2:00am Travel @ JFK

 Another week of travel is not off to a good start.  Coast to coast connections, jostling for positions, picking through airline food, and then mind numbing delays.  Mercifully, I finally arrive at 2am and wearily make my way thru the maze I've come to affectionately refer to as JFK.  As I'm dragging myself out of jetway and into the terminal, a New Yorker with that distinctive Long Island accent approaches me and asks how to navigate the terminals, concourses, baggage and train. Too tired to engage in conversation, I tell him to just follow me.   Along the way I'm thinking...this day is certainly ending in irony; me giving directions to a New Yorker

 

 

So as me and my new friend are winding our way out, he asks me where I'm from. In my exhaustion I mumble that I'm from Utah. With a puzzled look he asks... where's Utah?.  I paused for a second or two, pondering various responses I could give. (In the months of coming here, I realize I have slowly taken on that New York "state of mind" and typically just want to get where I'm going without having to deal with any impediments)  I finally decide on the response which should bring our conversation to a close....I tell him,  "Utah is a city in New Jersey".  Wow, that worked perfectly! He just gave me a quizzical look and didn't ask me another question as we made our way out (ok all of you who think I was rude....did I mention it was 2:00am?  Don't Judge!).

A few weary minutes later we made it up to the transfer station outside the terminal.  While standing on the platform waiting for the train, I hear a soft voice behind me say....."you lied". 

Turning around, I'm face to face with a Jewish man with Yeshivish clothing and his peyos curling out from under his hat. I'm thinking to myself, this really isn't my best travel day. With my finest 2am smile I ask, "excuse me"?   He repeats that I lied to my New York friend.  I pause again, pondering over the many conceivable responses I might give.

 

Finally as the train arrives and were boarding,  I lean over and remind him...."Jacob also deceived Isaac, and that turned out ok".   To which my new Jewish friend exclaimed something in Yiddish (or some language I didn't understand)... which I translated as Touché and shook my hand.

 Never a dull day (Errr, night) in New York