Wednesday, August 08, 2007
r train
Ohhh my god it's been a long time since I've updated this. Many new, exciting and highly vlogable things have occurred in my life, yet, for some strange reason (I am a bum?) I haven't done anything. But my first reaction to what happened this morning was this: I have to vlog about this. Not blog, but vlog.
I am currently living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It has a lot of families and imigrants, mostly from Lebanon, China, and particularly in my building, Eastern Europe. It's a nice little area that's safe and quiet. The most noise at night is a car alarm that goes off when dudes with their ghetto cruisers pump their bass too loud. Around 5:00/5:30 this morning, however, a crazy-ass thunderstorm woke me up. Growing up in the midwest/Iowa, you get used to storms, so when I say crazy-ass, I mean there's no pause between thunder and lightning and there's a lot of it. But as a midwesterner, I slept through the majority of it. When I woke up this morning, I thought nothing of it and hurried to get to the train as per usual so I could get to Taïm for my second day of work. However, when I got to the station, I saw a large group of people standing outside. Always willing to play the pissed off native Brooklynite, I pushed my way through wearing a scowl only to find that none, repeat, none of the trains were running. The lone attendant fielded annoyed questions in both English and Chinese. I was told to try to catch a bus that would take me to 9th St. station where I could get onto a D train which would take me into Manhattan (note: I have to take the R to get to the D, hence the title). As I walked towards the stop, I saw what the trouble was all about. There was broken glass everywhere. A line of fire engines blocked off a street with huge tree debris. I heard talk of building collapses. But as the good little capitalist, I was still trying to get to work. A woman offered to split a taxi with me--after about ten minutes of waiting, she politely told me she was going home. I then tried to catch a bus, which, as I had noticed before, were so full of people that they would just drive by without stopping. After another ten minutes of this, I considered my options: walk the 60 blocks to 9th St., wait for more buses, wait for some cab, or go home. (Bonus option: attempt to get a ride with somebody in a car. Sh'yeah, right.) Home I went. Naturally, all of these adventures in waiting were fraught with anxiety, anxious calls to my bosses, and more anxiety. Missing your second day of work really does make you a bum, but what is to be done? R train, even though you are old and not as nice as 1, 2, 3, A, C, or E, but this girl wants you to know right now: I miss you.
As for the community: the main damage seems to be on the other side of 4th Ave. Lots of helicopters are patrolling the area (they've been up there for about three hours now), as well as plenty of police and firemen with some private contractors for towing and glass thrown in. (I had one of my kitchen windows schedueled to be replaced today, and miraculously, he showed up. He said he'd been busy.) The main damage that kind of made me sad was the church on 4th Ave near 67th that had it's entire, probably 50ft. window blown out. That's probably where a lot of the glass came from. Lots of gawkers making the rounds. The big fat guy who sits in front of Steve's Bagels/Steve's Florist (near "The Best Breakfast in Bay Ridge", which is also owned by Steve, I believe--lots of yummy Greek treats) finally had something to talk about with his other sidewalk sitting pals.
Right now, I'm going to go out for some cheap falafel and The Simpsons movie. I will also grab some more footage.
Cheers, friends, I'm back.
I am currently living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It has a lot of families and imigrants, mostly from Lebanon, China, and particularly in my building, Eastern Europe. It's a nice little area that's safe and quiet. The most noise at night is a car alarm that goes off when dudes with their ghetto cruisers pump their bass too loud. Around 5:00/5:30 this morning, however, a crazy-ass thunderstorm woke me up. Growing up in the midwest/Iowa, you get used to storms, so when I say crazy-ass, I mean there's no pause between thunder and lightning and there's a lot of it. But as a midwesterner, I slept through the majority of it. When I woke up this morning, I thought nothing of it and hurried to get to the train as per usual so I could get to Taïm for my second day of work. However, when I got to the station, I saw a large group of people standing outside. Always willing to play the pissed off native Brooklynite, I pushed my way through wearing a scowl only to find that none, repeat, none of the trains were running. The lone attendant fielded annoyed questions in both English and Chinese. I was told to try to catch a bus that would take me to 9th St. station where I could get onto a D train which would take me into Manhattan (note: I have to take the R to get to the D, hence the title). As I walked towards the stop, I saw what the trouble was all about. There was broken glass everywhere. A line of fire engines blocked off a street with huge tree debris. I heard talk of building collapses. But as the good little capitalist, I was still trying to get to work. A woman offered to split a taxi with me--after about ten minutes of waiting, she politely told me she was going home. I then tried to catch a bus, which, as I had noticed before, were so full of people that they would just drive by without stopping. After another ten minutes of this, I considered my options: walk the 60 blocks to 9th St., wait for more buses, wait for some cab, or go home. (Bonus option: attempt to get a ride with somebody in a car. Sh'yeah, right.) Home I went. Naturally, all of these adventures in waiting were fraught with anxiety, anxious calls to my bosses, and more anxiety. Missing your second day of work really does make you a bum, but what is to be done? R train, even though you are old and not as nice as 1, 2, 3, A, C, or E, but this girl wants you to know right now: I miss you.
As for the community: the main damage seems to be on the other side of 4th Ave. Lots of helicopters are patrolling the area (they've been up there for about three hours now), as well as plenty of police and firemen with some private contractors for towing and glass thrown in. (I had one of my kitchen windows schedueled to be replaced today, and miraculously, he showed up. He said he'd been busy.) The main damage that kind of made me sad was the church on 4th Ave near 67th that had it's entire, probably 50ft. window blown out. That's probably where a lot of the glass came from. Lots of gawkers making the rounds. The big fat guy who sits in front of Steve's Bagels/Steve's Florist (near "The Best Breakfast in Bay Ridge", which is also owned by Steve, I believe--lots of yummy Greek treats) finally had something to talk about with his other sidewalk sitting pals.
Right now, I'm going to go out for some cheap falafel and The Simpsons movie. I will also grab some more footage.
Cheers, friends, I'm back.
Labels: Bay Ridge, MTA delays, thunderstorm
