Metropolitan Diary Style Entry

So this morning I decide to see if it's faster/longer/about the same to take the R to the N to the L for me to get to work, so I head down to the R platform at the 9th Street stop in Park Slope. The train comes, I zone out for a little, reading my book about really really poor children in turn-of-the-century Stockholm, and when I look up, I realize that like an idiot I boarded the train going in the entirely wrong direction.

I get off on the next stop, at 25th St., and bewildered start looking around, trying to figure out how to get to the other side. I must have looked very puzzled, because the token booth agent says "Hey! You wanna just take the train another stop, and then transfer there? Then you don't pay another fare." And I'm like, oh, okay, sure. And he lets me pass back through the turnstiles to wait for the next train. So nice, really. Especially considering that, despite me swearing up and down that New Yorkers are actually pretty friendly, token booth agents tend to be a particularly surly bunch. So that was cool.

On another subway-related note, me and Jeff were riding back to Park Slope together last night, and we had just pulled into the Jay St. Borough Hall stop when we heard the subway announcer: "Welcome to Jay St. Borough Hall in Brooklyn - a good place to visit but a GREAT place to live." And then he proceeds to announce some trivia about the city hall in Brooklyn that I don't recall right now, but me and Jeff look at each other in puzzlement. Neither of us had ever heard anything like that before. I mean, I have my pet announcers that I really enjoy listening to (including the woman on the F train with the incredibly chill voice) but never have I felt like I was being "sold" on where I was going. It was pretty cool. I like moments like that.