No Crying on the E train

You know that feeling when you walk onto an airplane and you happen to have the seat right next to a bouncing, smiling 3 year old? That feeling of "oh yea, you are so cute now, but 100 feet up into the air, I might want to put a sock in your mouth." There is no difference from that feeling to the feeling of seeing a 3 year old on the E train when there is a 30 minute commute ahead.

I haven't been riding the subway around rush hour the past few weeks due to my extreme effort to have a social life. Typically, I have been leaving work around 5:30, to get to either a boxing class or a sports conditioning class (getting myself back into some sort of shape)- after working out (around 7ish), I have been meeting friends for dinner or meeting at their apartments to hang out and watch TV. Well, with spending so much time in the city, laundry has taken a back seat in the level of importance. Now knowing that, it has been about 2 1/2 weeks since I have washed any clothes, so my time was up, I needed to get some clean clothes.

But back to the screaming 3 year old. The reason I was on the E train during rush hour was because I needed to do laundry.

The train doors opened, I entered with about 10 others and we all saw the same sight and all had that thought of 'oy' when we saw the bounding, laughing, pink cheeked 3 year old. Without fail, the second the train doors slid closed, the once happy 3 year old, let out a scream about 5 times louder than my i-pod. This type of screaming is lethal. The only person I felt more sorry for than all 50 passengers (including myself), was the child's dad. He looked not only embarrassed because he couldn't control his child, but tortured. It can easily be assumed this type of screaming is typical for him.

At the end of the 30 minute ride, the gateways to silence opened. My stop finally came and finally the ringing in my hears subsided. Not a second too soon. My laundry got done and I actually ate a home made meal (made by me, my aunt doesn't really enjoy cooking)- all done with an echo in my hear.

Lesson Learned:

next time I see a small child on the subway, no matter if there is a cute guy or the president in the car, I will switch trains. The headache is not worth it- at all.

Peace, Love and Quite Subway Rides,

B