A Long Day's Journey

Although I have no sense of direction above ground, between Tiffany and me, I am the most competent on the New York City subway system. Except, apparently, when I'm not.

Last weekend, we took an adventure to Brooklyn to see what we could see. But, because of construction on the subway lines, we almost didn't get there to see anything. The express trains weren't running, but they were running on the local track, but only one of them and it wasn't making all stops... We let two trains go by as we contemplated the map in the station, the map on Tiffany's phone, and the paper service-change advisories on the platform.

Finally another train pulled into the station. By now we should have been in Brooklyn, eating brunch somewhere.

"Are you sure this is our train?" Tiffany asked me as we stood between the open doors trying to decide whether to bail.

"Yes," I said, shaking my head no.

We jumped inside.

It wasn't our train. We ended up dead-ending at the bottom of Manhattan, then paying to reenter the station to catch the train going back the way we'd come.

When we got to the transfer station, we saw an express train pulling in at the same time.

"Finally!" Tiffany cried. "Our luck is changing!"

It would have been... if that train had been going in the right direction. That long-awaited express train took us a quarter of the way home before we had the opportunity to switch again.

We could have given up--"I meant to bring snacks!" I cried at one point as we watched ourselves pass the stop we needed and our stomachs growled--but we kept trying until we reached what now felt like a very faraway borough. We didn't make it to the restaurant we had in mind, where the food was so local it very likely came with a side of dirt. But the restaurant we found had no line.

"These pancakes are amazing!" I moaned, scooping up my syrup-soaked crumbs with my fork.

"I think they're Bisquick," Tiffany commented.