In Which Miss Jill Discovers That Public Transportation Is The Key To A Fulfilling Social Life

A few months ago I was discussing life with an actress friend, let's call her "Hauntingly Beautiful Actress," and she said, "Miss Jill, you really should try meeting people on the subway. I do it all the time. I meet all of my best friends there."

Miss Jill: Ummm... that's a novel idea. Please elaborate.
Hauntingly Beautiful Actress: Once as I got on the train, I saw the most beautiful man I had ever seen in my life. I couldn't believe it. I had to talk to him.
Miss Jill: Cool.
Hauntingly Beautiful Actress: We talked until his stop came. He got off, but I didn't want to lose an opportunity, so I followed him home.
Miss Jill (nervous laugh): How'd that turn out?
Hauntingly Beautiful Actress: We dated for six months.
Miss Jill: I think that you have to be hot to pull that one off, or else it's just creepy.

Regardless, at the time I had actually been wanting to expand my social circle to include people besides white, upper middle class (by birth, not by bank account), twenty-something, wannabe liberal Mormons, so I took her advice to heart. My opportunity came even more quickly than I had imagined.

A few days later, when I got off the subway, a girl approached me and asked, "Excuse me, could you tell me where St. Nicholas Avenue is?" Luckily, that is my street. "Can I ask you something personal?" she continued. "Of course," I replied sportingly. "Do you feel safe in this neighborhood?" "Sure," I replied. What she didn't know was that after I said "Sure," I thought, "compared to Mogadishu."

We continued talking, rapidly became bffs and now we hang out at least once a week. I think if I'm going to apply this principle to true love, I will have to go ride around in the Financial District. Burning passions up here in the Heights are too likely to extinguish into Baby Daddies and garnished wages for child support.