somewhat grouchy NY moment

By now I'm sure that everyone has heard (or noticed) that its hot out. Not just here, but obviously in a lot of places. My parents' place (about 2 hours north of here) was 100 yesterday, and I'm not even sure if the temperature got that high in the city or not.

When I was out with Juno and Naomi on Saturday, we got off at our subway stop [which was undergoing construction and therefore had only one exit staircase out of 3 available for use], which was about 100 degrees - before the weather got that warm aboveground. There was a group of tourists standing in a clump directly in front of the only staircase out of the heat-infused station, and they had parked themselves oblivious to traffic patterns.

By the way, please don't ask how I knew they were tourists. I know these things, I'm from here (3rd generation, and before that my family is from Europe). Years ago my daughter and I were on the train together and I pointed out a group to her and predicted that they'd get off the train at the Museum of Natural History station. When I was proven right and she asked me how I knew, I explained to her that no NYer would wear pantyhose with tennis socks, sneakers, and a pair of shorts. And knowing the stops ahead of us, I knew where they'd be going.

So..... back to Saturday. This gaggle of tourists was blocking the only exit from a horrendously hot underground subway platform. I looked at them and said, "If you're not going to go UP the stairs then please move." - Or something like that. I was probably more rude than that because Juno actually said something to me a minute later about how I was acting scary.

I think its the weather. Underground subway platforms have been clocked at over 110 degrees (easily, I can assure you), and the heat of the city doesn't dissipate with cooler night air. We create our own heat here with all of the concrete and cars and buildings. I've noticed people getting snippy. Very snippy.

I've been doing okay. After a stint with rearranging the living room to get the A/C plugged into the optimal location, the house was cool. The trip to the doctor yesterday wasn't too bad [I'm usually okay if I can alternately cool off and then bake - take away the periodic air conditioning and I more or less pass out.] I had a class last night but figured ... I'd manage. There isn't much to be done, it being work and all.

On the ride home from the class (after 10pm) I got all the way into Brooklyn, when I had to switch trains. I had been fine, sitting and reading about Andean weaving and thinking how nice it would be to be home. I got off the train for my transfer, and while walking through the station, someone dropped a cup (not a bottle, a paper cup) of .... red liquid over a bannister and onto the stairs I was walking down.

It landed, more or less, on my foot - in my sandal. It was sticky. It was red. And it also splashed my unbleached linen dress. I think if I hadn't been so tired, I would have screamed at someone. Anyone, really. I hate to think that I was a moving target because I was wearing light colored clothes, but its the only thing I can think of. I didn't see the morons who did this, I didn't want to look because if I made eye contact I'd probably lose it.

The point of all of this? The heat. I think it creates an underground version of road rage - people get very easily riled. In my case, it created enough of a soporific effect that I was barely phased by some jerk who did something that would normally inspire me to blinding fury. I just kept walking, and when I stopped I used the water in my bag to try to sponge off my foot, dress, and shoe.

I still love the city. But sometimes the heat makes it a little harder to handle.

Comments

[Anne]

Part of the reason I live in the middle of nowhere (Charlotte County, VA ~ we have no honest to goodness traffic lights in the county WOOHOO!) is that I can't stand how dishonest and inconsiderate people can be. How hard would it have been for that person to find a TRASHCAN????!!!!????

Total sypmathy from my (barely inhabited but still really hot (102 yesterday)) part of the country. : )

[Laurie]

Do you think it was intentional? Oy. I haven't been out in Boston at night in a while...maybe it's a good thing. There are many fiction stories about the tension as the heat rises in the summer, and then the Event that boils over, as the climax of the story...riots...murder...anger...so I think it is a human theme of bodies that aren't meant to live in 100 degrees.

[Vicki Roy]

Tourists in any country always seem to be oblvious to others. I think I would have said something too. My sympathy. After living in a hot climate that only has three weeks of sort of cold weather a year, you have every bit of my sympathy. I try to be green but AC in the heat is a must. I am surprised people managed to stay calm at all in the heat. Hope your dress wasn't ruined. We are freezing here but I will never complain about the cold after enduring stifling heat with 99% humidity for years. I hope there is a cool change soon.

[vanessa]

hmm, suddenly florida ain't looking so bad. if you can't get the red stuff out of your dress, have you ever tried a stain remover called kiss-off?

[vanessa]

http://www.kissoff.com/about.html

[Stephanie]

We can spot the tourists here too...it's the shoes. I don't know what, how...but it's the shoes. They just don't look like they've been really walking or something. I can't describe it, but it's unmistakable.

[lanea]

Wow--what a jerk. I hope the dress doesn't stain, and that the heat breaks soon.

Ah, the tourists. DC has similar tourist troubles on the metro. NYC and DC are similar in that both cities are huge tourist destinations, and both citizenrys have to keep working even when folks descend on us from all over in the summertime. Disney World gets to just be Disney World, so the baffled, slow-moving folks don't cause the same problems. And both of our cities are normally fast-moving, so those human road-blocks feel like a real affront to those of us who don't get to spend the day in a nice cool museum.

