I always have a hard time deciding when to give up on a train. This morning, for example, the F train I was on stopped in the Lexington Avenue station (which used to be the stop I got off at for work a few years ago, as it happens) for about fifteen minutes. The doors were open, and eventually people started leaving the train, presumably to catch cabs or to walk down to 59th and get another line.

I am invariably wracked with indecision in cases like this. Do I abandon the train, knowing that I will end up late because I have to find a cab or switch to a different line (and then wait for another train, and then walk the longer distance to my building), or do I stay on the train, knowing that I may sit there for half an hour only to have them take it out of service? We’ve covered my mild obsessive compulsive tendencies before, and also my very strong aversion to being late, so maybe you can understand that this kind of thing really bothers me.

This time, I chose to stay on the train, and they eventually shut the doors and everything else went smoothly. I still arrived at work at about ten to nine, but it’s a measure of how crazy I really am that I was pissed off about it - usually I’m there by 8:40.