Trains

If I do not qualify for New Yorker status after today's commute, I don't know what will give me New Yorker status at all. Mass transit - can we say mass chaos? (I bet that has been used time after time but I'm helping myself right to it). This morning we awoke to quite the City lightning and thunderstorm. A little after 6 (painful to actualize that we wake up that early) Craig announced to me that he thought it best, per the Eye Witness News anchors, that we wait out the storm and leave a little later. No problem by me, bucko - I'm in no mad rush to get to work, ever! So, a little after 7, then, we left the apartment and headed in somewhat dry conditions by that time to 86th Street. There we boarded a 6 Local train almost immediately (thankfully, seeing as the heat had already managed to reach late 90's-ish). Typically we take the 4 or 5 Express but our instinct told us Express trains, much lower underground than our 6 Local, might be delayed for wet conditions. So our 6 reached 77th Street and the doors of the cars stayed open for a few minutes. An announcement was made that due to flooding conditions at 23rd Street, trains would be experiencing certain delay. So, as New Yorkers will do, we exited that train and decided to walk to 59th Street to scope out the N to Queensboro. At 59th we were dismayed to learn that N trains and W trains were not running either. At this point, our only option really was to walk to Grand Central Station. And so we experienced the walk from 77th all the way to 45th, where we picked up a 7 train and along the way we learned that next to no trains were running in Manhattan due to weather. As we speak, the MTA is beginning their eternally-seeming length 2nd Avenue Subway construction, which means the need exists for this line because 11 million people use mass transit as is. So one can only imagine what it's like in the City of New York when trains aren't running. Think MTA strike lasting 3 days a year and a half ago or so. Sheer hysteria. But what is that thing I love so dearly about New York (one of several zillion things, that is...)? New Yorkers power through. They just keep on going. Trains are down? Fine, we'll all walk 60 blocks to work. And so it goes...we arrived to work around 9.30 this morning, sweaty, tired and having managed to fit in a couple of hours of exercise!*More recap of the cousins' adventures to come. Meanwhile, tonight I'm making my favorite Asian brown rice for my lunch tomorrow (with black beans and tomatillo salsa) followed by our dinner of roasted red pepper chicken and creamy parmesan whole wheat orzo (and asparagus, which I deftly manage to sneak in every single night because asparagus and I love each other). It's proving to be quite a busy week at work, and I feel as though my evenings are reduced to kitchen time only these days. I love it, don't get me wrong. But because of the snail pace at which I function, particularly after a long work day, by the time the kitchen is cleaned, dinner is cooked, the kitchen is re-cleaned and leftovers are stashed away, I'm pretty well beat. Maybe tomorrow night will be leftovers night.*I heart you, New York, even if you turned my morning upside down.