a woman on the subway platform at 96th street

You can never go back. You see a young woman in scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck and you remember the year you spent in that outfit. The days you wore it out on the lunch hour because you liked experiencing the little kindnesses shopkeepers, strangers showed someone they perceived to be a caretaker. The lunch with Jimmi at Fred 62 when he said, "are you working at a hospital now?"
Not exactly.
My longest-straight employment to date was at Talmadge studios in LA, the set was Seattle Grace hospital, and my employer was Touchstone TV. It was a hard job in a way, long hours that often started before the sun came up but the people I worked with were lovely and the pay was decent. Like most 'money' jobs I've held it had the attractive quality of lots of down-time for reading, writing, and thinking. Among the more exciting elements of the job I got to watch two great DPs work: Tim Suhrstedt and Adam Kane, and do funny things like lie in bed with Patrick Dempsey, and dance with Katie Heigl, Sandra Oh, TR Knight and Ellen Pompeo. I stay in touch with the other stand-ins Eriko, Val and Kelly periodically and think of them more often.
It's amazing how much another person-- a complete stranger- can remind you of a moment, now long gone, from your own life.