3.02.05

L - Train (1st Ave. Station) - It was 8:15am(an hour or so ago) as I was walking down the stairs towards the subway and I could hear someone yapping away at the guy in the ticket/token/metrocard booth. "You best be staying awake! Don't think I didn't see you sleeping on the job...back there in your cozy booth. That's right, I know what's up." Everyone, including the booth guy looked at him like he was insane...because, well, he is insane. He had a bounce to his step as he headed towards the entrance. Not your typical up and down bounce. This guy was bouncing side to side like he was a boat struggling to keep from capsizing. He didn't stop babbling as he passed through the gate.

I got a look at his face and the most prominent feature was the alcoholic nose. He was most likely quite drunk. I, like most people who have been in NYC for more than a few months, do not get surprised by these types of things. Instead of asking myself, "Oh good lord, is that man drunk at 8am?" as most people would do...I find myself thinking, "I wonder if he's just heading home after a very long night of drinking or if he got up at 6am and had Bourbon with his Wheaties. I really hope this guy isn't going to be operating any heavy machinery" The random thoughts go on and on, so I'll stop for now.

I'm walking about 10 feet behind him as he goes to wait for the L-Train in a very crowded station and he's still babbling. Most of it is incoherent until I get a little closer and hear him saying "That's right people. New York is a bad place. You have to be a tough mother f'r to survive here. And I'm a tough mother f'r! That's right. Blah blah blah blah blah."

Tough, probably not. High, maybe. Drunk, most likely. Asshole, definitely.

This is the East Village, so such things are nothing new...in fact, he probably wasn't the first maniac that most of these people had seen this morning. As I walked out of earshot of this guy I say to my roommate, "This is one of the reasons I love NYC. It's one of the only places in the world where a lunatic can talk to himself for 45 minutes and still have 2,000 people listen to him."