2004-05-16 - 8:18 p.m.
trouble in transit: a crash course in brooklyn (friday, may 14th)
7:30am. oversleep. miss opportunities for cheap train and bus. cab it to 30th street, hitch a ride with amtrak. kabbitz on phone w/ j. edward about reasons for oversleeping, namely, stalking reality teevee starlets into the worst places in town.
9:44am. arrive at penn station. take the A train (hey, that's a song). attendent tells me to take it to jay st./borough hall to transfer to the F. underground there, i ask a transit cop to confirm that i want to be going in the direction of coney island. two cops pull out their little maps and tell me the stop i want isn't on this line. i walk up to get some reception, call the first lady i'm supposed to maybe live with soon. "they're wrong," she says. "i live here." well, i don't know you. find a big map that proves the cops have it all wrong. they walk up to me as i wait and show me how, oops!, their maps only show half the line. they learned something too! take the F train to ft. hamilton parkway. welcome to kensington.
11:06am. wait for the F train for 15 minutes. have been told to transfer to the N at 4th avenue. i didn't know NYC had elevated subway lines. i space out and miss the 4th avenue stop. get off at next stop, turn back around. at 4th avenue, try to transfer to N, though it seems N only comes by late nights . . . there's a problem with some other train. instructed to take the W, which i can also take to queens. i am content with that and wait for the W. i wait for the W until the time of my appointment in queens, which i'm clearly not making. call to cancel. decide queens is too much a of a hassle to get to anyway, at least from brooklyn. walk back to the F train at 4th avenue and take it to 14th st. pick up the L. get off at bedford avenue. welcome to williamsburg.
12:30pm. wander around looking for bulletin boards, lunch, coffee, toilets. meet up w/ friend. walk down bedford to to south williamsburg(?), asking for directional confirmation from various folks along the way. find good cheap pizza and little else while waiting for next person i'm supposed to maybe live with. this man gives us a ride back up bedford. welcome to the south side.
3:00pm. figure out which road leads under the BQE. lament the lack of a grid. weave through packs of schoolchildren. find a place to live. give stranger lots of checks. make some phone calls. unintentionally make a giant loop to find the subway. take the L back to manhattan. welcome to the east village.
5:15pm. allow friend to deftly navigate the combination of letters and numbers and streets and avenues to the library bar, an instant favorite of mine for fairly obvious reasons. take L back to brooklyn in search of BBQ. welcome back to wililamsburg.
7:00pm. consult map, get baby buds, and call car service. calls are needed en route to find location of BBQ. welcome to ft. greene.
10:06pm. miss last train to philly. remain at BBQ.
1:30am. get shooed out of BBQ. arrangements are made to get friends back on subways to manhattan. the rest of us start walking or biking towards the next house. flag down a car service car. welcome back to williamsburg.
noon. wake up with pinkeye. get coffee & egg sandwiches to eat in ghetto park. observe freight liners cruising down the east river. observe police helicopter fly underneath the wililamsburg bridge. am once again told to take the dragon bus to philly. once again decide against it. go to take L back to manhattan. train down. take shuttle bus to the J. another elevated line, which enables me to continue to make phone calls and send text messages cancellling party on account of infectious disease. take J into lower east side, transfer to the 2. get to penn station. fall asleep on train. crusty eyes. welcome to philadelphia.
