Please don't look at me

I'm quite alarmed at my ability to navigate the train network here in Sydney. From what little time I have spent in New York, I was convinced that no one really understand the subway there. It's impossible for a someone to be able to know which train comes in in which station on which track. I'm quite sure that the whole thing was designed by ferrets and that people in New York only hurry because they anticipate the subway dropping them off in a completely random, unpredictable spot on the island.

Sydney, however, seems have employed actual human beings to plan out the train system. 

Thats not my point though. The engineers who designed the interiors of the cars decided that the seats would have the curious ability to face both forward and backward. The back of each seat is on a pivot that allows it to swing over the top of the seat, effectively swapping the side of the bench that you can put your legs over. After work the other day I was one of the first people to get on one particular car and I chose the first seat I came to; this seat was facing north. As other people started to get on the train after me, they would walk down into the middle of aisle and pick a seat farthest away from the other people on the train. If I was person A sitting in position 1/60, person B would sit in position 60/60, C in 30/60, D in 45/60, E in 15/60 until people started to have to pick seats next to another person. Particularly interesting was that every person who started a new row stopped to flip their seat facing south. Soon, every seat other than the one I was sitting on was facing south, which meant that anyone who sat infront of me would actually be facing directly towards me. He're the kicker: people chose to stand for the duration of the 30 minute commute rather than sit in a seat that was facing mine.

I saddens me to know that 60 or so people will avoid any sort of connection with a person (even if its as simple as sharing leg space with them at all costs. At the next to last stop before I planned on getting off, a girl with a bouquet of irises sat next to me. When I asked her who they were for say replayed, "Someone." I pretended that she meant to give them to me (irises are my favorite flowers) but didnt have the nerve. I wouldn't have accepted them any way, I convinced myself. I don't take flowers from strangers.

Last night we went to a really swanky club. There were loads and loads of people there but the atmosphere was less "Call On Me" than other clubs we've been to. Which is a nice change. i ended up talking to this guy who pulled me aside to compliment my outfit. I was wearing a pink dress shirt with my dads argyle sweater over it. He told me that he would usually pick on "white kids" like me but that I somehow pulled the look off. This is a good thing because I'm not sure how I would hold up in a confrontation with a heavyset man of color. We talked about all kinds of things from living in Vermont to how The GZA's album liquid swords changed the rap scene. When I mentioned that Dr. Dre's album 2001 was my first hip hop purchase, he told me that he and Dre were longtime friends. I talked to this guy for almost 30 minutes. I found out today that the guy was Ice Cube. There were no two more opposite people in that club last night.

Here's a classic.