Downtown Train

I started writing this tonight with full intentions of telling the whole story, but then I got watching TV and chatting with Rob and the story started taking too long to finish. So I am going to have to give this to you in pieces. Like cake. Here is the first piece.

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train?--Tom Waits, Downtown Train

After starting my day with getting on a plane at 7:30 a.m. and shuffling back and forth between gates at either end of a terminal at the Toronto airport, I landed in New York. My first challenge was to buy a metro card and find the M60 bus to take me, my large suitcase and trusty messenger bag to Manhattan. Stepping outside for the first time was surprising. I was wearing my white leather double-breasted coat, a wool scarf and pink cap and found myself feeling overdressed for the balmy temperatures (well, balmy compared to subarctic cold I left in Winnipeg).



My sister texted me.

"What are your first impressions?"

I considered my response carefully and composed this poetic response:

"Pretty Dirty Warm Confusing"

I melted as I stood on the bus that quickly filled up with passengers. I read and re-read my instructions from New York Friend (NYF) and watched for my stop, since the bus driver was pretty much inaudible as he called out the stops.

I found the subway stairs with ease and descended to the world below the streets. I was instantly presented with a fork in my path. Everyone seemed to be heading through the gates to the right, but the odd one went through the gates on the left. There was no sign differentiating the two. So I stopped someone to ask.

"Oh yeah, you gotta go through the gate, man, you gotta go through there and find the platform you need,"

"So I go through those gates over there?" I pointed to the ones of the right.

"Yeah!"

"Thank you." I smiled and proceeded to fumble my way through getting myself and my suitcase through the turnstile. I could not have looked more like a tourist.


I rode the 4 train all the way to Bleeker Street. When I got up to street level it was starting to rain. I stood under a canopy and messaged NYF to let him know I was in his neighbourhood. So I stood there for a bit and watched the city walk by for a bit. Like maybe, 10 minutes. I wasn't sure if NYF was going to come meet me or if I should just keep walking toward his office, but I was tired of standing around so I started moving. We bumped into each other somewhere along Broadway and the next chapter of my adventure began.

We grabbed a pizza at this cute little Italian restaurant and began to catch up. We got into a big conversation about Sesame Street and I ended up singing the Captain Vegetable song. I didn't realize how much I had forgotten about him or remembered incorrectly. It was like we were meeting for the first time. If this is starting to sound like a weird dream, believe me, it is starting to feel like one.

NYF needed to pick up something from Best Buy so we went for a walk down Columbus. I had never seen a Best Buy before in anything but a big box setting. This one had a basement, which we visited by taking the escalator. My footwear of choice, a pair of low-heel boots gave me the first indication of trouble when I slipped down several stairs and nearly took out a middle-aged woman. New York was making a good impression on me, I really wasn't sure that I was making such a great impression on it.