. We were only 3 stops away from Brooklyn Bridge, so I thought and assume she thought, "Why bother?"
That's the end of my first observational musing.
Yeah yeah, I'll get on with it.
The subject or "theme" (if you will) of this blog is one I hope to make reoccuring. I'm convinced that I need some sort of "theme" to keep this thing alive, so lets see how this one goes.
Observational Musing, The First:
Riding on the 6 Train (no JLo jokes, please) is a normal 5 day a week occurence, and as per usual, the train is always packed (two colleges sharing the same train? yeah). Fortunately, when the train first arrives at my stop there are usually a few seats available (and this has nothing to do with being lazy because I have 12 stops to travel from school to Brooklyn Bridge, and that's only half way home), so I normally grab one. Along the way, the car proceeds to hit it's max, passengers on top of passengers, cranky tired commuters homeward bound until we hit Bleecker street. Then it's the running of the bulls leaving only a few dazed passengers left behind.
Very detailed, very boring, but I'm getting to my point.
Sometimes during the commute there is a struggle for seats. One passenger gets up to leave and the two or three people who've been eying that particular seat the whole time (and have stationed themselves around it), descend at once, winner takes all. Yesterday, a rare (tho not unseen) occurance happened. A passenger left their seat and the man standing closest (the one most entitled to the seat) decided he didn't want to sit down. Because this usually never ever happens (never ever), it doesn't even occure to people that it could, so they assumed he'd take the seat and looked away. A woman just getting on zeros in on the unoccupied seat (right next to me) and claims it as her own before I could blink. The train gets closer to Bleecker street, and when it finally arrives, the car empties out. Now it's just me, the woman seated next to me and four others in the car. Nothing of significance makes this moment noteworthy other than how I perceived it. I found myself wondering if there were any train ethics I should be following by this point. There were rows and rows of empty seats available and I was still seated directly next to the woman. I'm sure this has happened to other people, when you question whether or not you feel awkward enough to get up and put some space between you and your fellow passenger, or if you should stay where you are, both pretending that the newly available seating doesn't create an uncomfortable vibe that says "of all the places you could sit, you still rather be seated on top of each other." Is there a subway code that dictates whether or not it's polite to get up or not get up? Is it insulting to the other passenger if you do get up? If you are required to get up, how do you decide which person gets to stay? Does the last person seated need to get up, or the first? None of this crap matters, most of it is BS, but I was amused by how the awkwardness made me question whether or not it indicated a problem that needed solving, and/or as normal subway riders there are unwritten rules that we naturally follow when we ride the subway, and whether or not we're even aware of following them. If you're curious to know, I didn't move and neither did she. We were only 3 stops away from Brooklyn Bridge, so I thought and assume she thought, "Why bother?"
That's the end of my first observational musing.