Claustrophobia
Today is Monday, and while most people loathe Monday's, I don't necessarily mind them. I normally have my team's weekly "Monday morning meeting", at 9am, but today, since my boss is out of town, I didn't have to rush to be in before 9 am.
I walked into my subway, the 6 train, and noticed an unusual amount of people waiting...lovely! I waited and watched as two 6 trains came and went completely STUFFED with people. Finally, I was able to get on the 3rd train through the station. At this point, I knew I would be about 5 minutes late, but accepted it.
We fly to the 59th street stop, and sit at the station for about 5 minutes (4 1/2 minutes longer than normal). We then reach the 51st street station where the guy running the train tells us that we will be bypassing the next stop (42nd) street, and going straight to 33rd street. While I found this to be strange, I didn't mind since my stop was 33rd street. So, I watch as a hefty group of people get off the train on 51st street huffing and puffing because the train won't take them to 42nd street. We then depart the 51st street station. About 10 seconds into the departure, we stop. We are not at a stop, we are in the dark, in between stations. The man running the train has informed us that we are behind a lot of traffic. Everyone sighs, but we wait patiently.
Twenty minutes go by and we still haven't moved.... I've been stuck on a train at a stop for 15 minutes but never in between like this. The man running the train then says "We are bypassing 42nd street, due to a police investigation, we will be going to the 33rd street station. There is a lot of traffic, so we are waiting directly behind another train, please be patient". I feel the mood shift to a slight annoyance by the people on the train. I'm exhausted and want to pass out so bad, but I'm afraid of falling asleep on the train for fear that I will be mugged or drugged (yes, I'm paranoid).
The man running the train continues to repeat the above message every 5-7 minutes, until finally I looked at my clock and realized that we had been stuck in the same spot for over an hour. I have no service so I can't give my team any updates, and can't entertain myself on Facebook or Instagram. I am now getting fairly agitated. I'm thinking to myself "how difficult is it for trains to go through a station???? I just want to get off the train, I don't care where".
Well, my thoughts were answered when the man running the train notified us that we would be backtracking, going BACK to the 51st street station where people could get off. The trains were no longer running southbound therefore we had to get off. LOVELY!
So, I got off at the 51st street station, and walked until I got to work at 34th and madison (roughly 20 blocks, or over a mile). I know what people are thinking "um, why didnt you just get a cab?"; the last thing I wanted to do after being stuck underground for over an hour, is get in another form of transportation that I can't control. So, I walked until I got to work; extremely annoyed.
I decided to look up why it was that all of these trains went crazy this morning- a small article had already been uploaded to the internet.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/suspicious-package-reported-at-nyc-s-grand-central-terminal.html
They had stopped the trains because they found a backpack they thought was suspicious....and while I appreciate that the city is being so thorough with "checking suspicious packages" after all of the Boston drama...I feel they are being a little crazy. They stopped all trains going to and from the station, brought in the bomb squad and dogs; only to find out that this "suspicious backpack", was a backpack full of GARBAGE. So, even though I'm still a little annoyed by the stop, because of a back of garbage, at least I know the city takes "checking suspicious packages" seriously.
HAPPY MONDAY!