So I'm Sitting On The Subway...

So Wednesday afternoon, I'm sitting on the 2/3 express subway line, headphones blasting some good '80s' tunes, reading a newspaper... The car packs with folks as we stop at 14th Street. I'm suddenly aware that someone is yelling at me. I look up and see a woman in her early 50s. I move one headphone pad from my ear."Are you disabled? Are you a disabled person?" she screeches, staring me down like a jacked-up hawk and obviously "suggesting" that I give up my seat to her.

Perhaps I could have been a little more gentile, but because of her aggression, I simply said, "Nope," and tried to stand up to make a place for this gracious woman to have her seat. But because the car is packed, this takes me a good 3 to 4 seconds—giving her time to shriek, "Hurry up. My leg is killing me."

At this point, her entitled attitude and overall rudeness was just too much. As she plopped down onto the seat, I looked her in the eye and laughed out loud, saying, "You might have been a little more polite." She, of course, ignored me.

But the half-dozen or so passengers standing in my midst offered empathy. A couple smiled, one nodded, another shook her head in disdain at this bitch.

When we reached 72nd Street, where I was getting off the train—as was she—I made sure to say to her, "You have a real nice evening. Hope it's better than your day," with a sarcastic New York-size scowl on my face.