There’s about a week or two, sometimes a month or two, every summer and winter in New York City when you seriously question your sanity for living here. That’s after you’ve already gotten over the tiny apartments, the crazy people, the noise, and the days you can go without seeing single tree or a star in the sky, because you love all the other things about being here. 

But that stretch in the summer, when it’s hotter than hell, and the garbage on the sidewalk ripens in the air, you can’t get a cab, it’s over 120 degrees in the subway, and maybe your A/C breaks down, too (or you don’t have one to begin with) — it’s pretty dehumanizing, and that stretch can be hard. 

We’re right at the tail end of one — Hurricane Earl is poised to sweep through tonight and bring 70 degree days again in its wake — and as I plodded over to the subway to head downtown for a meeting yesterday, I was not loving New York. But I went anyway, and I got to see a couple things on my way downtown and back.

A teenage girl, crying as she ran alone up the subway steps, followed a few seconds later by her stricken, ponytailed boyfriend, like a story in two acts. 

A busker playing electrified violin music in the scalding subway station, where he introduced each of his New Age-y songs with a hilarious name (“This one’s called… ‘Scandalous Love’”) and told everyone they could buy it on iTunes.

A full-grown, middle-aged guy matter-of-factly sliding his groceries under, then jumping the turnstile at the 23rd Street station, because budget cutbacks meant no one was in the booth. 

A couple kissing goodbye at the top of the subway stairs, blocking the exit a little, oblivious to the rest of us having to walk around them, because they might not see each other for a while, like a third act to the story before.

And then, the most killer sunset of the summer, as I stepped out onto 23rd Street looking west, and a pretty decent breeze.

Feeling like a human again, after all. Summer’s ending, and here in the city it’s going to be a good fall.

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Related: 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live (The Onion)