And how did I come into possession of such a wonderful photograph? As many of my trips on the subway, it started innocently enough. I went to Brooklyn Heights to take pictures and eat the aforementioned hamburger. I was tired and a little sluggish after the fat-fest, so I thought, why don’t I just take the subway?

Per usual, a big mistake. I got on at High Street and should have ended up back in Manhattan. I got down to the train and it didn’t say where it was going, which one was uptown or downtown. Neither of them said it was going to Manhattan. Neither of them said anything. I got on the one I thought was going in the right direction.

when I saw Jay Street and that we weren’t in Manhattan and decided to get off, where I snapped the above utterly disgusting photo. Then, there was some guy wearing an orange vest who perhaps knew where I could go. I said I needed to get to Brooklyn Bridge and he looked at me perplexed. Brooklyn Bridge. It is a stop on the NYC metro that is on the other side from where we are now, but I guess that was too complex, so I just said I needed to get back to Manhattan. He said take the train on the other side of the station. I get there, more total and utter confusion. It again didn’t say which way the train was going. He told me to take the F train, the next stop being York Street. That turned out to be the uptown train. I didn’t get on that one, because I thought York Street was still Brooklyn.

Then, another train marked as an F arrived, but it wasn’t an F train. It was an A train. If had taken the F train, I would have ended up in Rockefeller Center and not Grand Central, where I needed to be. Good that I didn’t take the F, but does every ride on that damn subway have to trigger an aneurysm? Must it always suck? Must the train always smell as good as the picture looks?

I have been a few places in my life and some where I didn’t speak the language, but I somehow managed not to get lost on public transportation, but yet somehow, whenever I take that tangled up, insane, subway, I end up where I don’t need to be, annoyed, hot and angry.

And don’t even get me started on how those stations are permanently under construction, especially on the weekends.

The hatred is definitely back. Detente over subway, until you prove to me that you do not suck. I get the feeling it will be a while before that happens.