Commuter stories: Smokin' hot lady

What are these blog things?

I was on the way home today when I saw some students walking home from school, and it reminded me of all my commutes home from school, back in the day. (I don't know if I'm old enough to be using that phrase...)

My high school was pretty much across the city from where I lived. My commute home was around an hour and half or so. An hour plus on the train/subway, and then another twenty minutes on the bus. If everything was on time.

That day, the weather was very warm. I didn't mind it too much, since the train has air conditioning in the summer. I get on my first train, and everything is as normal. A few stops later, I'm speed-walking through the subway tunnel to get to my second train. Mostly irrelevant, but just for your info, the tunnel is really warm and it smells like piss because of the homeless people (alternatively: drunk people or douchebags) who piss there. Anyway, I get to the platform and wait for the train. As it comes into the station, there's a warm-ish but not unpleasant blast of air.

I scramble to get on the last car and get a seat. (The last car is right by the exit at my stop/station.)

After we start moving, I realize that this train is really warm. Like the-heater-is-on warm. And that's because the heater was on. On a super hot summer day.

I'm listening to my music, eyes wandering around the train car, wondering if anyone else was feeling the heat. Then, I spot a woman get up and walk to the emergency exit at one end of the car. Again, for your info, passengers aren't supposed to use those doors unless there's an emergency, but some people (usually evangelists or kids trying to sell candy for so-and-so club/activity) use them to walk through to a different car, while the train is moving, two stories above the ground. In this story though, the train is still underground.

I figure the woman is planning on moving to a different car. I considered the same. But I didn't have the balls to walk through the emergency exit, and I was worried that if I got off the train car (through the regular doors) during rush hour, I wouldn't be able to push my way back on.

And then I smell cigarette smoke.

This woman was not, in fact, moving to a different train car. She was simply standing outside the emergency exit, smoking in the subway.