That's how my mind works nowadays! I suppose its better to keep my zipper on my purse right under my thumb, my purse is ALWAYS on my lap (covered by napkins), I don't wear a backpack, and I am always very aware of where my stuff is. I had a moment of concern for this distracted mother, but she seemed to think nobody would mess with her because she had a happy baby in that huge red stroller.
I suppose cute babies are distracting. To be honest, I couldn't even see the babies face. The mother was just making all sorts of baby-spanish-babble noise that I couldn't help but look.
Apparently while all these thoughts were going through my head, the snoring fellow next to me decided to wake up. Maybe he wasn't a huge fan of baby babble during his metro-nap. I didn't notice when he woke up, but I sure noticed when I decided to stop looking over at the baby and the mother.
I leaned back in my seat and found this older,scruffy, cranky from baby noise, man staring at me. And it isn't the usual Spanish stare. It is a MEAN stare. I reviewed my Metro etiquette. I was sitting within the confines of my seat, I was not making any loud noise and I was not searching through my bags for a small item that I would most likely never find. So, what could I have done wrong?
I pondered this in my head and quickly turned in the opposite direction to look at the ever so thrilling screen that announces the stops. Seeing as how I had several to go, I started gazing around again (Metros are fun!) and I once again notice that the baby and mother with the super large red stroller are still sitting there babbling in Spanish baby talk. I look out the corner of my eye at my new friend on my left, and I see that he is STILL glaring at me. I pondered glaring back at him, but my glares aren't really mean and I decided to spare myself the embarrassment. But seriously, this guys scare was scary. You would've thought that I had eaten his tortilla while he was napping. I wish he would have fallen back to sleep, but I survived the 2-3 remaining glare minutes until I was able to escape the wrath of sleep deprived man by making a swift exit at San Bernardo.
I was a little disheartened by this Metro experience. I mean I have gotten looks when I'm with other Americans, or if I start humming some random Disney tune or if I decide to stare off into space at someone else by accident. These all make sense, but all I did was look at a cute baby and its mother. No harm done.
After my Bikram Yoga class (that is for another entry), I was calm and prepared to find sleeping man on my train. I assumed he would fall back asleep and be making loops around Madrid on Line 2. I was relieved to find that he was not there, and instead some innocent man (who was awake and reading) to subject to my lovely sweaty self (I did change out of my workout clothes don't you worry!) Anyways, enough of the details.
I sit down on the train and stare off into space for most of the ride. All of a sudden, I find a large black backpack thrust in my face. We are talking inches from my face at times, brushing up against it at others. I look up and I see this ponytail and I hear chomping. It's apparently some really cool teenager downing a bag of chips. I try to lean away from the bar that this chick is leaning on, but the backpack keeps coming closer and closer. I take a good look at it. These pockets are bulging and I find myself thinking how easy it would be for me to unzip her pockets.
What Irony! I have become SO paranoid and aware of other peoples' items that I have resorted to thinking about how I, MEGHAN, could rob this completely oblivious Spanish girl? Right.
So I am sitting there on the metro, annoyed and curious about this backpack situation. Do I push her? Do I unzip her bags? I am sitting there staring at her monstrosity of a bag when another woman walks on the train (it was FULL) and stands in front of me. Surprisingly, she has no problem stepping away from me and I am still able to enjoy my personal space. She sees the backpack in my face and raises her eyebrows. I give her a look right back, and we both shake our heads.
I was still annoyed with the backpack at this point, but then again, I was also excited to have a kind interaction with someone on the Metro! This woman didn't give me a dirty stare while I looked for someone to relate to about this HUGE backpack. I don't know about grumpy- nap man, but I imagine his expression wasn't going to change unless he got some tortilla.
So there I am comparing the two scenarios on the Metro in my head. I had two interactions, one with grumpy-nap man, and the other with nice-and realizes this chick's backpack is huge and in my face- woman. I decided the Metro isn't such a scary place after all, even if it does somehow start to convince me that unzipping this chick's backpack could be a good idea.
Regardless, the woman and I both made faces when I tried to stand up and when I had to guide the girl's backpack away from my face. I maneuvered around my new friend, and headed toward the door. There was another seat next to me, but the woman took my seat and my new accessory, the large backpack. I smiled at her again as I got up, and she smiled and shook her head.
And then I walked off the metro and saw the kind woman and the girl chomping on her chips roll off into the distance.
THE END
(For lack of a better ending)
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