personal grooming. on the subway? really?

new yorkers are busy people, or so i've heard. apparently, so busy that they have to groom themselves in transit. on the subway.

friday night. about 6:30 pm. i was on the 1 train from south ferry heading up to canal street to go to the gym. yes, i do that now. once in a while. anyway. the south ferry subway station is super crap. only the first 5 cars open in the station, so there's always a mad frenzy for people to make sure they are in the first 5 cars. and there's only one entrance/exit. so everyone is trying to go up/down the same set of stairs & in/out the same set of turnstiles. the track is essentially a big circle, so when the 1 train rolls into south ferry station, the screech is insane. it sounds like 70 000 wild cats fighting one another on a giant blackboard.

anyway. that's the backdrop.

the train rolls into the station and waits there awhile before departing back uptown. i sit down and open up my book on "peter the great". across the way from me is a middle-aged woman (i'm guessing 40-something ish). she does not look crazy. she is remarkable frankly for being so unremarkable.

but then she does something remarkable. blogg-able even.

she pulls out numerous grooming accoutrements & a mirror and proceeds to tweeze her eyebrows. tweeze. her. eyebrows. in public. on the subway. without shame. i have seen women put make-up on the train. and that's horrid in its own way. but tweezing! c'mon. really. there just isn't enough time in your day that you have to multi-task PERSONAL GROOMING with transportation. at this point i am, myself, shamelessly staring at her. hoping to shame her into stopping before she pulls out her toenail clippers and decides to give them a once over. does she stop. of course not.

New York knows no shame.

instead, she starts to pluck hairs from her 'tache-ular region. and then from her chin!

swear.

seriously, gross.

the train starts to move and she's still pruning away at her face. she tweezes her face for 3 subway stops, before finally pulling out of her bag cotton balls & TONER to swab down the areas of her face she's just clear-cut.

just another new york moment.