Metro Blues

If you ride the Metro as many hours a day as I do - between school pick up/drop off, grocery shopping and just general getting around - a certain crabbiness can set in. Especially when caught in a hailstorm which soaked me thru the skin despite a raincoat, umbrella and hat. It was the puddles that did me in. I suppose there are storm sewers somewhere in Moscow, but maybe they are all plugged up with beer and vodka bottles. There's no recycling here, so hey, why not throw your empty adult beverage container in the gutter?

But I digress, back to my metro snark. In spring, the doors come off the Metro entrances. Hurray! Sasha was always getting smacked by the two way swinging doors. Now we only have to worry about a single door. But spring also brings heat which amplifies the odorific tendencies of Muscovites - and I'm sorry to say it, but it's mostly smelly men. So it is with this delicious co-mingling of aromas - vodka, garlic and BO that I now ride squished like a sardine with my fellow riders. Sweat and garlic are natural so I can deal with it. In fairness, the city is shutting down the hot water throughout the city during a two week rotation. But vodka at 9:30 AM, there's something just not right about that.

Everyday, I dutifully wait my turn to be jostled while riding up the ten minute escalator from my VDkH station to the smokey underpass which leads to our apartment. Normally I am not carrying two very heavy bags of groceries. Normally, I don't have to wait for two trains to pass in order to squeeeeze into a tiny space for the four station ride from Prospect Mira to VDkH. And normally, I don't give a shit about the fact that middle escalator is **never** working in the afternoon. But today, I cared.

Deeply.

I became a metro rage-aholic watching the red capped middle aged meany who "runs" the escalators or whatever she is pretending to do while watching all those TV monitors. I mean, hello, there are people pushing and shoving elderly and young children to ride up the single escalator while the middle one sits there operational, but gated off. Let's say for arguments sake you want to I dunno *walk* up the escalator. Nyet. let's say they are trying to save energy, why can't I just walk? Nyet.

I believe it is a sport here in Russia: how can I say no in as many ways to cause as much aggravation to the asking party as possible. Today I lost. Tonight I will drink a beer and forget.