In the Face of Adversity

Real New Yorkers have perfected blasé. Sure, there are the occasional outbursts and screaming matches, but they blow over quickly, generally with no hard feelings on either side. It's just a form of being direct and expressing real feelings without sugar coating anything. When things get really rough, New Yorkers bury their noses in their Post, Daily News, NY Times, or Wall Street Journal, and ignore whatever crisis is happening right next to them until it passes, or they reach their destination.

For instance, a tornado struck New York City on Wednesday during the morning commute. Personally, I love the NYT headline: "Tornado Hits Brooklyn; Subway Back in Service". It perfectly exemplifies the New York attitude in the face of adversity. "A tornado? Hmmm. Is my train going to be on time?" As if a tornado was not enough adversity, it also dropped 3 inches of rain in one hour, which naturally caused some flooding. A lot of flooding, actually. Our basement flooded and we didn't have hot water until Thursday evening. Which was fine, because in addition to the tornado and the flooding, it was one of the hottest days of the summer on Wednesday. Hot AND humid. For you Californians, this means that within 5 minutes of getting out of the shower and drying off, you are literally dripping with sweat. If you exert yourself AT ALL (climbing stairs, for instance), the sweat pools and soaks through your clothing. Shower and repeat. Forget about drying your hair.

The flooding also caused the subways and PATH trains to either shut down completely or be delayed by 20-30 minutes. This may not seem like a big deal, but picture this scene:

The usual "I have to be at work by 9:00am" crew files down into the PATH station at 8:30 to wait for their train, which will come within 5 minutes. The train is usually moderately crowded, but only a few people will have to stand. No train comes, and the next crew arrives at 8:35. And the next group arrives at 8:40. Still no train. The platform is getting a little crowded. By 9:00am, when the train finally pulls into the station, the platform and train are packed with approximately 5 times as many commuters as on a normal day, and it's about 105 degrees on the platform. There are a few mumbles and sighs, but most people just keep reading their papers and wedge themselves into the cars. Unbelievable.

I am facing my own adversity this week, and I am not quite as graceful about it. Erika has put me on a low-carb diet and in protest, I refuse to eat more than three bites of the expensive natural wet cat food that she spoons lovingly into my bowl each morning. All night, each night, for the past three nights, I have asked her every hour or so to just put the good dry stuff back in my bowl. I do this by meowing loudly next to her ear, licking her where she is especially ticklish (under her arms), and occasionally resorting to gently inserting a claw or two into the most tender parts of her arm flesh. So far, she just swats me away, but I'm going to keep trying.