The Train to Fullerton

So... my journey begins. I have always believed that in life everything happens for a reason, every strange or horrible event in my life is meant to teach me something or prepare me for something in life...
On Wednesday, August 8, 2007, I boarded the AMTRAK to spend my last day in California with my best friends in Fullerton. The train ride was about 2 and a half hours long, and we stopped in Los Angeles after about an hour and a half. I was sitting in the "sleeper train" so that I could be in a quiet area with a reclining seat. Everything was working out beautifully, the time was flying by. After we were stopped for a few minutes I start to hear the sound that gives me goosebumps... because I am (for one reason or another) terrified of dogs, the sound of dog chains terrifies me beyond belief. So there I am, sitting there peacefully and I suddenly hear the "clang, cling, cling" of dog chains. As the sound gets louder I also start to hear a woman's voice saying "son of a bitch, son of a bitch..." over and over again. This woman and her dog start working their way down the aisle of the train and of course my heart begins to pound... this woman is clearly crazy. Because of my past experiences in New York I knew to just keep doing what I was doing and not make eye contact. I kept my eyes down on the magazine and made sure that I didn't appear any different. The woman goes to the next car and then comes back to my car right to the front row where I am sitting. She looks at the woman on the other side of the aisle and yells, "Excuse me ma'am, are you handicapped?" The woman sitting down is doing exactly what I am doing, just looking down and reading her book. The crazy woman repeats her question two more times and then yells, "HABLA INGLES?" To this, the woman sitting in the front row replies, "Oh, were you talking to me? Yes, I speak English and no I am not handicapped." Mind you, these were not handicapped seats and there is open seating on the AMTRAK. The crazy lady then asks this other woman to get up, which she does, and this crazy lady sits her dog in the seat. She then preceeds to tell her dog not to move and leaves him on the chair. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that this woman was acting blind in order to get her dog onboard... she wasn't blind and was apparently doing such a poor acting job that I actually had to think about it for a while before I realized what she was doing. Anyway, I am sitting in my seat, two feet away from this dog trying not to be terrified since I have been told that dogs can "smell fear". The woman returns after a few moments and I realize how desperately I want to change my seat. I don't want to get the woman's attention so I wait a few minutes and then, trying to be discreet, I get up and change to a different seat in the next car. As I am walking, the woman who was "kicked out " of her seat asks me if I was also kicked out... she started laughting hysterically and I explained that I just couldn't sit there. She obviously understood why. Anyway, I changed my seat and continued my ride on the train peacefully. This whole experience, however, just seemed like my life was preparing me for my subway rides in New York. I might still get terrified, but I ultimately know how to deal with it (I hope).
I now sit in Pensacola, Florida, where the sun is beaming down (I will be going to New York looking like a black woman) and the ocean crashes only yards away from my room. And yet, I can't wait to start my new life in New York surrounded by America's craziest of people.