Mathoms, etc.

Happy new year! In a bid to be a more cheerful person, I will spit out my venom now on the first day of the year. I had a friend visiting for the holiday so I pretty much spent the weekend in the city. My love-hate relationship with Manhattan can change at any given time.

I love taking the Metro North especially the other night when the conductor had a little poem for every stop (Ring-ading-ding, this is Ossining...Don't go bonkers, next stop is Yonkers...you get the drift.) I hate people putting their stuff on the seats or taking up more space than they need to, especially when the train is full. Where do they think they are? Their living room? I love the convenience of the subways and yet I hated A) all the people standing around by the turnstiles or the ticket booths while I was rushing to get on the next subway. B) The group of girls standing by the door and as the doors closed, pushed me in when clearly there was plenty of space. They didn't even apologize and kept giggling. C) People (mostly women and teenagers)making a whole lot of noise, singing or carrying on, drawing attention to themselves. I love walking around Midtown but hate all the tourists coming to a dead stop in the middle of the road or the sidewalk, looking up and not watching where they're going. I couldn't believe it when we were walking around the Upper West Side and this black man tells me and my friend"Whatyou all doing up here?" as he walked past us. What did that even mean? Asians?

The worst was when we were trying to go to Virgin Megastore at 5 pm on New Year's Eve. He wanted to buy DVDs but both of us failed to realize that the store would be closing early. Streets were obviously barricaded for the festivities. He kept asking cops how to get to the store. Each cop pointed us towards a different direction until one actually said the store was closed already. Why didn't the other cops tell us that? And then trying to reach the subway to get out of the madness...oy vey! Once again, EVERY police officer told us different and twice the way was closed. I hate crowds and I never imagined I would find myself on Times Square at that time.

To top it off, after I took my friend to the airport today, I stopped at a service area to re-fuel and get some food. Before I left the parking lot, I was reading a text message and the woman driver next to me hits my car door to get into her van. Did she NOT see my car right next to her? I glared at her and then she apologized. I get out to check if there was any damage and a male companion of her steps outside then glares at ME. WTF?

It's going to be a LONG road to serenity and positivity.