Hobbling Around the Town

I had knee surgery two weeks ago. I am ok but living in the city has proven to be difficult when you can't walk too well.

For the first couple of days, my parents took care of me... I didn't have to worry until I got back to NYC.

I am a lover of public transportation. I love subways and buses and cabs. The doctors orders included no subways for 2 weeks because of the stairs. I thought I would just lay low and take some cabs and buses for a bit and then get back to my life.

I started by taking cabs everywhere. I live uptown and work downtown. There is a lot of city inbetween and traffic that likes to be slow at rush hour. Then there was the other problem, my wallet. If I were a rich girl.... lalalalalalalalalalaaaaa. I took cabs for 3 days and it ended up costing me $100!

I decided to brave the buses. I didn't think that it would be too bad. The stop is right outside my apartment. I was wrong and in the process was able to do a little social experiment.

First, I decided to just sit in the front of the bus. I simply couldn't walk far back without the bus lurching and me losing my balance and going flying. I sat down and opened my book. As the bus stopped at the next stop more people got on. One woman grunted loudly in my direction. I told her that I could not get up. She moved to the seat behind me and kept muttering. "That bitch is taking up my seat"

I didn't realize that there were assigned seats on the bus. As she got off the bus she stepped on my foot (the one with the bad knee attached) . I shot her a dirty look but didn't want to fight with her. I sucked it up and tried to move my leg closer to under the seat.

I had a few more issues with elderly ladies. I decided to invest in a cane. I got a really crappy drug store metal cane and took the bus the next day. All of a sudden people were giving up their seats for me! I was nice to not have to fight with strangers and having a cane really helped me to walk around better without falling over.

Moral of the story: Unless you have a visual disability people in NY are not too kind.