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Oct 14, 2002

I’m back! I still can’t breathe out of my nose, but I feel a million times better. I hate feeling sick and being on the subway. The close quarters magnify my sniffling sounds and I feel like I can’t just blow my nose the most effective way out of consideration for my fellow passengers. It would be easy in this city to forge ahead with disregard and blow snot to my heart’s content or cough without covering my mouth, but something inside restrains me.

I always think back to the afternoon I was treated to the sounds of a pleasantly dressed older woman sucking air / spit through her teeth. There was the other woman that I heard sniff at least once per second—quick, short little sniffs over and over and over and over again. No sound of snot to be heard. What the hell was she sniffing?! Then the man who, despite being thin enough, managed to take up the space equivalent to two and a half people. While he read his paper, he lifted his left butt cheek and let out a “pppppffffffffttttttttttttt” without batting an eyelash. The fact that we shared the same bench meant that not only did I hear his flatulation, but I felt the vibration. If it weren’t for my being freaked out that molecules from his ass were now in my nose, I would have been laughing.

Anonymity gives one balls.