NYC Rant: Late Night Weekend Subway Service Sucks

I've been busy this week and only now getting around to blogging about the weekend. Let's start with the helluva time I had getting home on Sunday night.

The night was going well. I had dinner with a friend visiting from LA, let's call her Ms. Merlot, and a friend of hers at Shabu Tatsu, one my all-time favorite places to eat in the city. We then caught a 9:15 showing of Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist with a couple hundred NYU students in Union Square. Not necessarily my first choice for cinema, but a fun, brainless movie that fit the bill for a girls' night out. My two companions were thrilled to play "spot the NYC landmark" throughout the film, which is about a couple high schoolers falling in love as they hunt for a lost friend and a secret rock show in the city.

Anyhow, after the movie let out, around 11 pm, it took me an HOUR to get home to the Financial District. Let me explain my journey.

1. First I try taking the R/W . I wait a few minutes, but realizing something is weird, check the little route signs. It turns out those lines stop running after 11 on the weekends--Sunday included.
2. Bummed, I walk over to the L, but I just miss my train, and the LCD signs tell me the next train isn't coming for 23 minutes!
3. I go back to the R/W platform, thinking I'll ride to Canal and transfer to the J/M/Z.
   
4. I get to Canal Street, and it turns out the J/M/Z is not running late on Sundays. At this point, I think why don't I just take a cab home, but the stubborn fool I am, I have one last idea.
   
5. I decide to walk out along Canal, all the way to the 1 stop past West Broadway. That walk is soooo long! And creepy and not very well-lit. I decide Canal Street is one of few streets in Manhattan I don't feel safe walking on alone at night. I'm completely freaked out, afraid of being kidnapped or assaulted. I wear my down winter jacket, even though it's 68 degrees out, to cover up "the girls."
   
6. Finally, I get to the 1 station on Canal. But guess what? The 3 is running on the 1 track! Gosh darn it!
   
7. So I ride the 3 to Wall St and walk 10 minutes home. Thank god for the armed security men in the Financial District. They make me feel safe.
   

Ugh. I know. I should have just taken a cab home, but it just gets me that a cab home from Union Square costs me $12-15 with tip. At any rate, the MTA is completely unreliable south of Canal Street on the weekends. Also, their trains are also really screechy and probably causing hearing loss. Where is all my fare money going?