Strike 2!

I love how they showed the barricades alongside the Jamaica station on the 10:00 news on Fox5 last nite and whichever anchorwoman it was (Andrea Day? It was a blonde), was all See these barricades behind me? This is where commuters had to line up this morning. MY ASS! That was the LAST LAP of the line! The homestretch, the last one-fourth we had to go thru. The line stretched for MILES in EVERY DIRECTION. Give us some goddamned credit. And I'm glad peeps were still able to hit Tiffany's, Bloomies, and FAO Schwarz. Phew. Whatta relief. Nobody pulls together like Noo Yawkahs--or those in Noo Yawk. Though thanks a lot to the guy tipping everyone off about the "secret entrance." I figgered it's too good to last and police will be all over it today.

But this morning, there it was again. That silence that's settled over the area. Like the heart of the city has been ripped out, the pulse and thrum of subways underground has stopped. This feeling that something's....not....right. I'm not going to see the same faces in the stations, even though I don't know these people I know of them: The Russian women who are friends, the guy on crutches, the woman who traveled into the city with her daughter last summer and since I don't see the daughter anymore I assume she's in college even though I don't know, the woman with the cropped blonde hair who's reading Entertainment Weekly every morning.

So I left late--if I'm gonna be late might as well be late, I stopped caring long ago--and went to wait for the bus. People walked past, looking at me like I'm crazy for waiting there. No buses. So I walked to the next stop, which had people there. A woman told me 2 packed buses went by w/o stopping. I get on and find a seat, across from a woman who was sitting in the outside seat. Probably had her purse on the seat by the window. I decided to try my luck w/Forest Hills and then realized something wonderful: I might be in for some real bitching this morning. It's a primarily Jewish area and, well, nobody complains like us Jews. (Ethel, we were only in the desert for 40 days and 40 nites? Felt more like 40 years with all your mouthing off! Oh, shut up, Morty!)

Have you ever seen something so outrageous that you can't believe it and then start laughing? That was me this morning as I tried to find the end of this line. Kept walking. Still not there. Walking. "She tried to get in front of me, but...." Still not there. Ha ha ha. It was on "the right side of the tracks"--Forest Hills Gardens. I walked under the RR underpass and the volume of discarded Starbux cups shoulda been a tipoff. All the way down to Burns St. and Slocum Crescent. Who knew such an intersection existed? Of course now everyone was a ticket holder because everyone knew the drill, but the ticket buyer line was so much shorter. I almost wanted to buy another ticket if it meant I could get on board sooner. It seemed like this line really moved as compared to Jamaica because it was a straight line, not like in Jamaica where you literally went from pillar to post. And this area is so much nicer than the industrial area of Jamaica. But then it started grating on me, all these perfect brick houses and this sprawling complex that looks like 2 duplexes that must cost a fortune. Give me an honest-to-god apartment bldg any day. I passed a car with stickers for Rhode Island U in the back window. Two young guys walking their dogs laughed. "Lookit that line. That's great." It's 9:15, why the fuck aren't you on a line? Then as we neared the station the lines tripled up on itself and we had to get our tix out or we don't get on the platform. They never took the tickets on the platform or on board, so you're really giving the MTA all this money because people are stocking up on tix for future days in case this thing goes on longer. And as I was heading thru the barricaded aisles like I'm gonna get on some ride at Disneyworld, I saw the end of the line follow in. I was sitting next to some man who kept going on and on about films for some documentary on his cell and I wished he'd just shut the fuck up. Nobody cares. A woman across the aisle sat with an empty seat next to her and the woman at the window. What is wrong with you people?

I got in at 10 which ain't all that bad. Compared to how shitty I felt yesterday--I can't believe that was me. They said that if this thing goes on til Friday we'll have the day off since it's a half-day anyway. Wow, thanx! Way to look out for the little people!