I Can't Stand (in) The Rain

The democrats have control of the House and possibly the Senate (it's tied at the very least, although the Shuler/Tester/Casey democrat is basically a repulican by another name), Rumsfeld is gone (I'll blink when someone shoves him in front of a war crimes tribunal.) Interesting. I don't blog much on electoral politics, and I won't start now, but this seems worth acknowledging.

I was supposed to meet a friend from high school at the corner of 242nd street and Broadway on the edges of Riverdale and Van Cortlandt Park, where a decade ago I used to do things like hang out with my friends after school, drink Jamaican Ginger Beer, and run cross country. (Shut up.)

The block's changed, but not that much - although Character's Deli is now a diner called Mr. D's and there's a Dunkin Donuts where one of those bodegas used to be on Broadway that everyone would play X-Men Vs. Streetfighter at after school -- right where the Bx9 stops on its way to Kingsbridge and on to Fordham Road and East Tremont.

My friend never showed, and I wound up standing in the pouring rain, watching Horace Mann kids ditch school and walk up the steps to the elevated subway platform. I thought about walking up the hill and getting food, but it was miserable out and as musch as there are probably teachers up there I'd like to say hi to, there are also reasons i haven't been back in almost half a decade and if i do go up there I don't really feel like doing it alone, and I have no interest in a nostalgia trip which obscures all the pain and loss of these last few years - L, etc. I don't know if I'm making sense to myself right now, so excuse me if I'm dealing in esoterica.

So I got back on the 1, transfered at 168th (the 1/9 platform at that station is probably my favorite station on the MTA, with it's DC-style arched ceilings and globular gaslights. It feels very steampunk.)

The NYU Law School has a coatroom where someone is paid to sit and take your coat. I found this out when i went in there to pee after getting off the A at West 4th. So this is what NYU spends its resources on ebsides busting unions, buying real estate, and strawberries. A private university in the public service, folks.

I'm hungry.