[mamacate]

Ugh. That bites. Sorry, hon. Here's to sitting directly in front of an a/c unit all day!

[trek]

Yuck - and it's hot here too. 100 deg yesterday - poop - stay inside

[dana]

your aggravation, and heat waves in nyc in general, remind me of the movie "do the right thing," where tensions (in that case, racial) rise along with the thermometer.

[regina]

That just makes me nuts. I hate how badly people behave in the heat. On the dress tip, i highly recommend that you try a strong solution of Oxy-Clean. I should do testimonials for the stuff: last year, we were having dinner at a friend's house and Hannah knocked a glass of grape juice all over their antique lace tablecloth. after pouring salt all over it and removing it from the table, i offered to take it home. I mixed a solution of five scoops of Oxy-clean in a five gallon bucket of water and left it to soak overnight. it completely removed the stain and didn't alter the color of the tablecloth at all. I hope you're planning to stay indoors today.

[Beth S.]

We call them "tourons". It's a portmanteau word--you should be able to figure it out even in this heat.

I came home from work yesterday on a commuter train with no air conditioning. (Sing a sing of sixpence, four hundred and twenty passengers baked alive in a train.) In the winter you come across the occasional unheated compartment, but the AC seems to be a lot less reliable than the heat for some reason. Almost every train has at least one stifling-hot compartment, but yesterday's was the worst I've been on. I know exactly how you felt. It was almost impossible to breathe.

[Megann]

Yikes. I totally understand how you feel. Put me in the heat and I alternately turn into a limp rag and a raging psycho. After a near-death experience at 2nd Ave a few years ago in what had to have been 120 degree heat, I avoid certain stations and always travel with water in the summertime. I do think, though, that the heat makes the crazy kids in Brooklyn (I'm from there, too) even crazier. Its like an excuse for them to go even more wild than normal.

[Diane]

All of the above are reasons why I'm not that fond of cities. However, there are rude people out in the country, too, like the ones who think my front yard is a good place to dump tires, pizza boxes and other assorted trash.

[jess]

I think you're right about the heat. And tourists in DC are just as bad (though if you see someone here in pantyhose, tennis socks, sneakers, and a skirt (vs. the shorts you mention), they're probably going to work).

[Samantha]

I used to live on the road to a lighthouse, and there were always tons of tourists driving really slow on our road. I know that they are good for the economy, but some times it just drives you crazy. I live in rural Nova Scotia, so our fashion tends to be just a little behind the rest of the world, but it is really easy to know which people are tourists. They just dress differently somehow.

[Liz]

Ahhh. NYC. Home sweet home. Is it wrong that your vent made me feel nostalgia? I used to love the city in the summertime. Well, except for the subway and the idiots, now that I think about it. Hang in there.

[Manise]

I can spot tourists too in a second. You showed enormous restraint- I probably would have lost it and maybe thrown my sticky sandal. Then again it wouldn't be worth the energy spent. Hope the heat breaks soon for you.

[Rachel H]

I'm having attacks of the heat induced crankies too. Exacerbated by idiots at work. One of said idiots created a situation where I was forced to work from home today. Which may not be a bad thing as it means I won't be able to reach him and rend him limb from limb as is my current wont...

um, yes. did I mention I'm cranky?

[Cordelia]

I hate it when people block the flow of traffic.
It's not even just tourists.
I hope the red stickiness comes out of your dress.

[Christine]

Yes, in DC we too can spot the tourists in pantyhose and shorts. Our subway at least has escalators that the sweaty tourists can pack onto and block with their stinky selves. In kindergarten we're taught to stay to the right on stairs and in the hallway. Tourists somehow lose that basic teaching as soon as they hit town. It must be the whole sensory overload phenomenon. "Must see zoo, must see park, must find bathroom, it is hot, kids are bad, how much did you pay for t-shirt? Where is...?"

[jackie]

I'm cranky on a regular day, can you just imagine what this heat is doing to me? I'm just impressed you didn't go ballistic on any of these people. I am thisclose to killing someone.

[wenders]

I don't know if it's just underground - I walk to work, 30 minutes each way, and I get really annoyed at people. Totally does NOT help that I live in the middle of tourist central in Boston - the North End. I've been rude to people standing in the middle of entire sidewalks, not moving. I figure (once I've cooled off, literally and figurativly) that I am just providing 'urban experience' stories for them. And you can totally tell who the tourists are. ;)

[cari]

I usually just growl, "What a FABULOUS place to stand" and then push past. Tourists. Grrrr.

Will Thumper and I be seeing you at Cassie R's?

[colleen]

No, you are completely 100-percent within your rights to say something like that. Clueless non-urban tourists: I have no patience for them. Their sauntering, their blocking entrances and staircases, their inability to realize that it's a city for gosh-sakes and they are not the only ones who need to use the sidewalk, door, train, or whatever. DUH!

[geez, maybe the heat is getting to me....]