speaking of pseudo-intellectual book lovers...

I've got my nose in a book this morning on the 1 train; it's a slightly older book that I never got around to reading until now and I can hardly put it down. It's called "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers, and is about a 21-year-old whose parents die within five months of each other, and he has to raise his little brother. Unbelievably good. I'm behind everyone else in discovering this, of course...

I'm about half-way through, on a very exciting and funny scene. I notice we are at 96th street, people get on, and I resume reading. Three stops to go. The train continues through the tunnel. I am completely lost in the story. We go by 103rd, 110th, and, apparently, 116th, my normal stop.

None of this becomes obvious until I notice the train has suddenly gotten much brighter. I look up and there's sunlight through the windows -- we're now above ground on the elevated track, pulling into 125th. I'm disoriented and can't even manage to collect my senses and get up and off the train. 125th is still an easy walk to my office, a block or two further than 116th.

Instead, I keep going to the next stop, 137th, which is too far to walk, well, at least not QUICKLY. It was already 9 a.m. Not only that, but there's no transfer point there -- I had to exit, go upstairs, cross Broadway, enter the downtown side, and head back. I got off at 125th afterall because I just wanted to get off the train at that point.

Dork. Well, at least I wasn't walking and reading. Smack me if you ever see me doing that.