Today, was one of those very New York days. First off, sadly, today was the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. We are still all very much impacted by this in my beloved city. As I rode the subway today, I felt everything was more or less normal until I saw the large armed presence at Grand Central. It was disconcerting for a few seconds. But then it just became background. Just like any other day here.

The subway truly lived up to such an expectation. I actually feel a bit sorry for NYC tourists riding the subway. The weekend schedules and routes are almost always interrupted and re-routed and you learn to go with it.

Today, I rode the 4 train towards Brooklyn. And, right after getting on at 42nd Street the train doors closed and they announced that the next stop would be Mosholu Parkway. For a split second, I forgot that I was a New Yorker and panicked thinking I got on the wrong train. Which, if you know New York, that was not really possible. Wrong direction and too far away. Unless, of course, we were in a runaway train. Maybe we were in a weird version of the SPEED movie.

Either way, I looked around and one guy looked really anxious. Everyone else had their earphones in amd/or were engaged on their phones. The few who noticed the incorrect “next stop” signage just tuned it out. We just went with it, knowing that if the next stop wasn’t Union Square we’d have to rethink the train ride. But the next stop was indeed Union Square, even though the train kept announcing Mosholu Parkway. We all just hunkered down awaiting our eventual train stop. Just another day in New York.