New Directions.

Sometimes, in life, things unexpectedly change. You can be headed down one path, blissfully happy with the direction you’re headed in, when BAM! Out of left field, and in my case, on the most gorgeous April day, you’re blindsided, and left spinning in circles. When you finally stop spinning, you realize you’re on a completely different path, blindly feeling you’re way towards a different direction. You feel uncertain about this new direction and maybe shell shocked. If you’re lucky, you’ll have friends and family help push you along as you figure out this totally unplanned route. Some days you move forward, some days you take a few steps back, but one thing is for certain, you learn to adjust whether you like it or not.

I’m not going to get into details or explain the above further. The Husband, Manny and I are on a different path. Thankfully, were on this different path together and at the end of the day, what more can you really ask for.

I haven’t written here in a really long time, and I thought maybe I was done. Until someone reached out and whispered, “I miss you…” (cough, Helen, cough) So here I am, thinking of something humorous to share.

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And what can be more humorous than the NYC subway system. Well, I’m sure fellow New Yorkers would find a more…colorful…word to describe it, but let’s go with humorous for now.

Up until last Tuesday, it hadn’t rained in my neck of the woods for three weeks. Then, one day. The Heavens opened up and it rained for most of the day. The rain drove the subway system into a complete tailspin causing delays the next morning due to flooding, signal problems, and whatever else. So, of course all this happens at the height of rush hour in the morning. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting on a subway car that’s not in any rush to get anywhere. The conductor made an announcement that because of train traffic (mmmm hmmm) we would be delayed, BUT, no fear! The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will now generate excuse notes for your inevitable lateness at your request! They will even send it via email to the supervisor of your choice.

Whaaaat?

Of course I had to go on the MTA website and check this out myself. So, I finally found a form and began filling it out. The form took me longer to fill out than the actual subway delay, but I persevered. There was a box on the form that said reason for delay. Oh boy. My initial thought was to write the following:

Well, MTA. The delay was because of a natural Act of God, called rain. It rained a total of 0.0002 inches for the entire month of June and half of July combined and the minute it does rain, -- and we are by no means talking about rain so bad we started building an ark, just so we’re clear - the subway system ceases to run. Flooding in the stations caused delays. Signal failure caused even more delays (by the way, MTA, I’m on to you….I know signal failure is MTA speak for who the F knows why we are running late today but lets just tell those poor saps something).

But I had a limited amount of space to describe said delays, so I simply put, subway delays due to rain. So, now that I filled out the form and gave all the pertinent information, I’m supposed to have an excuse note direct from the MTA.

I’m hoping the excuse note reads:

Please excuse my passenger, Gina A------, for being late. We suck.
Fondly,
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

See? Humorous.