Ride the 5 train. While this branch of the Lexington Ave. express may only be worth a C-minus in the eyes of its riders, you’re bound to find love in some form or another.
We start on Sunday night with true love or at least a fairly strong infatuation. At around 9:30 p.m. on the 4th of November, Patrick Moberg, a recent RIT alum and a professional illustrator, was minding his own business on a Bowling Green-bound 5 train when his eyes fell upon a beautiful girl sitting across from him. Like millions of New Yorkers, he instantly developed a Subway Crush. But this was no ordinary subway crush. This was a crush on the girl of his dreams.
Like everyone else on the subway, Moberg was too shy, too hesitant to talk to this girl writing in her journal. When he finally worked up the courage to do it, she was lost in the crowd of departing passengers at Bowling Green. Like any tech-savvy 20-something, Moberg went out and created a Website whose sole purpose is to find this girl. Moberg, who at NYGirlOfMyDreams.co,, appears rather hipster-ish, claims he is “not insane” even though he has reproduced online an annotated drawing of himself and the girl.
Of course, he’s not insane. He, like every other single male in New York, falls in love with the first beautiful girl on the subway. That’s just how it works. As Jen Carlson at Gothamist noted, “expect to see a rotating cast of illustrated girls he’s fallen for underground.”
For his part, Moberg’s milking the story for all its worth. He has a video up on Vimeo in which he discusses why he didn’t just talk to the girl of his dreams. And he mentions that CNN wants to interview him. He’ll take his 15 minutes anyway he can, and if the girl hasn’t heard about this yet, she and her friends must live in a black hole. I’m rooting for him. It’s endearing, and anything that’s mercilessly mocked on Gawker should end well.
Meanwhile, if true love on the 5 train isn’t your style, there’s always sketchy folks riding the subway. On Monday, two men – or perverts, in the parlance of this article in The Post – were arrested for groping two women in unrelated incidents. One victim was 39; the other was 14; and both suspects have prior arrests and jail time on their records. Jossip is not surprised by this news, but seriously, folks, can’t we just stick to cute infatuations? No need to get all touchy on the subways.
For those of you interested, the full video is embedded after the jump.
Patrick discusses the girl of his dreams from Jakob Lodwick on Vimeo.