when i moved to new york after 18 years of dependence on my mother for transportation, i fell in love with the subway system. i was independently mobile and unfettered for the first time in my life. the subway system reminded me of the river ride that runs all around raging rivers waterpark. if you're unfamiliar with raging rivers, the cesspool of hepatitis, i also saw it as the city's circulatory system. if i ever found myself in a strange part of town, lost and confused, i just needed to find that glowing green globe, tap back into the system, and the current would carry me home. even after 6 years of drinking the jade nyc kool-aid, dealing with unreliable service, packed train cars, stations that stank of human feces, the deafening screech of incoming trains, rush hour, the G train, the L train, the F(uck yo mama) train, rats, suffocating underground heat, fare hikes, bedbug infested waiting benches, vomit/condoms/needles/pee on seats, pickpockets, mta strikes, delays due to a sick passenger/an earlier incident/construction, being held in the station momentarily, wrong trains running on wrong lines, trains replaced by shuttle buses...i still am and always will be in love with the new york city subway system.
now i'm in dc, with my yellow metrocard still in my wallet and a voice in my head that repeats, "Thank You For Riding With New York City Transit!" so i walk a lot. but today i took the Circulator to a whole new neighborhood, and as i boarded the bus, i felt something similar to that rush from my first ride on the N train to 8th st/NYU. the metro charges by distance here. buses are only a buck. stations are sterile, graffiti-free concrete tunnels. people use "smartcards." i miss my city and its unmistakably phallic depiction in every train car and station. the dc metro voice will never replace that overeager announcer voice warning me to be careful using electronic devices and to step over the gap. i miss the wall art, the graffiti, i even miss the rats. but i suppose i was long overdue for a new adventure. last week i left new york. today i left logan circle. tomorrow i'll buy a smartcard and let the circulator circulate me all over town. life is short, and it's a magical world. let's go exploring.
think i'll go a little but then i go far!
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haha your admiration of public transit is like mine for my personal modes of transportation. i love my car and now my motorcycle. they get me places faster than mass transit. i get to sit in my own zone of comfort. i control when/where i go. i can play whatever music i want...or listen to no music at all but the lovely sound of internal combustion. i'm much more involved in my actually getting somewhere. i get to be outdoors and not in some dark tunnel underground. and no bed bugs. =)
do it!!! learn how to drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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