Is This Seat Taken?

New York City is known for its torrential downpours of rain and often I’ve been caught without an umbrella. Every time it pours I think of one particularly awful experience I had…

About five years ago I attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. After leaving a dance class one evening I found myself caught in the rain. I was running to meet friends and decided to hop on the crowded train to get me there faster and dryer.

Once I got on the train I did what I like to call “the seat scan” where you scan as quickly as you can for an available seat and then high tale it to claim the seat before anyone else can get there. I was happy to notice one available seat in the whole car, so I wove myself in and out of people to sit. Upon arrival I realized that the reason it was an available seat was because there was a very smelly, very loud homeless lady one seat over. But I didn’t care. I was sitting and that’s all I wanted. I discreetly put my hand over my mouth to mask the smell as the lady got up to walk through the car. And that’s when I saw it…a puddle on her seat, a puddle that was leaking its way over to my seat. I bolted up to reveal homeless lady urine all down my sweater. I ran off the train at the next stop, tried not to vomit and threw away my favorite sweater. When I finally arrived to meet my friends I was soaking in nothing but a leotard and jeans.

Oddly enough, I was applauded for my bold fashion sense by my friends and kept the secret to my style until now…