Today is a hodgepodge of adventure writing. Above is the youtube video for my first Vlog entry. I have joined the Vlog Poets, a group of poets posting youtube videos for an entire year speaking on different poetry topics. More info found here: http://projectvideobard.com/  So check it out! Poetry is still living and breathing.

On to my cheap/free adventuring…Sarah found a deal at a drug store for 4 Coca-Cola 12 packs for $10. They usually sell for about $5-6 a pop (no pun intended, well maybe a little bit). Unfornatly, the nearest location was about a mile from my apartment, with no convenient subway route. So we headed out in the rain with our rolling suitcases and backpacks to get our deal.

In the store, it was a bit of a struggle to get everything to the check out without leaving a bag or case behind. I could only fit three in my suitcase, but that’s what the backpacks were for. We tried to avoid the main streets heading back, not that anyone found us walking with suitcases strange. Adventures in the name of saving money!

Rome, August 2008

Again, the above picture is unrelated to the following anecdote. Even though I ride the MTA subway system nearly everyday, it has been awhile since I have done a morning commute into the city. Today was epic. To get to my assignment, I had to take three different trains. First, the infamous G train, the one subway line that does not actually connect to Manhattan. It really would be so bad except that at my station, the train stops half way down the platform. On the opposite side of where I enter.

As I swiped in, a trained started to come into the station. I could either walk and wait for who knows when the next train would come, or bust a run for it. I went with running down the platform, in heels. Just as I made it to the the last door of the last car, the conductor looked to his left (away from me), and closed the train doors. Luckily he looked back right, saw me, and opened them again. One train down.

On to the L train, one of the craziest commuter trains. In the morning the cars are always over capacity. Nothing too eventuful happened this morning. I did not fall on anyone. Then, I finally made it to Union Square, hundreds of us are exiting. I actually had the feeling I was being swept up the stairway to the next train.

The Uptown Six! The other Green train. As I am walking down the stairs to it, I can see it sitting in the station. I could almost make it, but everyone is exiting towards me. Again, the doors are shutting right as I get up to it, but the guy in front of me Hulks out on the doors and pries them open, leaving enough room for me to slip in behind him.

All that, and I still made it to my destination early.

Quote of the Day:

“I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can’t do anything anyway”- Toni Morrison