Dear Public Transportation - On the intricacies and exceptions in my life

I'm about to use public transportation as a metaphor. I'm not sorry.

It has been just about two months since my move, and I think things are finally starting to settle in. No, I'm not talking about that nasty growth on my.....wait you had no idea about that....

I'm talking about me, myself, getting settled into a place that I never thought needed settling into. Growing up in Newyorkachussetts - I'm sorry, Connecticut for those who aren't from there - Manhattan was always within reach. There was a Metronorth train stop maybe five minutes from my house, and plenty of other stations to chose from along the way. My family frequented the city, seeing many of the Broadway show tunes...explains a lot...and I felt like I had a really good understanding of what I was getting myself into when I decided to move. I suppose the metaphor there, or better the analogy....or something relative COME ON PEOPLE...is that just because something is in reach doesn't mean you know what it is.

There was about a week of time when I first moved into my apartment in Astoria (JEALOUS MUCH?) where the N train kept being under construction and literally back tracking me before it would take me to midtown. Needless to say this was a big struggle. Don't get me wrong, I have heinously low standards for public transit after experiencing the Boston transit system (which I would liken to a blind pirate being blown by a scurvy ridden octo-shark). But up until that point, I had such expeditious travel times in NYC that these seemed both absurd and personal. Why was MY train doing this to ME? No one else was having this problem. Certainly not the blind, now diseased pirates in Boston. I have now come to terms with the fact that I just need to be aware of the transit system and the things that are being done to it. This metaphor could be something like, "don't judge a book by it's cover", or some other crock of shit.

This experiences have been imperative to me NYCvolution, but none so important as my recent 16 hour escapade to Boston. For those Bostonites reading this now who did not see me, I apologize for not letting you know that I was there. I had to see my "luvstruggs" Kady and didn't have time to see everyone. She had just gotten back from the real "isreal" and she needed some lovin.

My journey started with an 11pm Megabus to Boston. New York decided it would be funny to piss on everyone that night (not the trashy reality TV star, the city) so i was pretty wet once I got on the bus. The ride itself was pretty stress free save for the tween whores who almost ruined the Lady GAGA for me by listening to "Just Dance" 13 jillion times in a row and singing along as if the didn't have food stuck in their whore braces and a prepubescent drinking problem consisting of Red Bulls and their own dignity...

I had Buffy season five with me so that made up for it.

It was when I came into Boston that things started bubbling up. Having lived there for four years, I knew that Boston cab drivers had about as much a sense of direction as Ferris wheel. I also new that having my iPhone handy couldn't be a bad thing, considering it could give me exact directions if needed.

I get into a cab. Mind you, it's almost 3:30 in the morning by this point, so I grabbed the closest one there was. Not that it would have made any difference. I gave my destination, and the driver just took off without hesitation. I though, "Maybe this once...just maybe....he'll know where he's going". I'll never understand why I give people such benefit of the doubt. Not only did he miss the street, but when I told him we passed it, he kept driving and informed me that he didn't think I new where I was and that we should go back to Boston to get to the right address.

Assfuck.

Politely, I made him aware of the fact that he was wrong and would not be paid past what was currently on the meter. I had him drive back to show him where the street was, to which he responded, "Oh, this must be a new street name. It wasn't called this before." My friend has been living there for a year...

Taking the T, or the Boston subway, was also an eye opening experience. Even though there are literally millions of people in New York City, there are so many trains running that cars never feel too crowded. Without fail, one of my T rides in Boston was filled to the brim with people equal parts old and angry. Boston has less than a tenth of the people living in it...

The piece with the most gravity was most definitely my return trip on Megabus. Our driver was bad. I mean ruul bad. There were a couple of times, especially once we got to the city, where I was convinced my organs would fall out from of the hectic breaking she was doing.

I knew something was out of the ordinary when people started swearing. On the last leg of the trip, I was awoken by two things: a very abrupt stop and the gentleman next to me screaming, "WHY THE FUCK IS SHE DRIVING THROUGH TIME SQUARE ON A FRIDAY NIGHT!!!". Oh no.

He was right. We were literally amidst a sea of people, presumably tourists or jersey bridge hoppers who came in to get fucked up...both came for that reason...and the bus could not move more than a few feet every minute. When I think of Time Square, I thinking of a field, filled with puppies, slowing being driven over by that machine from the Fern Gully. Not a place I want to spend any time at, let alone a Friday night on a bus.

Rows of people were getting up to yell at the driver. For a couple of minutes, I was convinced a mutiny was growing up under us, but I think people were too tired to commit to a coup d'etat.

This is where the exception comes in. It's like Inception, except without 800 hours of exposition and unfortunately now SFX or Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

I normally would have been right along with the other passengers, screaming bloody murder and angrily calling a random friend. But I had already had a pretty terrible couple of days with transportation that made me feel a little more immune to it all. What I did get (wait for it.....)

- was an important lesson.

You were expecting me to say something dirty? Oh....you weren't.....oh.

Basically, I realized the latitude of my own existence. WOAH! WTF MATE.

Since I've come to the City, I've been applying to internship after internship with little to no avail. Finally, I got really far with an interview process with an extremely reputable theater company. The sad part is that after everything I did for the application, they couldn't offer it to me.

I couldn't see it for what is was worth until I was on the bus though. We were surround by horrific amounts of people, and it was still only a small portion of the number of those living in the city. That's when it hit me. I got really far with an interview process that potentially MILLIONS of other people applied to. Now, I'm sure that there is a little exaggeration to that, but it made me really happy with how far I was able to get. It also got me thinking about the fact that I need to get my name out there more, so I've decided to start auditioning for things as well as pursue directing. I'll be like fucking Marie Antoinette. She was the one who had the line about cake, right?

LOVE AND STRUGGS
B DANN