Last Day of the Week

I head downstairs and on Bennett Avenue I see Shifra A. getting out of her black SUV. She is wearing a gray overcoat and stomping across the street in high decibel heels. She asks “what's up?” as I wave. Up ahead at the corner I see Sarah F.

At the station, I can hear the train approaching but continue my calm pace as others run towards it. I don’t reach it in time, but none of them do either. At the bottom of steps I see Doron S. with his little boy.

Isaac D. is also on the platform, fishing through his knapsack. He doesn't see me as I walk by towards my spot. When I get there, I find Yael B. right next to me and she says hello.

There is a soft saxophone playing at the far end of the platform. It is pleasant, but muffles an announcement about an approaching downtown train which was already difficult to hear.

Still On Time

I leave my apartment at 8:02 on the dot, just as soon as NY1's Weather on the Ones is over. My jacket hung open and toting a coffee filled Dixie cup, I walk down Bennett towards the train station.

I am pondering risqué Unix commands when Shifra A. drives by in her black SUV. Just waiting for the cars to pass so I can cross, I don't notice her until she waves.  At the entrance to the station, I see Avi C. He is a few feet ahead of me and I don't think he notices. I am friendly with his older brother and don’t really know him that well, but we spent much of last Sukkot together.

On the train, I sit across from a girl I recognize from synagogue. She has funky diamond-knit tights, a gray plaid skirt, and a puffy black coat. She looks utterly bored.

The woman next to me, reading "The Kite Runner," is pressing her right thigh against mine. I inch away slightly and notice the dirt stains on her white coat.  Just then, a new song comes on. "What's the meaning of life?" Gabriella Cilme asks me through my headphones. I start to wonder.

Columbus Ave. Breakfast

I am surprised when I leave my building and find the air has actually become chilly. There is a man dressed in the full traditional Jewish garb of Tallis and Phylacteries walking casually down the street. Except in synagogue, its unusual outside of ultra religious neighborhoods to see people dressed this way.

I reach the subway platform and it’s more crowded than usual. I quickly spot Benny S. Also on the platform is a couple that lives in my neighborhood. I don’t know them at all except that I often see them together on the subway. A few nights ago they had been in a fight on the way home, and finally as they were getting off I overheard her apologizing. Today, he is wearing a light blue t-shirt with camouflage army shorts and is carrying two large bags, one from Kenneth Cole. She is wearing gray pants, a black hooded sweater, and her dirty blond hair is propped up with sunglasses. He is tall with a big nose, she is short and her nose is small and cute. Her big brown eyes always look sad.

At 59th street I run into Shifra G. and Devora K. who are talking to a nice guy, introduced as Dave. Devora mentions that sometimes she follows my blog. They all live on the Upper West Side and when Miriam C. who lives near me in WaHi, joins us, we talk about how 59th street is a good rendezvous point for people from both neighborhoods. Shifra advocates meeting again tomorrow, and assigns each of us to bring coffee, orange juice, muffins and donuts.