And another thing about the subway

You get to look at cooler outfits from people on the subway; hipsters, young and old. There's a set of parent hipsters who take the subway around the same time I do. The woman has dyed copper hair and piercings and the dad wears a stocking cap, Cardhardts (sp?), and cool shoes. The kid, of course, is decked out in striped stockings like Pippi, a tiara, and mismatched skirt and shirt. You know they are the kind of parents who have decided to let their child pick out her own clothes in the morning to foster a sense of indepence and identity. The other day, I watched the little girl pull the following out of her father's coat pocket: a pair of sunglasses, keys, and a cookie with lint on it which she ate. On the way home from work on Wed., I unsmartly sat down in the middle of these two teenage black girls, not realizing they were friends and having a conversation. They kept talking over me and I pretended to read my book. Then a guy they knew from school came into the car and joined the conversation. I made the second mistake of reacting to something they said and then the guy started talking to me and they started talking about my reactions, in a benign way, but I was uncomfortable. They exited the train at City Hall. The woman across from me (an aging white punkster with really black hair) said to no one in particular, Thank God. I was about to shoot myself in the head!

FYI, there are times when body piercings go wrong. I saw a nose piercing mistake this morning at the coffee shop; the barrista, who was otherwise cute and had her hair in a 1940s twist, had a very long, prominent nose that turned under and she'd added a medium-sized hoop between the nostrils. It looked horrible, because not only did it emphasize what was clearly her worst feature, it also gave her a distinctly oxish appearance.

Comments

Anonymous said…
i love people watching on the subway too, aimee.
the other day, i witnessed two teenage black kids making a ruckous too. it was a boy and a girl. the girl was holding a bunch of big round brightly-colored beads that look like gumballs. the boy next to her whispered something to her and she yelled out really loudly "those are NOT anal beads, Tyree!"
Everyone else in the train (including Tyree) looked really uncomfortable.
-Tara

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