I can remember being 12 years old and having to start riding public transportation to and from school. I opted for the train, of course there was a bus right by the train station that dropped me off in front of the school, but I've never really liked buses. I would get sick on them from the exhaust, the stop and go traffic, I'm just not a bus rider. But a train?! Give me a MetroCard and stand back. If there's a train station within a mile of anywhere I need to get to, trust me I can get there.

Since moving out to the suburbs, the sticks as I like to call it, I don't really get to ride the NYC Transit much these days, although I take the train everyday for work it's not NYC Transit. My ride now is more comfortable, LIRR does have cushioned seats, great a/c and heat (usually) and a bathroom. I am a Potty Princess, so I need the last feature the most often. My commute is roughly about the same amount of time as if I were still living in Brooklyn but the sights, the sounds and the smells on LIRR can not compare with that on the NYCT; Good or bad!

As you can tell by this point, I was recently on the train, 34th Street Station to be exact. I was on the platform for a little while waiting for my friend to meet me. While I was there I came to several conclusions...For starters: In the dead of winter when it feels like it's 20 below outside, I want to be at the 34th Street station on the N/R train platform to be exact. I assure you, no matter what it feels like up on the street, down there you will be nice and warm, out of the wind's way, away from the elements and whatever Mother Nature is giving back to us. On the N/R platform you are safe, from the weather that is. Now, from May till late September/early October it's the last place you want to be.

Next thing I noticed; Name a train station, any one out of NYC's over 200 some odd stations, and I promise if you sit there long enough SOME THING will happen! You can sit in the mezzanine or you can sit on the platform (much more fun) and you will see something. Now, I'm not going to say that you will enjoy or like what you see, but I can tell you, you won't be bored.

In 20 minutes on the platform I saw a small Mexican woman try to catch an N train that was in the process of closing the doors, because we all know that waiting the God forsaken 10 minutes in rush hour for another train is just too much to ask. She reaches for the doors that are about to close and proceeds to try and pry the doors back open. This woman is 4'10" a solid 140 lbs with bags in her hands and she's really trying to wrestle a machine, a beast, engineered out of several tons of steel. Of course her hands are in so the fight is hers, she refuses to give up. Here is a question...Am I the only New Yorker that knows if you put your foot firmly on the train and hold the doors open with your foot up against the spot where the doors retreat to when the doors are open, the conductor automatically reopens the doors because a light goes on in his booth stating the doors are jammed? Eventually La Bruta made it on the train, but it wasn't due to her brute strength nor was it her quick thinking that did it for her. It was because of the 50-100 other people that couldn't wait for the next train, that coincidently showed up 2.5 minutes later.

What else I noticed: When I stand some where, any where, I try to stand out of the way of free flowing traffic. I will try to find something that is immovable, like a tree, or something firmly constructed into the surroundings (lamp posts, pay phones, etc). Again, I think I may truly be the only New Yorker that knows when you exit or enter anything (trains included) standing directly on the other side of that threshold is blocking traffic! When you go up or down stairs/escalators there are other people lookin to use them as well. I'm leaning up against the pillar on the platform I saw a group of 4 women exit one train and were transferring for another, except they moved away from the edge of platform and stood right in front of the stairs. You know the stairs that everyone needs to use to go up from the platform, the stairs that everyone is trying to make their way towards. Me, being the rude bytch I'm accused of being, wanted to just yell at them "Move Bytch, get out the way, Bytch get out the way"! But truth is, they weren't in my way, they were just in THE way. I left well enough alone and continued to people watch and observe as they got pushed and shoved as people were trying to board and deboard the train. I turned my attention elsewhere.

I saw a mother almost chew her own daughter's head off for not boarding the train to go home, after the mother was already on the train herself. The daughter's reply: "I didn't know that was the train to go home." Me being her mother, I would have kept my ass on the train and let her figure it out. Now, before you go and call BCW A-I'm not a mother; B-This girl was at least 15 yrs old. I'm sure she knows what train goes to her house. Find the conductor and ask "What stop can I catch ___to get to ___?" Better yet, hop your ass on the train, find the map and work from there! Meanwhile, the mother, tired from working all week, carrying bags in her hands and now frustrated at her daughter missed the train that she was already on. I'm sure if you ask this same 15 yr old for directions to get to her boyfriend's house (in a few months if she doesn't have one now) she will be able to tell you the train to take, the stop to transfer at, the car she needs to be in, the door that leaves her the closest to the exit and how many paces due south to walk to get there! I know this because at the age of 15 if I wanted to go any where I needed to know how to get there, unless I wanted my mother as my personal escort to and from. Shortly after this incident my friend showed up. My people watching adventure on 34th Street had come to an end.

At the end of my evening, it was back to my trains, where this story began and was being written. Unfortunately, LIRR is not like NYCT so if you miss your train you're screwed for at least a good 30-40 minutes depending on the line you take. I caught my train, found a seat next to the window and pulled out my trusted pencil and notebook. My hands were writing away furiously trying to catch up with my thoughts. A gentleman sits across from me and begins to watch me work my pencil, line after line, page after page, as he drinks his Budweiser's (LIRR allows that with out the brown bag). A Middle Eastern woman sits next to me, she came close enough to sit on my lap. She asks the gentleman a question in regard to Peak LIRR travel time, to which he doesn't know the exact answer and answers in a round-about sort of way. I spoke up at this point to answer her question, seeing how I know the exact time. That was my chair mates opportunity to ask if I was writing in a journal, to which I answered "Not really, a blog." His response: "I see your hands moving and the pages just turning I can see your creativity in the way you just write non-stop." Okay, I fed into the conversation, but who doesn't enjoy a compliment. As I balanced my writing with my conversation I cam to another great observation; As much as I love NYCT, LIRR definitely has friendlier riders. I've had more pleasant, meaningful, thought provoking conversations with strangers on the LIRR then I've ever had with any stranger on the NYCT. Would that fact alone make me change my preference as to which transit system I would rather ride daily, probably not. Now, the fact that the LIRR has a bar car or the fact that there is an actual bartender on the platform just might. Then again, I'm a Brooklyn girl to the bone, we know how to make every car on the train a bar car!