amazingDo you remember about a month ago I posted about riding the subway 2 stops and being surrounded by hundreds of people dressed up in Santa suits, chanting the word "ho!" a million times and just enjoying their own drunken foolery? If you want to read about that, it's a few entries back - early December. That day, I lacked both my camera AND my phone, so it exists only in my minid. Today at least, I had my phone.
To rewind, several circumstances lead me to what happened. First, I went into the 6 at Bleeker to go to Canal St to get bubble tea and then to walk to my FAVORITE BENCHES to knit a bit, but out of habit of taking the 6 to work 3 days a week, I got in on the uptown side. Then I had to take the 4/5 from 14th down, and it's express so it took me a stop too far. I was going to walk, but I saw a 6 train across the way, ran, and made it. Got off at Canal, got my bubble tea and even though I was sad the woman who made it for me didn't remember me, I enjoyed my beverage as I walked to my benches.
However, it was freezing out, so I think I knitted a whole 3 rows, and they each took me about 10 minutes. I gave up. It was about 2:50. I decided to walk back down to Brooklyn Bridge, ride the train home, and knit more while I waited for Jess to call because we're going to the concert (must finish this in the next 10 minutes!) tonight and meeting in Union Square. So I walk down Lafayette towards the train station, and across the street, I see a LARGE gathering of people. My first thought is, 'protest. I wonder what they're fighting about', so I cross the street and go see what's up.
I ask the woman I'm standing near what the deal is, and instead of telling me it's pro/anti-abortion/Hilary/Obama/Bellybutton lint/insert cause here, she says, "they're all gonna take off their pants and ride the subway".
You can't make that shit up. That was what these hundreds of people were doing. Apparently, it started like 7 years ago with this small group of guys, and now, it's no longer an underground thing. It was so huge that they had to take THREE different subway lines.
I'm not the pants-dropping type myself, but I hung around, to see what was going on. I thought I could at least ride back home with one set, preferrably the 6 people, and get a few good laughs out of it. I ended up back and forth, and went to the group who was going to take the 2/3 train; they had to walk downtown, and then ride up to Times Square and transfer, and at each stop, a few people would remove their pants and then get back on the next train, a residual effect.
Anyway, if this isn't crazy enough, worth the hour I stood in the freezing cold waiting only to realize my dream of a picture of hundreds of pantsless people wouldn't come to fruition, I'm near the '5' group of 2/3, and I sort of hear this voice, and I see a body and Oh, it's my friend Josh from High School. OF course. This was right up Josh's alley. But it was sooooooooooooo weird/amazing, because YESTERDAY I was working at school during lunch and talking to a group of 3rd graders about the Halloween my friend Josh dressed up like Alfalfa (they'd been talking about the little Rascals). And there Josh was, getting ready to drop his pants. He tried to convince me to join him, and if I had shaved my legs recently or had better underwear on (or had I been able to convince the kid with the suitcase to give me a pair of boxers....), I might have. It is SO NOT ME, but come on. I haven't seen Josh in FOUR YEARS.
The train ride was HILARIOUS. I only stayed on until Christopher, my stop, and I waited for the next train full of ppl without pants, but I didn't get to see Josh (
). Whatever. Next year, I'm gonna try to find this again. (Just realizing I SHOULD HAVE DROPPED TROW, because they wanted everyone who did to just act like it was a totally normal ride and oops, forgot pants, like read a magazine, the paper, a book etc, and I COULD HAVE JUST STOOD THERE, PANTSLESS AND KNITTING!!). And now, time to see Jesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
and later tonight Jennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
