screw you, East Side

Yesterday I had some errands to run and a doctor's appointment downtown.  The following is the craziness that resulted on the duration of my return trip.

1)  I went down to the subway to catch my train after getting all finished up, sadly, not buying giant doorknocker earrings but instead doing some limited wandering and finally getting to the bank (yes!  After three weeks of laziness!).  After sitting for about 15 minutes they announce there are power outages at 49th and 50th (which turned out to be the whole East Side) and in the Bronx so all 4, 5 and 6 trains are indefinitely delayed.  I called Hipster who directed me to an alternative train about 4 blocks up since I was so far downtown a cab would been waaay too expensive.  And plus I have no conception of how the New York subway works unless I'm receiving careful instruction from A to B.  I still call everything 'Red Line' 'Green Line' etc and people laugh at me.

2)  After taking the R up to 42nd Street I start to head to the 1 which'll take me home to 66th Street.  I've been a little spoiled with the DC metro since it is huge and cool and well lit and clean and cavernous.  In NYC in large hubs like Grand Central or Times Square the hallways are long and hot and full of smelly people and generally claustrophobia inducing and make me exceptionally nervous.  I don't have a problem with tight spaces but I do have a problem going thru Grand Central on hot days.  EITHER WAY, I was swimming in a school of people all looking to get on the 1 train when its announced that the power outage has caused ALL UPTOWN TRAINS to not run.  No trains coming, no trains going.  FUCK.

3)  So I go aboveground to Times Square just to try to figure out what I'm going to do.  Times Square sucks.  I have absolutely no interest in the bright shiny lights or the huge crowds of ridiculous, slow moving tourists because if I stop for a second I'm going to get sucked into something and spend money.  It's incredibly frustrating.  But what's important to note at this junction is that it is 5 o'clock, start of the evening commute and it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a cab.

4)  I resolve that I'm going to have to walk the 25+ blocks home.  This isn't really that bad of a scenario except it's 85 degrees and 99% humidity.

5)  I walk.  And walk.  And walk.  I get some energy.  All my cramps go away.  I sweat.  My bag is heavy really heavy since I've got book + sandwich + bottle of water + giant man killing wallet + camera.  I feel disgusting.

6)  It starts to rain.  CORRECTION: it starts to POUR.  I'm at 55th going to 64th.  The rain is not even cool, it is that hot rain where you feel like you're getting peed on.  It continues to rain off and on the entire way back. 

I end up getting home a little worse for wear.  Then I ate some oven pizza and watched Top Chef so it ended up being a pretty good day all in all.