This air is so fresh and good. Or is it well?
I've been planning this blog entry for a long time and am really hoping it resonates with people. ***Just in case it doesn't...and is in fact offensive to you...I'm sorry! I just have had this idea for such a long time. I had to let these ideas out of my head and into the world. I had to!*** This blog topic, though awkwardly worded, is on my mind a lot...or at least Monday-Friday at around 8:30 in the morning.
I am usually kind of lateish in the mornings when I go to work. I can wake up at 7, or 6:45 or 7:30...and yet I always find myself leaving my house at 8:05. I usually get the 8:12 subway, and after some stopping...I find myself at the dreaded 59th st. stop where the 4, 5, 6, R, N, and W trains go. (all my NYC peepz you know what I'm talkin' about here. Doesn't that subway stop suck?!). I look at my cell phone (yes, I have about 5 watches but all of them are flawed in some way so I haven't been wearing one lately) and see that it's 8:25. OK. GREAT. At this point I realize that I need to get off my train and catch THE NEXT uptown 6 local train to make it to work, one stop away, at 8:30.
In order to get to the uptown 6 train, I need to go up two flights of stairs from the N/R/W train platform. Two flights of stairs is really nothing...unless you happen to somehow, ALWAYS, NO MATTER WHAT, walk up the stairs behind the following people:1) People with limps. Look...I understand. Sometimes your leg hurts, or you have a medical issue and before you know it the only way you can get from point A to point B is to limp. You try to walk, but you can't really. You never wanted this for yourself. You feel sad and ashamed about who you've become. And I feel sad for you too...but not sad enough to want to walk up the stairs behind you and be late to work.

2) People with heavy bags. I don't know WHERE these people are going, but they're taking a lot of stuff with them. And for some reason, they can't carry them. These bags don't have wheels and are just so frickin' big. As you can imagine, it takes these characters a long time to get up the stairs...and when I'm walking behind them (which I usually am) all bets are off.
3) Small women with baby strollers. It sucks having to bring a stroller down into the subway, then on the subway, then off the subway and then, finally, if you even make it that far, having to carry the stroller with your stupid baby (STUPID BABY!) up the stairs. I get it, kind of. But, I also get that it sucks to walk up the stairs behind you. IT REALLY SUCKS. Forget about your baby and think about me for a second. I didn't have your baby. I didn't buy your stroller. I didn't make you take the subway by yourself. So why am I paying the price for your slowness? Furthermore, and this has nothing to do with you, why isn't anyone helping you? Come on coordinated people/strong people...help a sister out! I would offer to help but you know, um...I have this thing...so...
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4) People who aren't sure if they WANT to go up the stairs. So, we've all had those days, haven't we? You wake up feeling blah...you have a lot of personal/sick days at work...you don't NEED to come in...you totally COULD stay home and watch TV all day and relax...and yet you find yourself taking a shower, brushing your teeth, fixing your hair, getting dressed and before you know you're on the subway. Even though you don't have to be. Even though you don't want to be. You arrive at your transfer station...have to walk up a few flights of stairs to get to the other platform...and...you...just...can't...find...the...energy. You're tired. You're wondering why you're here. So you just, kind of, you know, stand at the bottom of the stairs. Some people are able to walk around you. They turn to give you a look that says something along the lines of 'having a hard time huh? that sucks. I've been there (past tense)...but I still need you to GET OUT OF MY WAY! (present tense). And yet others, like me, are stuck. Motionless. Behind you.
5) People who have never seen stairs before. I thought stairs might be an international kind of thing but it seems like a good deal of people who live in NYC have no idea how to use them...so...

6) People who are anti-stairs. I didn't even know that stairs were controversial. I thought they were just, you know, there. An easy way to get up to a higher ground without having to actually climb. But judging from the looks of discust and the slowness of people walking up stairs in the mornings, maybe there's some hidden angst I don't know about. Maybe stairs have hurt people or caused suffering in some way...? Or maybe people are just stupid?

7) People who are slow. Some people don't have an excuse. They don't have a medical condition, and aren't ignorant as to what stairs are. Some people, who I end up walking behind, are just SLOW. unacceptable!
In conclusion, I hope to not walk up the stairs behind #s 1-7 again. If you're a slow stair walker, for any of the above reasons, or even for another reason I haven't mentioned, just step aside and let us other, busy 'nyc types' rush by and catch our connecting train. It's ok to take your time...I guess...just don't let your choices affect me in a negative way. bye!



























