This past Saturday evening my favorite football coach and I decided to take an alternate way back to Brooklyn from church and the City. He is home for a least a month to spend some quality time with me, his family and friends; since the UFL’s 2010 season is over. The absolute gentleman he is, he normally rides with me via my train route to my stop and walks me to my door. However this evening I convinced him that I would be fine if we took his train route home, since my stop is right after his. I knew he was tired and I was attempting to be accommodating and save us some time getting home.
See, this December marks our one year anniversary as a couple officially. We have been friends since high school and reconnected about two years ago. December is also my birthday month, so having him so close is a present / blessing all by itself.
Being the typical New Yorker I am before we entered the train, I took a look at the signage at the token booth to see if there were any scheduling changes. Since none were posted we paid our fares and proceed to go to the platform where our train should arrive to take us home. However when we got there the signage stated that the express trains were running on the local track where we just had come from!
Not getting upset while he allowed me to decide which direction we were going to take and the fact that we just ran down and up two flights of steps, my love told me once again that I was a trip. Then he just proceeds to smile, hug me and tell me he was just glad to be spending this time with me. Talk about cool points!
In the interim of all this we run into one of my new little sisters at church. She and I end up talking for a second. After she and I finish our conversation my love and I finally get on a train heading to Brooklyn. One of his other nicknames for me is social butterfly 🙂 I wonder why? 🙂 In addition to all this, we had learned we would have to transfer to another train in order to arrive to our destination of Brooklyn. When we arrived at one of the stations on our route he sees an express train and decides we should sprint for it. However, we then hear the overhead announcer telling us that all passengers would have to switch to the train we were just were on to get to the South Ferry, where we would get our free transfer into Brooklyn. So, what do you think we do? If you guessed that the two of us sprint back to our train, giggling all the way, you would have guessed correctly. Truly it was just a pleasure to be there and talk with him.
When we arrived at the South Ferry station, we are then told we have to leave the station and walk one block to the Bowling Green stop. Honestly if I had been by myself walking in that pitch blackness, the outside perimeter of the Bowling Green, I would had been praying for an extra legion of angels to protect me. The signage was horrible and the walkway not well lit. When we arrived at what we thought was the entrance of the station, there was no transit personnel in sight. Some of our fellow passengers used the talk box to get directions to where we had to go to get our free transfer. It turned out to be another block away and across the street!
At the station, my love jokingly says to the station agent that they were not really trying to give us the free transfer. Her response back to him was at least we got some free exercise. At that point I had to remind myself that I was in fact a saved born again Christian. The Coach however, thought he was going to have to hold me back. He didn’t have to though I took control of my emotions 🙂 After that exchange we proceed to go to our platform and wait for our train to arrive. At that point I did a quiet prayer for seats. My love shook his head at me in disbelief and said he should update his Facebook status to read only the message “She prayed for seats!” He had prayed earlier for our train to arrive in a timely fashion, so my seats prayer was to cover all the bases 🙂
Shortly thereafter our train did arrive and it was not but for one stop and I did in fact get my seat 😉 My love on the other hand who at first laughed at me rode all the way home standing. Who says my Lord does not provide even for the little things like seats! In the end, the train ride was one I will always remember and as you see had to write about. My love even wants to do it again, get lost in the transit system with me on purpose go figure 🙂 Life is truly a journey, however it’s up to us to decide if its going to be a pleasurable one or one of regret.
© 2010 – 2014, Lela Jefferson Fagan. All rights reserved.
