Metro Madness

It's called the subway in New York, the underground in London, the metro in Paris and the place to give away your wallet in Rome.

All large cities have them, I guess, and it's really the only way to get around. They are impossible to avoid.

Those named above are the only ones I've been on and I'm a long way from mastering the art of subway trains - navigation is hard enough, but getting on and off is my biggest challenge.

A few of the subway stations have two sets of doors. One to keep you from falling off the train and another to keep you from falling on the tracks. From the time the doors open, there is a 15 second mad rush for passengers to disembark and for you to embark. That may seem like a long time, but the "disembarkers" go first, of course (standard elevator etiquette), and the "embarkers" simply make their own way leaving women and children in their wake.

When we were in Paris last weekend, we had a little embarking incident.

When we're with Ross, we rely on him to tell us when to get on and off because he knows where he's taking us. We just follow him as if we don't have brains of our own. It's pretty easy :)

So, last weekend we were headed somewhere unknown to us. Ross jumps on the train and we end up way down at another door behind about 10 other embarkers. When the doors open, Winslow (our dog) is eager to board and once he gets the chance, he's on!

On this busy Saturday afternoon, at a station with double doors, there were quite a few "disembarkers" at our door so we waited patiently . . . but not Winslow. He's on!

Now Winslow is on and Jim and I are still behind the other "embarkers". Suddenly the doors close! Both sets of doors. Jim is stuck in the train door and I'm stuck in the platform door. Stuck, as in we cannot move.

I panicked. Screaming "Oh my God!". If you can picture this . . . it was not pretty.

The doors would NOT open! They just kept squeezing me tighter. Naturally, I was sure we would not survive what my imagination had conjured up.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity and for whatever reason, the doors mercifully opened. I survived and so did Jim, but I was pretty sure my foot was broken and I've got this war wound that is swollen, hurts like hell and will probably only get worse before it gets better :)

Later, when we found Ross, I asked if he'd seen what happened. He said "No, but I thought I heard somebody screaming."