Emchap's Shit from the Internet 12/13/17 🍠
Today, on my half-mile walk from Herald Square to my office, the windchill felt like 14 degrees and I nearly slipped on water or spit or piss that had frozen into a horrible little blob on the sidewalk. This was after I was greeted by a backed-up train platform for Reasons (never established; at least yesterday there was an announcement about an attempted terrorist attack).
On my commute home from Grand Street, there was a crowd of people on the platform again. The sign said that a D train would be coming in 11 minutes, and another one 15 minutes after that. There was no sign of the B train, which was the train I needed. I took to Twitter to figure it out, and learned that B train service had stopped for a while, that the MTA said it had started back up an hour before I wound up at Grand, and that a Whole Lot of people on Twitter looking for phantom B trains didn't believe them.
I took the D to Atlantic (the second; the first was too full to get on to), on the assumption that I'd transfer over to the Q, which goes to the stop three tenths of a mile from my apartment. The Q platform was packed, and the station had moved over to manual announcement rather than prerecorded, and people were having audible, angry, one-sided conversations with the person making them. Eventually I gathered that there was a stalled train on the Q line, which was a different issue than what had happened with the B related to signal failure. I waited for 15 minutes, and eventually a B train (they had apparently seen the tweets) arrived. It was too full to board, so I let it go and waited until the second B train two minutes later. Then I walked home in the feels-like-19-degree weather, where I opened my mailbox and discovered a jury summons.
New York is recently a very frustrating place for me to be even as I've finally found routines and people that I love.
Shit to read
I love plum twitter and I love this article explaining it.
My family is not religious, and when we go home all we talk about are our running groups and bootcamps and weightlifting gyms and unicorn magic bodyweight exercises. This look at fitness classes as secular churches resonated.
As much as I'm complaining about my commute, the ones described here for low-wage workers are horrifying.
I have enjoyed my temporary New York respite from highway driving, and enjoyed this exploration of memory and highways.
As someone who just recently left a job at an emotionally intense workplace, it's been interesting trying to see which work friendships are genuine and which involve not talking about work and which I have much more strongly complicated feelings about than I was willing to admit previously. I don't know that I agree entirely with Nicole's "burn it down, walk away" suggestions here, but the deep emotional connections engendered by the kinds of workplaces in which I have operated absolutely have caused both myself and others to wind up making choices that run counter to our own best interests.
This is a very old review of Girls and it came out of the Cat Person Thoughts, and I enjoyed it and its look at cruelty.
Speaking of which, I love r/relationships, so this made me howl.
Shit to eat
Decide one night that you are hungry enough post-gym that you will stop in not only the dumpling place, but the Chinese bakery right next to the train stop.
Wander in, realize that you appear to be the only person not working the counter who is under 50. (This will be true every other time you go, and will never stop being slightly confusing.)
Stare at the pastries and realize that you recognize very few of them, and that the fillings are all hidden inside so educated guesses on flavoring are out.
See that they sell fried sesame buns full of red bean paste, which you love and never get up the nerve to order in front of folks at dim sum because no one seems to like them as much as you do.
Order one, and when the cheerful 17-year-old taking your order says they are 3 for $1.50, go for the upsell.
Realize that unlike at the dim sum place, these are like the size of your fist.
(Not mad about it.)
Eat one for dessert and then another for greediness reasons, and realize you feel slightly ill.
Stick the last one in the fridge, next to the wilting dill, so that you can eat it before you have to run to the train in the cold tomorrow.
Shit to listen to
I've been listening to the Decemberists again recently ('tis the season!) and I had forgotten how much I like "Make You Better", which is Remarkably Restrained by the standards of the Decemberists canon.
Shit to buy
My pair of these loafers just arrived, and they look fantastic.
This is a neon sign that says "lit" which obviously I think is hilarious.
I love this lemon temporary wallpaper so much.