So Drake and I commute together, and I think it makes us look like tourists.

Starry starry night
Originally uploaded by Alta Marie

First of all, anyone who shows any interest in anything is probably a tourist, or at the very least not a native. Living here, my walking/commute pattern is very consistent. I take the L to the ACE to Canal street, walk down the same street into my building every day.

If the Chinese man with the newspapers is outside the door of the SoHo pharmacy when I emerge from the subway station, then I am on time. If the gates are up and he's already inside, then I am late. If the man in the Giants puffy coat is handing out menus before you cross Greenwich Street to enter the building, no one takes them. If girls in hot pants are handing them out, some people do take them. (I bring my lunch to work, not to mention I find hot pants inappropriate before noon on workdays.)

So now that Drake and I commute to work together, everything is all off and I'm quite sure that we look like tourists. People don't hold hands or link arms on the way to work... Every time the subway announcer says "Stand clear of the closing doors, please" he jerks me away from the direction of the door and holds me away from them (even when we are seated and/or no where near the doors.)

Also on the first day I darted ahead of him in the crowd and ended up significantly ahead, so every now and then we race and sometimes we also hide from each other (behind trucks or cars or other people) while the other one pretends not to care and then sneak back up again and then mention what a better spy/secret agent one of us would be than the other.

Our chances of looking like natives are totally ruined...