Category Archives: Subways

Meeting in California

I’m supposed to go to a meeting in California but I’m not wearing any pants. I stop by a mall kiosk that sells yoga gear and plan to buy any pants I can. I’m happily relieved to find a pair that’s on sale, because otherwise I would have spent quite a bit of money. Once I’ve picked out my pants I notice that they’re selling a scarf that’s on sale, so I decide to buy that too. I also grab a bottle of water.

I take my items up to the register and hand the salesclerk my wallet. She rings up a very large dollar amount and I express my surprise; I know the items I’ve selected don’t cost that much. She shows me that she’s rung up a whole list of items that appear on a receipt in my wallet. I explain to her that I’m not buying those items today, and point out the date on the receipt. It’s nearly a year old.

Once I’ve resolved that issue and have some pants on, I go to my meeting. My job is to construct a train. There are some train pieces made out of wood. I add some additional cars by taking pieces of cantaloupe and melon that are in the fruit salad provided as a snack for the meeting.

Face Powder and Hand Weight

I’m on a train and I’m standing near the end of a train car. At the opposite end I notice several of the guys from my high school debate team. I walk down and greet them all, and I give hugs to Steve S. and Joe C.

When I get off the train I go home. I’m supposed to attend an event or a party and it’s important that I arrive on time. I’m running late and I realize I don’t have any makeup on. In a hurry, I go to the bathroom and dump powder on my face. I wind up with huge white splotches all over my face, and I try to wipe them off. This process doesn’t save me any time. I look at the clock and see that I’m 20 minutes late already, and resign myself to the fact that I won’t arrive on time.

When I get there, I’m walking around a strange event space, it’s sort of like a store and sort of like an amusement part. I am carrying a silver metal hand weight (shake weight?) I realize that one of the metal end pieces has fallen off. My immediate concern is that something from inside the weight will now fall out.

Party in Brooklyn

I am having a party (maybe a birthday party) and I’m telling people where to go. I tell Brooke and David that the party is going to be in Brooklyn. Brooke is reluctant to go because she doesn’t know how to get there, so I explain to her how to take the subway. When we get to Brooklyn it’s crowded. The streets are jammed with people, so it’s almost impossible to walk.

I am taking care of an elderly Chinese woman. At the party, someone tells me have to get home as quickly as possible because there is something wrong with her. I need to take a handkerchief or a Kleenex and very gently dab around her eyes. Someone shows me how to do this.

Later, I meet a man and we walk through the streets of a dark city to a convenience store. We pick out some items from the store and then sit on the curb outside.

Family reunion at Elliott’s

I plan to take the PATH train to see Elliott’s new apartment in Long Island City. Jenny tells me that it can take 15 minutes to get down to the platform because the trains are so deep underground.

When I arrive at Elliott’s he gives me a tour of the new apartment. We start in the kitchen which opens onto a small room with two loveseats in it. The couches are old and kind of beat up, and even without a coffee table they fill the room. Now I know what Alex meant when he said the living room was in the kitchen. To get to the next room we have to crawl through a small door in the wall. Elliott says that this is a holdover from when the building was a grain mill.

The next room is large and open with very high ceilings and views out onto the city. The room is so large that there is a small wading pool in the middle of it. Two large dining tables provide an enormous amount of seating, I hang out there for a while and eventually a few other people, including Kevin, show up. Kevin doesn’t talk to anyone and just texts the whole time, and I wonder why he even bothered to come.

I return to Elliott’s apartment later and my entire family shows up too. It’s all my aunts and uncles from both sides of the family, and we take over the entire apartment. On this visit there is a door cut between the main room and the kitchen (much better) and the sofas have been taken out so the small room next to the kitchen can function as an entry foyer/mud room.

Gram is there and says she is taking care of new baby Max. The baby has dark hair and dark eyes and I can’t tell who he belongs to. I want to ask if we don’t already have another kid named Max in the family, but I am embarrassed to ask because I think I should know who his parents are.

At the end of the party everyone comes over to say goodbye to me and thank me for inviting them all. I tell Elliott he is a real saint for agreeing to have my entire family over, and I give him a hug.

The subway is never the way it is in real life

I meet Josh at an office where we’re supposed to do some work. I’m planning to take the train home but he lets me share a black car with him.

The next day I go back and meet some other people in the office. There is a tall Scandinavian man working in the office and I flirt with him. He flirts back and says he thinks he might want to marry me. Turns out he is already married to an Asian woman and they have an infant. I sit with them in the cafeteria and hold the baby for her.

When I’m ready to go home I go over to the subway. The station is attached to a shopping mall and is served by a couple of different lines. I get on the N train but it is going the wrong direction, and I wind up at the end of the line. I go to look at the map and realize how far out I am. I try to plan my trip but I can’t figure out if the N/R/Q or the B/D/F will get me home faster.

The company is supposed to provide transportation but my Metrocard either isn’t working or they’re expecting me to use my personal card. I call someone in customer service and she’s rude to me and then hangs up on me. I stare at the time on my phone, shocked that she just hung up. When I call back she is angry with me in return. She says I should just use the Metrocard that I have and it won’t be a problem.

No Apology is Forthcoming

I’m back at the University of Minnesota for the fall semester. It’s beautiful and the weather is absolutely perfect. I joke that they plan it that way, to get people hooked on Minnesota before the winter begins.

I’m having lunch in the cafeteria with an asian woman. Her boyfriend is a strapping Minnesota blonde. He proposes to her with a ring of small pale blue stones. I’m really happy for them but she’s not happy about the proposal. I take the ring and put it on my own finger. I’m wearing my wedding band and another ring that is a larger diamond. I experiment with how they should be positioned on my finger and decide that the new ring looks best on the inside, even though I should technically wear my wedding band on the inside, closest to my heart.

