Wasting time with Jet

New York City is on lockdown.

Manhattan Island has become the scariest, fully functional correctional facility since Alcatraz.

At around 3am this morning, on December 20th, 2005 the MTA (Which SHOULD stand for "Motherfuckin' Transit ASSHOLES"!) went on strike. A network of over 17 train lines and at least 100 bus lines spread over the five boros ABANDONED over 7 Million Commuters.

And me, a honest, hard-working "straphanger-for-life" since the night a car accident killed the only woman who ever loved me has to find a way to get from one end of the island...to the other end of it.

If this doesn't have "MOVIE OF THE WEEK" material, I don't know WHAT does...

I CANNOT begin to tell you WHAT a day it has been for me! (Insane Laughter)

I called my boss at 7:30am and asked him if he really needed me to come in and is the rest of the team going to bother...

Keep in mind I'm a scanner...the second leg of the workflow, this last week we've been finishing up some major projects while other are supposely on their way. Yesterday, I was on a good roll finishing up a tail end of a set of 14 boxes averaging about 1200-1600 per. I left BOX Number 14 on the shelf to keep me busy today, but nothing looked much over the horizion. SO I asked my boss again (Who was lucky enough to be unaffected by the strike, living within FERRY distance in New Jersey somewhere...) "DO you want me to TRY to come in?" (Keyword being "TRY"). He said there's work to be done, but he'll understand if I can't make it. Not really a YES or NO was it?

SO, in the spirit of Dick Tracy, Indiana Jones, and all those other fedora wearing heroes, I grabbed by Balls and set out on the journey of a lifetime.

Without giving away some specifics, I live near the George Washington Bridge (Which comes in handy in case any Headless Horsemen come chasing me...) and before the bridge is a huge Bus Terminal where New Jersey Buses and a few Upstate bound Bus lines come to port. Also available are mini "Special Ed School Bus" size shuttle buses that travel through the cut streets of the New York/New Jersey border. My desprate backup plan was to use this crude form of Public Transportation to get to a nearby New Jersey town that the local PATH train goes by, and use that to get to downtown manhattan.

PATH you may or may not know brings back memories of my EX oh-so-long ago. Stomping around in her neck of the woods was not my idea of fun, but I gotta do what I gotta do. I got on the "BERGENLINE" shuttle bus at around 7:45am. Yeah, I was due at work at 8:30, but what the hell at least I'm making an effort! I had to get to Journal Square, which is practically the middle of Jersey City. This cheesy ass bus-line stopped almost every other block as it went through WEST NEW YORK, EAST NEW YORK, UNION CITY, and a shitload of other Jersey hick-towns I couldn't pronounce! I've been on bus rides to Virginia AND Ohio that felt faster than this trip! I finally get to Journal Square, take a breath for nostagic purposes (DAMN, that bitch did me wrong!, Okay, she's not a bitch, bite my tongue, bite my tongue!) and hop on the PATH for the World Trade Center.

The train ride was only 4 stops and it took seconds! (SWEET!). I felt a chill when we pulled in to the newly rennovated PATH station. Right before the station, the train pulls through a tunnel underneath ground zero and you can see outside. It's like flying over the Grand Canyon on your way cross-country. Your right there in the hole where such devestation happened.

I get off the train, make my way through the swanky new terminal out on to famillar territory. The journey felt so weird I can't describe it. A clock nearby said 9:34am, that's right...what would usually take a lil less than an hour (50-55 minutes tops) took over a hour and a half, and I still had quite a walk to do. Making my way through the cut street, the financial district looked like London in the movie "28 Days Later". I resisted the urge to repeately scream "Hellooooo!" Either the stock brokers and business types where already here, or they were still on their way, too...

I make it to the office at an astounding 9:55am, my supervisor looks shocked as I stumble in. I raised my hand and bellowed..."I claim this land "India" in the Name of Spain!" mimicing Chistopher Columbus's famous proclamation. Man, I went on a journey...

The city cannot stay like this, it's total chaos. These money grubbin' bastards have got to come to a resolution.

I scanned the last box and did some data entry to help my boss out. They were expecting some more work to come in but nothing came. We're also expected at the UN's warehouse office in Queens soon, this was supposed to be our last week in the wall street area, but now, who know? Thinking about the long trip, I decided to work a half a day and left at 2pm (Avoid the rush!), going back the way I came I didn't get home till 5'O CLOCK!!! THREE hours just to get home, Oh HELL NO am I not doing this on the regular! Since my work was done and I showed my dedication, I told my boss I deserved the next three days off. That I wasn't even going to try that crazy-ass commute again UNLESS I really have to!

If the strike lasts till after christmas, I'll play ball and kill myself, but this can't last for too long! Somebody's gotta step in! Get some scabs in there to work the trains!, Call Bush! Call Bill Clinton or somebody! I did NOT survive 9/11 only to have this city taken hostage by DOMESTIC TERRORIST!!!