Halloween

Though most of my blog entries are in the present day, I am going out on a limb and writing about Halloween which obviously was a few days ago. So rewind a little to 11pm Friday night. I am taking the 6 train downtown from 110th street in Spanish Harlem. This is my first Halloween living here in the city and I can not believe how completely wild things are. First of all the subway is completely packed. Like worse-than-rush-hour-body-to-body crammed. At 11 o’clock at night. Also, instead of the usually diverse commuter mix there is only one kind of person on this train- young, costumed and very drunk. All of us girls are wearing next to nothing, dressed as the sexed up versions of nurses, cops and cowgirls. It is truly a carnival car of porn.

The most incredible thing about it is since everyone is disguised as something else we are all now on a truly level playing field which is never the case here in Manhattan. This means everyone is fair game to interact with- something that is the complete opposite of the norm in the land of the subway. Everyone is singing, cheering for no reason, shouting out to each others costumes. It is really a circus. A guy in a giant blowup fat suit tries to get on at 51st street but the car is so jammed he just can’t fit. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t try. Everyone is laughing and then booing as the doors keep closing on his costume then opening back up again, stopping the train from getting going again. He finally deflates his costume and squeezes on.

Also there are a few exhausted-looking investment bankers in not-costume suits that are really just getting out of work at this hour. Sucks for them.