West 36th: Summer 05

After a while there are certain parts of the City that you love and certain parts you absolutely detest. You love walking in central park, browsing through SoHo or the East Village, strolling down the Upper East Side, and enjoying brunch on the Upper West.

The walk of death for me is getting from the 34th street’s 1 train stop to 36th and 8th. That 7.5 minute walk is a nightmare in and of itself, particularly when it is hot and humid, which, on this particular day, it is.

I climbed the 48 stairs from the bottom pit of the subway towards the small opening leading to “air". Already sweating and uncomfortable, only to be enveloped in the sauna-esque atmosphere that makes you feel like you are breathing in the sun for breakfast. But, nay, on 34th, just as you turn to walk away from the Macy’s super store, you are breathing in exhaust; pure and uncontaminated exhaust. It fills your lungs as if you have been a chained smoker your whole life.

Pass every fast-food shop, every discount store and jewelry stand, quickly, swerving left and right so as to not lose momentum by the strolling people, or those lost in conversation on their over-priced cell phones. Holding your breathe, for fear that the stench coming from the chicken shop frying food at 9 am and the urine beds at the corner of each building, will be fighting with the exhaust for a safe place in your lungs.

You pass by every type of person…all uniquely different than you, but same in the fact that they also have a film of wetness on their foreheads. Once in a while you might pass a young chap who has overloaded on cologne, in hopes that the smell will detract from the fact that his body yearns to break out in an uncontrollable sweat, but for the most part, the majority of the hundreds that crowd that smelly, stifling, and polluted stretch of land have given in to the sweat; allowing the smell to become one of the 63 distinct scents that one encounters during that short span of time.

And there you have it. 7.5 minutes there and 7.5 minutes back…bane of my existence.