Observations on the Train

Maybe it's just that I spend a lot of time commuting, but lately that people have become really rude as they ride the rails to and from Manhattan. Suddenly, the space that's usually taken up by my morning coffee klatch, or the four old men playing a mean round of poker, has been filled with tourists, little kids, students and others who haven't taken a course in commuting 101. Take the student I sat across from last week. As I barely made the 5:48pm express, I squeezed through the aisles desperately searching for a seat and noticed that the four seater had two available seats whose only inhabitants were a laptop computer bag and a knapsack. When I looked over to see who was hogging the seats, I realized it was this young college kid who obviously doesn't ride the train that often. I asked him to move his stuff so I could sit down and he actually had the nerve to look at me and say, "Can't you just sit somewhere else?" I squeezed into the seat and then looked across to find a woman dropping off a baby stroller with her husband than dashing out off the train...probably for a much needed mom's night out. The baby was actually pretty well behaved, so I was impressed with the effortless hand-off between this commuter couple. Then there was the complete gross out situation. It was the end of a long day, most of the seats were occupied and I looked across a four seater to see a man who was pretty disheveled, sitting with a computer on his lap and his shoes completely off. That wouldn't have been as offensive if the man didn't proceed to put his feet on the seat in front of him where I normally sit with my girlfriends every single morning. EWWWW...my 8:48 am commute will never be the same.