After getting out of training at 5:30pm and escorting the cutie I was with to her train, I decided to soak up all that NYC, and more specifically Grand Central, had to offer. I arrived at around 6:15 or so and the next train was scheduled to leave at 6:43 with trains running every 60 mins after that. I was bumped around the main concourse and accidentally got in more pictures than when I purposely Waldo-bombed photogs at ComicCon. I had soaked up so much of the station that I needed to soak in a vat of penicillin.
There is an Apple Store right in Grand Central so I decided to forgo the 6:43 and check out the latest devices. At 7pm, the Apple Store closed and I really hadn’t factored it into my planning so I hoofed it uptown to the iconic 24 hour 5th Ave Apple cube Store. I figured 20 minutes up and 20 minutes back with about 5 minutes at the store would give me 3 minutes to catch the train and I was in good shape and my planning gave me a really great ROI, meaning Ridiculously Outlandish Idea.
There is an Apple Store right in Grand Central so I decided to forgo the 6:43 and check out the latest devices. At 7pm, the Apple Store closed and I really hadn’t factored it into my planning so I hoofed it uptown to the iconic 24 hour 5th Ave Apple cube Store. I figured 20 minutes up and 20 minutes back with about 5 minutes at the store would give me 3 minutes to catch the train and I was in good shape and my planning gave me a really great ROI, meaning Ridiculously Outlandish Idea.
The Cube was just as I had remembered it with the Gorilla Glass spiral stairs and hundreds of people enjoying all that is Apple. At 7:23, I hung a U-ski, secured the Thule sling pack, currently holding all of my Apple toys, and pointed my Docs south. I was on marathon pace and after taking the 45th St north entrance to the station through the Pan Am Met Life building, I arrived at gate 35 just in time to see my train pull out of the station. I ran after it in slow motion, quite literally, after blowing out my ankle in a kickball game two nights earlier. I probably could have hopped on but there was still the challenge of getting the doors open. I found myself standing on the platform like the protagonist in the cliched movie of your choice.
This gave me another hour to reset myself and relax before the next train. I found myself a sweaty mess from the brisk walk and I descended to the restroom one level down because a train station bathroom is where you go when you want to freshen up. I peed and Febreezed and Old Spiced and brushed and spit, but not necessarily in that order. Then I grabbed my Moleskine and tried to figure out what to write about.
I had a few false starts and never really got going which is how it usually goes anyway. At 8:30pm, I headed to track 36 and the placard that stated ‘Poughkeepsie’ 45 minutes earlier was now blank. Our growing mob trucked it to the main concourse where, for some odd reason, and I never really have found anything odd at Grand Central, there were three hundred or so people just milling around (or is it mulling?).
At 8:34pm, it was announced that the 8:34 to Stamford was boarding on track 36 which was where I was coming from. There was a moment, like in tornado movies when few people thought they were out of harms way but then the tornado turned towards them. I really had no time to run so I covered what George Carlin called The Four Key Areas.
When the dust had settled, I uncurled from the ball I was in and found that what was left of my dignity was on the Stamford bound train. It was then that an announcement came over revealing that my train was now boarding at gate 26. This time I joined the stampede and it was fortunate that I had to go that way as I really didn’t have a choice. We got to the platform and there was no train. I stood there looking at the track as if my staring could make it arrive. That night, I got to cross four things off my bucket list.
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Posted By Blogger to Psychotic Bumblings at 9/29/2013 10:09:00 PM
