Thunderstorms and Coney Island

This is how I would like my commute to be...so I can dance around the pole and no one would see.


I was startled from my sleep around 4am today from the sound of pouring rain and roaring thunder. I was staring at my window to see if a shadow of a man with a knife would appear, but luckily it never happened. By 9am, the skies were clear again and it was back to the I'm-so-sweaty-and-sticky-so-don't-touch-me-or-I'll-stab-you type of weather. I was off to the train station at 10am to head to Coney Island, the beachside amusement park/circus/carnival, to find that the rush hour crowd still existed at 10am. At one point amidst the human-sardine-can madness, I heard a lady menacingly shout out, "Don't touch me or I'll punch you!" I'm sure people steered clear away from her...I should try that next time! By the time the people left the train so I could sit, my arm was losing its blood flow from being raised above my heart the whole time.

It took over an hour to get to Coney Island. When I arrived, my first reaction was, This is it?! It looks like a cheesy county fair, but much older and without the animals and weirdos. The name of the amusement park was Astroland, offering rickety old kid rides and carnival games.

Yes, that is a man sleeping with an umbrella over him.

I walked toward the back of the park and reached the wood-planked Boardwalk, which was adjacent to the beach. Food stands and souvenir shops line the beach, selling mostly fried foods and ugly t-shirts, respectively.

My stomach was saying, Feed me! so I walked down to the end of the Boardwalk to find Nathan's, the famed hot dog stand where people try to break the record for eating the most hot dogs during the 4th of July. Their hot dogs are pretty good, snapping a bit when you bite into them, and their buns are toasted. Who doesn't want hot buns? (Later I found out that I didn't get to catch any circus acts or see any freaks because they come out at specific times.)

This pic is for the OCVCD crew to hang on their wall.

On the way back home on the train, I noticed a woman holding a book entitled "Homo Thugs." At first I thought perhaps my eyes were bad and that it should have read "Home Thugs." But I stared long enough to confirm my vision and sure enough, it was "Homo Thugs." I think that the books that people read give a good indication of the type of person they are. Sometimes I'll read over someone's shoulder if I have no where else to look on the train. Is Lindsay Lohan going back to rehab? I don't care! But that red head holding the tabloid does. Or take that man reading a comic book--perhaps he's illiterate and depends on the pictures for guidance. Or what about the girl reading "Guide to Murder"...I'll stay away from her. So when I saw "Homo Thugs," I assumed she read it for class, or because she was dealing with a thug who pretended to be tough but was really a homosexual and wanted to better understand him. Anyways, it took me 3 freakin' hours to get home! One train stopped working, another one had too many people so I couldn't get on, and the rest took forever to get to the station during my transfers.

Later I find out from Abdullah, the local man who owns the convenient store who sold me my cart and my hair ties, that the storm from the early morning delayed flights and the rail system. I also found out from my roomie and a friend (shout out to DZ!) when I got home. Look what happens when I don't have my computer! I am cut off from the world and the news! Oh, the horror!