iPod and the meaning of life
This memory happened over a month ago, so obviously I’m pretty fuzzy about the whole thing, but I was coming back from exchanging something at the Diesel store on 60th street at lunch time when I spotted a cute girl on the subway platform. Although we made eye contact, I wasn’t about to be all up in her business, so I began the process of pulling my iPod nano from my bag… only to have it swing free using the earphone cable like a tree vine. At precisely the perfect moment, it came unattached from the cable allowing it to make a beautiful arc in the air landing square in the middle of the E line tracks.
All I could do was look back at the cute girl whose eyes were bugged out when she said “oh shit!”
Now, I’m thinking to myself, “Hey, it’s right there. A mere 6 feet or so away. Just jump down and get it.” Then of course, the next thought is: “Are you kidding me? if you’re down there and the train comes, it’s death!”
The girl says something like: “What are you going to do?”
I’m like: “I got no idea… it seems pretty close…”
She’s all: “You are kidding, right!? I think you should go tell the attendant.” Note that the attendant at this station is waaaaay upstairs up a long escalator.
I think about this for a second. Consider my options. Weigh possible death or at the very least getting very dirty against the value of a sub $200 device. Briefly contemplate leaving it there should a train comes… but no train comes. Instead, I go upstairs leaving the girl on the platform and wait 20 or so minutes for some dispatched MTA workers to fetch my tiny music player.
I was actually really surprised at how fast the MTA workers showed up after being called, so I should remember that there’s no need to risk my life should I drop something on the tracks again.
(image by petrozo)
