Yes...I did.

Yesterday I got out of bed at 9:30 a.m. It was nice because I didn't have to be at work until 10:30. First thing I thought was, "Wow. I'm becoming one of those people who considers not having to get up until 9:00 sleeping in!" This, of course, is not completely true. The previous day I had stayed in bed until about 4:00 p.m. But still, I got up and plunged right into my whirlwind day.

I threw on my Ann Taylor pants, my Banana Republic shirt, grabben my purse and my shoes and put on my earrings as I rushed down the hall to the elevator. I waited impatiently until it finally showed up and crammed myself in there with the Korean laundry lady, the well-dressed businessman, the woman in the running shoes, the Mexican delivery man, the punk with the blaring iPod, and another King's student on her way to class. I was the first one to push my way out of the door and clacked my way through the lobby to the double set of glass doors out of the building. Of course, a British couple who were having issues managing their suitcases blocked one doorway and the Polish woman was washing the glass on the other one.

I held the doors for the British couple, not because I was being nice, but because I wanted to speed the process along. Finally I was out on the sidewalk, doing the little dance with other people who had places to be while dodging the tourists who apparently never learned how to walk properly. Around the corner into the Dunkin Donuts, one of the few places around that could actually do anything efficiently. Sure, they were very curt and abrupt about it, but dang if they didn't keep that line moving.

I've never been a coffee in the morning type of person. I haven't really been a coffee person since I quit Starbucks. But see, my roommate is slowly trying to ruin me. I have learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dunkin Donuts has the best coffee around. And I've learned that when you're going to be going for 12-15 hours straight coffee in the morning is a pretty good idea.

So I got my coffee. I got a donut. And I realized that I forgot my water bottle, so I paid $2 for one of those too. I rushed out, ran down the stairs to the subway, where, naturally, all the turnstyles except one was closed and people were streaming out one and some little German girl who insisted on swiping her own card couldn't get it to work properly. So I stood there with the other people who had somewhere to be until some other woman walked up, took the card out of her hand, and swiped it for her. The rest of us breathed a sigh of thanks and moved on through.

I made my way down the stairs when I heard a train pull into the 34th St. station and started running around the old people, the stupid people, and the people who flat out didn't care. Another woman in front of me almost flew headfirst down the stairs when her ankle turned on her heel. She composed herself though, as she was clearly very experienced in such things.

I made it to the landing and saw that it wasn't my train after. So I slowed my pace. Fortunately I didn't have to wait long as the train screeched its way into the station. Those tracks really need WD-40 or something because it sounds like nails on a chalkboard after 3 hours of sleep.

Happily, I'd missed rush hour so I sat down, listening to my iPod, eating my donut, drinking my coffee. 4 stops later I get off at 59th St. Columbus Circle. At this point it was about 10:28. I was going to be late. I hurried through the station and started up the stairs, relieved to be surrounded by other people going to offices and cubicles, as opposed to people going to the top of the Empire State Building and asking directions to Macy's. Several of us were all hurrying up the stairs and got stuck behind some guy who couldn't seem to decide where he was going. I finally squeezed around him, grabbed one of the free daily newspapers being handed out at the top of the stairs, and turned and gave him the most scathing of death glares.

As I turned around to keep walking I took a sip of coffee and started skimming the headlines. Suddenly, the events of the last hour hit me. The arrogance, self-importance, and superficiality of so much that I just participated in made me want to sit down reset. Here I was, a college student working as a temp in a cubicle doing data entry and I was already part of a world that I've long denounced (well...kind of).

Just something to think about... My coffee was really good though.