Good Old MTA

The MTA is the Mass Transit Authority, or subway system of NYC. And for the most part its pretty easy to get around town on. Every now and then I'll get on an express train accidentally or not be paying attention and get on the uptown train instead of the downtown. But for the most part, I haven't had any problems. Except when it comes to going to church...

My first Sunday here, there was no problem. The A-train came on time and stopped where I needed to go, and I thought it would be simple to go to church each week. But lately, because of a lot of construction they're supposedly doing on some of the subway lines, the A-train either takes forever to come, so I'm late, or it only goes half-way and then I have to take a shuttle bus, so I'm late, or I'm on it and it doesn't stop where I want to get off, so I'm late. Church always starts a little late anyway (probably to help out us subway travelers), so usually its okay, but today was even more of an adventure.

Today my sister and I decided to try a different train than usual, hoping it would work out better. But once again, it stopped unexpectedly about halfway there, and wasn't going any further. So we decided to transfer to a different line, and while we were waiting we saw a guy we knew from our church, a dental student from Washington, and he waited with us. But the train didn't come, and didn't come, and we were starting to worry, but then it came, so we got on it. But, it didn't stop at our stop! So we ended up getting off the train about 20 blocks away from the church. We couldn't find a shuttle bus, and weren't sure which bus we could take, so we just walked.

It was a nice sunny, cool autumn day, so it was actually kind of fun to walk, and since we were already late, we didn't try to rush. We just enjoyed the afternoon, and the colorful Harlem neighborhoods we were walking through. We even saw a huge crowd of people in medieval attire who must have been on their way to a Renaissance fair. As we passed through a park, one guy looked like he'd just changed into his Robin Hood clothes behind some bushes. His bow and arrows were lying on the grass near where some street-kids were rapping. It's quite a mixture of people here in this city!

So, it's kind of like what I was saying the other day. You never know what's going to happen--you just have to enjoy each moment. So even though we were a half-hour late, I'm glad it happened, because I really enjoyed walking to church with my sister and our friend the dental student. And we made up for being late by staying after church to go to choir. So it all balanced out in the end.