Track work

Anybody who lives in the city, and anyone who's visited, knows how dirty and awful the subways are. So dirty that you can't imagine what you would do if you ever dropped something on the track. Well that happened to me today. And it was not fun.

I was just listenin' to my i-pod, mentally preparing myself for my day at the crew. The train came to a stop at 42nd street and I got up to transfer subway lines. Somehow, and I have no idea how, my i-pod fell out of my pocket at just the exact moment that when it disconnected from my earphones it fell right down the crack between the subway door and the platform. It was like it happened in slow-motion; I saw it falling but couldn't do anything fast enough, and then I just stood there staring at my earphones swinging in the air. The people waiting to get on the train were clearly tourists and very concerned about what I would do. "We can see it", "Just wait for the train to leave.'' "Don't jump down there to get it". Are you kidding me, jump down there? In my work clothes? Not a chance.

I walked up the stairs to the booth and informed the extremely nice and helpful agent that I had dropped my i-pod and needed someones assistance to get it back. He made a call and I went back down to the very hot platform to wait for a guy with an orange vest to come help. He said it might be an hour. Even though it was super hot and I was starting to sweat way more than I would've liked, there was no way I was going to leave without music playing in my ears. If I wasn't there to show him exactly where it was then maybe he'd just give up and I'd be without an i-pod. Luckily he was there in about twenty minutes, grabbed it with his long pole with grabber fingers, and I was on my way.