20 confessions of a subway rider

Dress: Self Portrait; Shoes: Saint Laurent; Bag: Chanel; Sunglasses: Celine

And in no particular order, I give you, 20 confessions of a New York City subway rider:

1.  I can never remember which trains are express and which make local stops. This usually results in me ending up many, many, many stops past where I originally intended to get off. Either deep Brooklyn or WAY Upper West. And I kinda end up feeling like this guy. 
2. Is it weird that I feel bad for the PATH train? It's like the red headed stepchild in the MTA family.
3. I hate the revolving door subway entrances, mainly because it takes me a good 5-6 seconds figuring out which side has the gate arms that block your way. This has resulted in some embarrassing moments at rush hour.
4. I will probably judge you if I can a. hear your music b. see what you're reading on your kindle or c. spot you playing Candy Crush. And I fully expect you to do the same with me.
5. I follow @HotDudesReading on Instagram and I'm dying to snap a secret submission of mine own. The right guy just hasn't come along, I guess.
6. Dear Subway, You smell really funky during the summer.
7. Speaking of summer, interesting pedicures (or lack thereof) on the train when everyone is sporting their sandals. I'll let that one sit there for a while in awkward silence.
8. This is how I feel when I successfully tell a tourist what stop they need to get off at in order to get where ever they're going. 
9. This is how I feel when a tourist asks me for directions and I have no clue what to tell them.
10. At any given time, I probably have 54 Metro cards just sitting in my apartment, scattered at the bottom of different bags and in the pockets of multiple coats. Most of them probably have balance on them, too.
11. I once saw Gabourey Sidibe on the A train.
12. My dream subway companion would be Daniel Radcliffe so he could rap this song while we kill time on the 1 train (one of the SLOWEST trains in the mornings).
13. I can't help but wonder, why was there NEVER a subway scene in SATC? #DeepThoughts
14. My favorite subway station artwork is at 50th Street and 7th Avenue, where they have Alice in Wonderland tile work.
15. Subway musicians get me every time. Especially if you're playing the cello. I'll probably just stay on past my stop to listen to you play.
16. If you happen to be standing in front of an open seat on a very crowded train, WHAT POINT ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVE, MISTER? 
17. Randomly running into friends on the subway = one of those magical, serendipitous, "OMG, out of all the trains in NYC, you walked onto mine," moments.
18. Dear Men, if most of the population can abide by the subway manners that are outlined in all those ads, can you please, please, please stop sitting with your legs SPREAD wider than the Grand Canyon? 
19. There are two types of subway riders: Those who LOVE making eye contact and holding it past the point of comfort. And those who AVOID eye contact like the plague. Unless you're Tom Hardy, I'm the latter.
20. For as much as I love to complain about you and threaten to take a cab or an Uber instead, you're pretty fucking awesome, subway. And cheap. So thanks for that.

Photos by Anna-Alexia Basile