Different

Today is different, as I'm off to the Jersey office. I still need to take the A, but I'm heading all the way downtown to the World Trade Center and from there onto the PATH to Jersey City.

I stroll into the A station and notice right away that the homeless guy, his girlfriend, his cart, and even his chair are all gone. It's probably no coincidence that there is a police officer stationed here today. I walk through the turnstile and down to the platform, and find a seat on one of the benches. There's aren't too many people here, which means I've just missed a train.

Nomi G. walks over to say hi and startles me as I'm typing emails on my blackberry. We chat for a moment but she needs to go say the morning prayers. Headphone Guy walks by just as she's leaving. He's really Eli D. but in my head I call him Headphone Guy because I see him on the subway all the time wearing cartoonishly large headphones. They are noise cancelling headphones, and undoubtedly good ones, but they are too big for anyone smaller than Andre the Giant. I'd like to suggest to him that he replace them with a good sound-blocking headset, which will work just as well and is far more attractive. It surprises me that today he is not wearing his headphones.

I board the train and find a seat. Next to there is a man with a button down shirt and brown pants. His eyebrows are extraneously thick for a man his age. He is holding a newspaper, which he does not read, and a thermos, which is open but from which he does not drink. Only when we reach 125th Street does he finally screw the lid back on, fold the paper, and exit the train.

The man with the thick eyebrows is replaced by an adorable little boy with dark skin and neatly cropped hair. He is wearing a tuxedo shirt, with black pants and shiny black shoes. His white sox, adorned with thin black stripes, would seem out of place on any adult in the same outfit but for the little boy it simple adds cuteness.

I am finally on the PATH train. I like the PATH, even though I often get confused finding the right track, because it is cleaner than the NYC subway and less crowded during my commute. The other thing I like about the PATH is that I've never run into anyone I know on the PATH and it provides 15 minutes of guaranteed solace. Or at least it used to. Headphone Guy, still sans headphones, is sitting just a few seats over.