4 March 2008
I Beat The Woman On The Train
I don't mean physically.
Psychologically.
I was riding the 7 train home from work today and I was lucky enough to get a seat. I found myself sandwiched in between two women, one young and one a bit older.
Now, my nose starts to get a little runny in the cold weather. I can't help it. And I still haven't remembered to carry around tissue during my commute, so I guess I was sniffling a bit as I sat down next to these two women. After one relatively loud sniffle, the older woman turned to me and said, "would you like tissue?"
And I said, "No, thanks, I'm cool," even though I did kind of want a tissue.
And she snorted and said, "We'll see" as if I was about to infect her with some horrible disease.
And I thought to myself, "You know what? Fuck this woman. I'm going to show her. I'm not going to sniffle again until I get off this train."
Fortunately, my stop was only three stops away and so this plan of action was incredibly possible.
So we sat. I with my backpack between my legs and her with sixth grade writing technique book. And even though she was (supposedly) intently reading that book, I knew, just knew, that she was waiting for me to sniffle again.
But I didn't. I read the advertisements that are plastered along the top parts of the train (correction for hammer toe surgery!). I turned toward the younger girl and tried to see what music she was listening to on her iPod. I occasionally touched my hand to my nose. But I did not, by God, sniffle.
I made it to my stop. The doors opened and I darted out as fast as I could and when my foot hit the platform I wiped the everliving bejesus out of my nose. And then I snorted it all back up there as loud as I could.
And as I walked down the stairs to my next train I thought to myself, "So we did see, didn't we?"
Oh yes, woman on the train, we saw.
I can't say for certain how it must felt for her to see me walk off that train having never snorted my nose again. I can only imagine that it felt a lot like losing.
Cause for me, it felt a whole lot like winning.
hyalineskies
We’re not men…No we’re not men.