Monday, November 15, 2010

So, this is weird...

Sunday afternoon, we all piled on to the 1 train as usual, on our way to church. We take up almost an entire center section of a subway car, so it's always nice to get on and find that empty row waiting for us. Such was the case this day, and we all sat there in our Sunday garb.

I looked over at the three men across from me and to my left. They were speaking French and they were large guys, yet they had all squeezed into what looked like two seats. I know from experience that those French types have no issues with not having any personal space on the Metro, so I figured they were quite comfy.

Next to them, directly across from me, was this Asian guy in his 20's. He was just listening to his iPod at first and then, he did something that caught my attention. He looked over at our family, took off his earphones, then pulled out a pen and what looked like a journal. He opened it and I saw short entries scribbled inside. He turned to a fresh page and started writing. I could barely just make out this sentence at the top: "A family of six got on the subway..." and that's all I could see before he looked up at me and I looked away hastily.

He kept writing and writing, and in between writing, he kept looking at me (I have great peripheral vision), then he would look at Ben, then each of the kids in turn. I was dying to see what he was writing about us, and I sort of wanted to yell, "What the heck are you writing about us in your diary?" But I didn't, and we got to 66th St., our stop, and he had written a full page, and we got up and got off. And I will never ever know. And it kills me.

I wonder if he will write a blog about us. Or make a TV show. Or an immersion art piece. Or a book, or comic book! Maybe it will be called, "The day I saw some people on the subway who were so obviously Mormon that I had to write it down," or, as I prefer to think, "The day I saw the most ridiculously good-looking, stylish mom with unfortunate roots that I have ever seen."

Come on, a page?! Maybe we just inspired him to get out of his dead end job, get married, and make babies. And I'm ok with that, too. But so help me, I want some credit.

5 comments:

Carina said...

You're in Manhattan: you're now on a Tumblr!

Jenni said...

Oh, that would totally drive me crazy! I may have stayed on the train a little longer just to try to see what he had written. TOo funny.

kathryn said...

Hailey! I was just reading back through all your posts on New York life, I'm glad to hear you're doing well out there! (My) Ben is so jealous... anyways, just wanted to say hello, and if I happen to spot any novels about a ridiculously handsome family of six on the subway, I'll be sure to give you a head's up.

Lisa said...

I would DIE TO KNOW what he wrote! It was probably an assignment for an English class--I always had assignments like that: study a person, describe everything. . .etc etc. You are interesting enough to STUDY! And if there's a new tv show about a stylish young mom with gorgeous kids, we'll know who to thank! (you. it's you)

erin said...

That's funny. Maybe if you google enough topics about large families on the train you'll find his blog or something :D