I find an ancient manual typewriter that prints in an elaborate cursive script. I want to use it to communicate with Jai. I think that if I can type what I want to say to him, he will listen.

Jai and I are driving in a car around campus, looking for a place to park. I ask him what is wrong and why I haven’t heard from him in so long. He gives me a number of lame excuses and I don’t really accept any of them. I finally tell him that I think what he did was wrong and I’m really hurt, and I think I deserve an apology. After a while he yells at me and says that no apology is forthcoming. I get really angry and get out of the car, slam the door, and storm off.

I have to walk around to find a way to get home. I see a sign directing me to the “Steppe” stop on the New Jersey PATH train.

Taking the subway home from a party

I’m at a party with Josh. They are handing out sheets of stickers as swag, and we make fun of them because they are sort of dumb-looking and useless.

We decide to get manicures at the party. There is a whole outdoor area that is set up like a spa, with places to sit in hot tubs and have your nails done. There is also a table where some gaudy looking earrings are for sale. We learn that the earrings were made by Swedish people, and I comment that they aren’t worth what they’re charging but the labor costs are high.

We leave to take the train home. When I get to the turnstile I realize I don’t have my wallet, so I ask to borrow Josh’s Metrocard. The subway station is huge and cavernous, more like the hallways in a sports arena. I look at the signs and realize I can take the 7 train to the east side instead of taking the 1 downtown and then walking over.

The 7 is deep underground, and to take the stairs down seems like it would take forever. I notice an elevator with two rough-looking workmen in it. The door is closing and I race to catch it, but I miss it. I push on the elevator button to see if I can get it to open again, but they’re gone. In retrospect I am relieved because I would have felt unsafe riding the elevator with them. When the elevator returns I take it down to the platform level.

When the train comes I get on the same car with the workmen from the elevator. I strike up a conversation with them and rest my foot on the seat suggestively. The subway cars are ancient, like from the early 20th century.

There is a large group of people from the Middle East or East Asia on the train. One of them appears to be a king or a man of high status. A handler comes over and asks us politely if we will move because the car we’re in is reserved for the king. I get very angry and shout at her that this is a public conveyance, open to all.

When I get home my father is very angry about the fact that they house is dirty. He is mopping the floor furiously. I take the mop away from him and take over the cleaning job. He tells me I need to accept that I know better, that I know how to do better than this.

I Often Dream Of Trains

I often dream of trains when I’m alone
I ride on them into another zone
I dream of them constantly
Heading for paradise
Or Basingstoke
Or Reading
I often dream of trains when I’m awake
They ride along beside a frozen lake
And there in the buffet car
I wait for eternity
Or Basingstoke
Or Reading
I often dream of trains till it gets light
The summer turns to winter overnight
The leaves fall so suddenly
The sun sets at four o’clock
Exactly what
I’m dreading
I often dream of trains when I’m with you
I wonder if you dream about them too
Maybe we’ll meet one night
Out in the corridor
I’m waiting for
You baby
Baby
Baby
Baby
Baby…

Robyn Hitchcock, I Often Dream of Trains, 1984

Hotel Stationery

I’m taking the subway with Alex and Kim to a a family reunion to see my father’s side of the family. I have a bicycle and start to ride it once we get off the train, and I ride it all the way, even inside the buildings.

The family reunion is taking place in a conference center and I walk down a number of hallways to find it. My uncle Fred says he saw my mother downtown recently and she had a booger on her shirt. Fred and Eleanor seem to believe that it came from my father, as he was prodigious in this department.

I go to the hotel (on the bicycle) and sit down to write a letter. I want to write a letter to Hopkins High School asking for some help with an environmental issue in Russia. I hope that they will read the letter and remember me. I choose a piece of hotel stationery and start to write, but I don’t get very far before realizing that I should type the letter instead of handwriting it. I go to take another sheet of stationery and I realize that all the pages are different. Some are at least 50 years old, and some are brightly colored, like origami papers. I choose the most professional looking paper and feed it into an ancient manual typewriter.

Subway from the UWS

I’m in a library and a boy is flirting with me. I’m not sure about him but he’s persistent.

I go with him to his apartment. It’s on the outskirts of town (aka the Upper West Side.)

I get there and I can see his apartment like it’s an architectural
drawing, or a floor plan like the Sims or a dollhouse, an omniscient
view. The look of it is very modern.

His (ex) girlfriend still lives there, it turns out they used to
live together. She has moved all her stuff into another part of the
apartment, but they are still living together. He tries to tell me that
it’s okay and I should just ignore her, but this situation is obviously
stupid. He comes off as sounding like an asshole and I realize I was
right to be suspicious of him.

I leave and plan to take the subway home. As I am walking I realize
I have lost my white coat, but then I realize I have lost my green
backpack, but then it turns out that only my wallet and keys are
missing from the backpack. I have no money and no way to contact anyone
because my cell phone is gone too, so I have no way to get home. Then I
realize that I have the metrocard I just used and I should be able to
get back on the train.

The subway station is sort of like a mall. The main corridor ends at
an elevator and there is a sign like a mall directory that explains
where to go. I am trying to take the 1 train back downtown to my
office. I am reading the sign and trying to figure out why it says I
have to take the L or the G to connect to the 1, when I know the 1
should just go directly from the UWS.

Helen’s party

I’m with Helen at her apartment, we’re hanging out and talking. Helen lives in a part of Manhattan that’s like a beach, there are little strips of fancy beachfront property like in LA or Florida.

The afternoon goes by more and more people show up. It turns into a party. A man is there and he forces me to suck his cock, it’s very large and I don’t want to do it.

I realize I’ve been at Helen’s for a long time. I feel guilty that the dog has been alone for so long.

I go home on the subway, which is like a big swooping rollercoaster.