The 22 Project: NYC - episode 5

There I was, standing in the doors of a Brooklyn-bound 4 train, barely any time to ignore the "Stand clear of the closing doors, please!"  (I'm not sure why they say "please," because it's pretty obvious there's no pleading involved.)  The doors closed on me, and opened again, and closed tighter, and opened again.  You'd think I would have learned by that point – but I stayed there in the frame as they tried to close even tighter, and opened again.  My wrists would surely be bruised within the hour.  (Is it instinct to never touch anything in New York with bare hands?)

That's how I met... well I didn't catch her name, did I?  That was my own fault.  I knew the train was coming, and decided to go for the photo anyway.  I think it was the hair that caught my eye – you can't see it, but it went all the way down to her stomach!  It's a shame I didn't catch her name, though.  I'll have to work on my snap journalism.

She looked at me like I was nuts the whole time, and can you blame her?  I did manage to work a few things out for myself based on three clues:

1.  The tight-slicked, blonde, side-ponytail.

2.  The fact that we were located in Spanish Harlem.

3.  The accent in which she repeated, "This is for a blog?  What kind of blog?" in that voice full of youthful distrust.

With these three clues I invented a story for her, and that's how I met MariaMaria.

She reminds me an awful lot of a West Side Story, and she's a musician (note the Dr. Dre headphones) working alongside Santana to write and record his next album!  How exciting for her (and all of us)!  She's also the very first woman to be featured here on the 22 Project, so double kudos for this one.