love and hate

last friday i caught the one as fast as i could after work. i had to catch a train upstate so i could drink with my parents and watch a (probably) awful movie with my dad. i've mentioned it before, but i really do love the one train. the west side, for some reason, is far more interesting than the east side. so why do i still live on the east side? i got on and spotted these two, sharing ipod earbuds:



i assumed they were a couple, since they had some sort of large purchase in a white plastic bag across their laps...and the afore mentioned earbud-sharing. it made me a little sad, thinking about how my ex and i used to do that on the train from brooklyn to manhattan; how i would walk into my building smiling like a fool. but i tried not to fixate and instead turned my attention to the two teenagers next to them:



"hate is just another form of love," the black girl said. "i don't think so," said the white girl next to her, wearing a red yankees hat. "well," the black girl explained, "if you hate someone, then you care enough about that person to hate them." "but i HATE erica costello," said the white girl. "no," the black girl reasoned, "you despise erica costello." "yeah, i guess you're right," the white girl decided. and they went on to discuss the finer points of just how useless a friendship with erica costello was. how often she wanted to "fight" the white girl at school. all the spats and threats, the D-R-A-M-A. oh, how i could relate. oh, how achingly. just how well i could relate threw me. i have a decade on these girls and yet i was going through the same shit.

and THEN, then the black girl turns to the white girl sharing the earbuds with the black man to my right and says, "are you listening to music with my dad?" and the girl nods. and all my preconceptions are thrown out the window. i am obviously a terrible judge of age...and relationships, for that matter. this was just a friend of his daugher's trying to share new music with him. they were the furthest thing from a couple ever. but because of me and my ex, and even more because of me and sean:



i just assumed. sean and i took that picture...god....almost three years ago. we were on our way to an after party. and we came up with a great ipod ad. he was a photo major and i was a bullshit major. MATCH MADE IN HE...LL? anyway...the idea of a shared earbud experience inspired us. our ad would be a couple walking down the street, sharing earbuds, maybe dancing along to the music, or just strutting (see--john travolta in the sequel to saturday night fever), and the tag line would be "share the love." WHY HAS NO ONE COME UP WITH THIS YET? so i always assumed that anyone who shared earbuds was, you know, at least really close. i've only shared earbuds with my ex and my ex best friend. HEY, DRAMA. if you don't count sean anyway....BUT!...i was wrong about these two. but i'm glad i ran into them. i'm glad i got to hear highschool girl drama....at least until times square when i got off to catch the shuttle to grand central. oh, how i adore the shuttle. but that's for another time.