That's it, I'm joining the mole people

I was happy to be in New York today. Why?
Well, there is often many reasons why, but today it was this: because today, for my job, I got to learn how to work safely on the subway lines.
It was pretty exciting, crawling down on the subway tracks from the platform and entering those mysterious spaces that I have always found so fascinating. Ever since I was a little kid, on trips to New York I would clammer to the front of the train to watch from the front window in fascination as we hurdled through the dark space of those enticing caverns. Ever since then, I have harbored a deep desire to explore the dark reaches of those city bowels.
Often, I find I have this strange urge to jump down and run into the darkness as I stare down at the tracks waiting for a train, to run amok in those dank and mysterious caves that I have watched glide by from the relative comfort of a subway car, to have my way in the decaying and enormous underground subway lines of NYC (800 miles worth in all!); home to mythical underground societies, and God knows what else.
And so it was that I at least partially got my wish fulfilled today.
A big group of us (let me explain: it was a one-day safety certification class for contractors that work in the tunnels, administered by the Transit Authority of NYC) went down together and learned the ins and outs of how to properly be safe around tracks where trains come and go with regularity. And today they did come, as soon as we started filing down there. Right away we had to cinch ourselves up in one of the breaks between the tracks, between two steel poles and watch as 350 tons of train, passed 7 inches from our noses. At any given time, another 350 ton behemoth could be passing 7 inches from the back of our heads, prompting the obvious lesson: resist the urge to jerk your head back from the mass of steel hurtling through space a dick's-length from your face. It was especially exciting when the train would start to get close. There you are, realizing the enormity of them as you stand 6 feet below where you normally board, noticing that the wheels alone come up to your chest, and the headlights blind you to anything but their light as they get closer, making the side of the train that suddenly appears right in front of your face especially jarring. Quite a rush.
Truly a dream come true today was, despite the 1 and a half hours of sleep the night before, and the nightmarish return to trying to stay awake in class through an extremely boring lesson for 2 hours at an ungodly hour of the morning (complete with return to deactivated Public High School building where the Transit Authority's learning center is stationed!).
Highlights included Jamaican accents and viewing a massive underground burner, executed monochromatically in bubblegum pink, and seemingly with a paint roller, proclaiming "DIRTBAG" in a wonderfully and carefully stylized script.
So anyway, I'll stop procrastinating about working on my ebay store and website developing now which I badly need to do. Will blog soon with upcoming travel plans and more exciting adventures from NYC.