My train this morning was not crowded. There was barely anyone on the 4/5 platform at Grand Central, and the few people who were there effortlessly filled the space inside the door of the train that pulled up. A few people were waiting to get on after me, though, so I wanted to move to the center of the car, which was loaded with free room. Two men were blocking my way, though, so I politely said "excuse me" to them as I always do.
One of them moved. He was young, good-looking, and probably has a beautiful penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side full of multiple women who love him and aren't jealous of each other. He probably has a great job with a boss who allows him creative freedom and doesn't mind when he comes in 15 minutes late.
The other man did not. He was in his 50s, probably lives in Westchester, probably has a wife who stopped loving him years ago, and probably never gets the promotions he thinks he deserves but all of his co-workers know he doesn't. He stood right where he was, giant leather shoulder bag totally blocking my way. But I'm a farm girl, and having muscles means you don't have to wait for people to be nice, so I just pushed his bag aside and stepped past him into acres of empty space.
As I did, though, the guy muttered a mean name under his breath. To me! Who is so careful to never be mean to people unless they're mean to me first! And he didn't even say it to my face! Which is so cowardly and despicable.
So I turned around, got right up to the side of his face, and said, "I SAID 'EXCUSE ME'." Everyone turned and looked at me, of course, but I was the victim, and I was not embarrassed about my display.
In fact, I wished I'd said more. I stood thinking for the next five minutes about all of the additional things I could've yelled. "THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WAITING TO GET INTO THE TRAIN." "IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO MAKE PEOPLE LIKE ME WANT TO MOVE BACK TO OHIO." "YOUR MOTHER NEVER LOVED YOU."
You get so few chances in this city to publicly voice your displeasure directly to the people causing it, and I only used up two seconds of my fifteen minutes of fame. I'll be ready next time, though.
Comments
Good for you! I live in Minnesota and I say things like this to people all the time. More people should be called out on their rude behavior. Well done & bravo!
Yes, I applaud this. People who are a-holes deserve to be called out for being a-holes.
People like this are why I moved out of DC.
I love the 15-30 minutes devoted to "what I should've said" after confrontations like this. What you did is awesome.
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