Don’t Hog the Pole

This past weekend, I had the privilege of celebrating many birthdays. There were the 2 Motzash parties-where I got to come up with some new moves that I had been working on for quite some time now. And then Sunday there was a make your own pizza party! One would think the weekend can’t get any better than that-but wait….after the party I got sleep in apt #B55, a cherry on top of a lovely weekend.
This morning I rode on the A train. It’s a slushy day outside but not too cold, so no complaints. I don’t really mind standing on the train, sometimes I enjoy it, especially because Monday I have back to back classes from 8-2, so I will be sitting for a couple hours. Now there are 3 kinds of subway people that bother me.
1) Door Blockers-The people that insist on standing in front of the door, and make it their Makom (spot) for the duration of the trip. That means every time new people come on, they either move to the side forcing incoming straphangers to walk in single-file formation.
2) Impatient Pushers-These are the people who get on the train before letting the people in the train get off. Aren’t they listening when the conductor yells “let ‘em off”? I mean it’s only gonna make it more annoying on the pusher. And when the pushers and the doorblockers get together it cause utter chaos.
3) Pole Hogger- I find this to be the worst and most common of the 3. This is the person that thinks they are a good samaritan by letting others sit, or simply don’t have a seat. At this point in the trip, the train is not quite packed, but it’s getting there, and this person is leaning on the pole with their back. This prevents other standers from holding on and in rare cases can lead to a domino effect.
After pondering this while standing and switching from all of these locations on the train, I get off and walk in the slush to school. I was running 10 minutes late but I felt entitles to a 15 minute cushion because it a Monday, at 8 am and a snow day. On my way, I bump into this girl from my class who informed me that class was canceled. Guess I could have sat on the subway after all.