- SO REAL

Yesterday the subway ride home went something like this. I managed to get a seat right off the bat at Canal street which is nice because sometimes I have to stand and wait about 10-15 minutes until we hit 42nd street or sometimes 59th street. So yesterday I was all set to take a nice nap which I almost always do in the afternoons except this time a woman and her two loud obnoxious children happened to be sitting across from me.

I don't hate kids. Well behaved children can be a pleasure to be around. I enjoy playing with children who are inquisitive and friendly, not the kind who flop on the ground and squeal hysterically every 10 seconds. I say this fully realizing that I was a crappy obnoxious kid myself.

These kids were out of control but the kicker was the mother who looked completely zonked out like she either hadn't slept for the past few days or was on some kind of narcotic. To me she looked like she was high and shouldn't have been dragging these two children around with her but it's not like they have a choice.

I was watching them the whole time because I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to play the Tetris game on my cell phone because I already have such a ridiciously high score. You can't beat my score on cell phone Tetris, TRUST ME.

One of the children kept touching a random woman sitting next to her when the mother wasn't paying attention. This nice woman didn't seem to mind and just played along and said hello to the little girl. This made me kinda upset because whenever I put my hand on a random woman's lap on the subway I always get slapped and called a perv. Then again this kid wasn't a 28 year old man wearing a grey raincoat and underpants around his neck.

But.

Then.

A weird thing happened. As I was watching the interaction of the mother and her two squealing children, I saw a man walk over to them as if he was going to intervene. The mother never really hit the children, maybe just a smack on the bottom but you could see in this man's eyes that he was watching her closely and making sure she wasn't going to really hit the children. I didn't think she would, especially not on a crowded subway but this man thought otherwise. He actually walked right up and stood in front of her and then found a seat directly across from her. He was watching her most of the subway ride until the kids calmed down and the mother started to doze off. Everything was fine.

The part that I found the most humorous was who this man was. As I saw him walk towards the woman and her kids, I thought to myself that he looked familiar. I said to myself, "Wait a minute I know that guy. He was on Law and Order." Now sometimes my touched brain plays tricks on me, this being one of the common ones it plays. I sometimes think I see people I know or that look really familiar. I have actually walked up to people before and said, "Do I know you?" fully thinking I do and they are just like, "Uh no Buddy, but nice raincoat."

This time though I was positive. So before my stop (I guess this guy lives in upper Manhattan like I do. REPRESENT!!!!) I walked closer to him since he was sitting by one of the exit doors. I had to ask, so I said something ultra suave like, "I know this is going to sound stupid but were you on Law and Order?"

He was excited when I asked him that and said, "Yes, can you tell me which one I was on?" and I knew it. He is a bit character and one of his more prominent roles was an episode where he was a schizophrenic who had a brother who turned him in for committing murder, or something along those lines. I forget the rest of the episode but I do remember he did a good job. As I walked off the train he thanked me for recognizing him.

It was all a little surreal.