Monday, July 14, 2008

Too Old for Old Navy

For those who don't know I'm turning 30 this year. I've felt like I'm getting older, especially since I work with the youth group at church, but I don't really feel like I'm old. And ever since I started working around the broadcast media set I've found myself wanting to dress nicer. I used to only work around computer programmers who typically don't care about their appearance and show up wearing shorts and black socks or even wizard robes, Dungeons & Dragons style. So I've been trying to look nicer by wearing button-up shirts but I still love to wear my jeans. 

Since Old Navy opened in 1994 I've been buying jeans there because they are up to date and affordable. I even bought jeans from there when they went through the painter and carpenter jeans fad. So I needed some new jeans and I went to Old Navy to get the same pair I've been buying for a couple of years, the boot-cut dark denim jeans. I find the boot-cuts and I go into the dressing room because I'm actually smart enough to try stuff on before I buy it even if they're the "same" as what I'm wearing. Lucky I did because they must have gone to low-riders this season. I put them on and immediately I can tell they don't fit the same. The crotch on those things was about 2 inches shorter and I felt like my butt-crack was hanging out while I was standing up straight. 

That was that for me, I'd had enough. I gave the jeans to the glaring 16-year-old employee who seems to think I'm going to hide a pair up my shirt and I walked out. I've been shopping at Old Navy since I was a teenager and I'm not a teenager anymore. So I'll leave Old Navy to the those kids who can pull off the low-rider girl-cut skinny jeans. I mean how much Bohemian crap can one store sell?

So now I shop where other grown-ups buy their clothes and one day, maybe soon, I'll even give up wearing jeans to the office.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Blockbuster Video

I have a Blockbuster online account that mails videos right to my house for a "low monthly fee." The cool part is that I get unlimited trade-in's at the stores. So when I'm done with whatever video I've been watching I trade it in.

This morning I went to the Blockbuster video and noticed a guy standing outside smoking. I thought to myself, "that guy looks like a rocker" and said to my wife, "is that a two headed moose on that guy's shirt?" My wife asks me, "is that Rob Thomas?" I said, "it kind of looks like him. He lives around here somewhere. Probably not though."

He kept looking around as if to see if anyone was watching him and I said, "maybe it IS Rob Thomas." I wondered what kind of car Rob Thomas might drive thinking sports car of some sort. The guy left with a 10-year-old kid in a 700 series BMW and I thought, "he wouldn't drive a Beemer, and does he have a kid?"

So I get home and Wikipedia says that he has a son named Maison and he's 10 years old. Then I look at some pictures on Getty Images from two weeks ago, looks like the guy I saw. Then the clincher, Wikipedia entry for the town says he lives there.

I guess you never can tell who you might run into at Blockbuster video on a Saturday morning in upper Westchester county.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Riding the train ... again

When you work in Manhattan there are only so many options of how to get to work. You could drive, but with gas rising to $4.35 a gallon and then tolls and parking you don't get much of a cost benefit to drive alone. Public transportation is the way to go. So you find yourself getting that ticket and standing on the platform waiting for the silver bullet to come around the bend.

Every morning you end up waiting with those same people you see everyday. There's the quirky guy with a goatee who is always in shorts with sneakers and black socks and likes to hold his coffee and do lunges. Then there's the 60-year-old businessman whose hair blows straight up in the air when a train comes by. Some sit and read the paper, others smoke, and sometimes they talk to each other.

You strategically place yourself in that prime position to get your favorite seat in your favorite car. I prefer the last car on the way into the city because it puts me close to stairs in Grand Central. So I walk to the end of the platform and stand right on the stenciled words "Watch the gap" where the doors usually stop. When the train pulls up you shuffle up to the door that stopped further away then you thought but someone else got to it first and you stand there waiting to see if the doors will open before people start shoving.

The doors open and you go in and see if your prime seat is empty. It is and you sit down and get out your laptop, bottle of water and headphones because if you don't someone will inevitably talk to you. At first you're alone, nobody likes to sit together if they can avoid it. Slowly people add to your row and by the time the train is halfway to Manhattan your knees are being bumped and you are being elbowed. Luckily the train is now express and won't be picking up anyone else. Somewhere along the line the conductor comes around and looks at your ticket.

Once the train gets to Grand Central people are already lining up to get out. The doors open and it's hot in Grand Central... at least 95 degrees in the summer time, and you breathe in diesel exhaust from the older trains.

You shove your way out of the car and cue up at the stairs to get out. Once you're down the stairs it's a free for all, people practically race each other on the way up to the street. Why? Not really sure. But one thing is sure, it happens every day.

You make your way to work, stay your 8 hours (or 6 if you're like me and work both ways on the train) and then once you're finished you get to start the trek home.

On the way home it's more exciting. The people are stressed out from their hard day making money, suing people, collecting excessive fees, you name it. They have drink carts outside the platforms so the businessmen are now bringing tallboys onto the train. This sometimes leads to problems on the train.

Example: A guy is standing and the conductor comes by asking for tickets. He says he doesn't have one and the conductor says "ok, $14." The guys says "wait" and fumbles for an id and shows that he is disabled so the conductor says, "Ok, $6." The guy says "I don't have any money" and the conductor asks for his ID to write him a ticket. So the guy who is disabled and a little drunk starts making a scene. "Why are you hassling me? I'm disabled because of Metro-North and a judge made them pay me $25,000!!" He goes on and on and people on the train start yelling at him to shut up and he won't. All he says is, "how dare you say I have no money, I have a $300,000 condo!! How dare you!!" Eventually the MTA Police pick him up at a station and arrest him.

So the evening commute is more fun and more crowded. I sit in one of two places on the train and see a lot of the same people. For some reason, at my stop there happen to be a lot of impatient people. They start lining up at the door two stops before and stand in the way to make sure that they will be the first one off. Then once the doors open they race each other up the stairs. Why? They are wealthy and self-important and feel like if they don't get up the stairs and to their car first they will have to wait for the others before they can leave.

So the trek into the city and home is over. Now you can relax but one thing is for certain tomorrow it starts all over again. Such is the life of a commuter on the Metro-North Railroad.