Wasting time with Jet

I have the most damnedest luck.

It started with pouring rain, then there was THE BIG BANG, and finally the voyage home through the Aftermath.

Talk about being RIGHT WHERE THE ACTION IS!!!!

Yesterday morning as I slept, I dreamed I was in the middle of a downpour. The rain was hitting the pavement so hard it sounded like glass shards. I open an eye to see it's REALLY raining HARD outside for REAL! Wind was blowing the rain INSIDE, making puddles on my windowsill.

I got up to close all the windows in the apartment because mom had left already then went back to sleep thinking this was the worst that could happen today...

But I was wrong.

I'm drowsy and groggy when I wake up at noon, but a quick shower and cheerios wakes me up and I'm out the door by 2:45pm.

Crosstown traffic barely had me getting to work ontime, I need to start leaving at 2:30...

We've been having SUCH a dry spell at work the last few weeks so I was actually shocked when I saw 36 boxes deposited in the center of our floor. Today was the first time in a long time we'd work a full night.

But then, something happened.

I was the only one to notice it too, but at around 6pm, or a lil after...there were 2 quick moments in time...

...Where the lights flickered...

Just for like a half-a-second!...TWICE!

"Didja you see that?" I said to everyone...

No one noticed.

At first I thought we were jus maxing the electricity with the AC...

but I was wrong.

At around 7pm, people started buzzing and cell phones calls from frantic family members hit everyone. Then The Chief made the announcement...

"There was an explosion involving a steam pipe and possible electrical generator over at Grand Central 42nd street. It was not a Terrorist Attack, the entire area has been partially or completely sealed off to people, cars, buses, and trains."

Now, we're a few blocks away...

I didn't hear no *BOOM*, but I noticed when those lights flickered!

We continued our work and went on break at 8pm.

When I got outside...*WHOO*!!!

The first (and only) thing I could hear were the news copters.

They were buzzing the sky above us at a close height that scared the hell outta me!

It felt like I was in Saigon...or Compton (2 places I never actually been...)

Police cars were everwhere, occasionally I saw unmarked cars with flashing lights drive the opposite way of the one-way street in front of us...

We're between 2nd and 3rd, so I walked downhill up to 3rd and turn to towards 42nd in front of us...

CHAOS

Yellow police Tape sealing everything off, fire trucks, paramedics and con-ed all converging and making a perimeter. I looked ahead in front of me crosstown towards Lexington, Madison, and 5th...the tape was there too. Behind us, uptown towards 46th the street was cut off and traffic was being diverted but there was no tape, jus a line of news vehicles, all the major networks, FOX, CBS, NBC...

People were calm, thank goodness, but constantly walking, trying to figure out a way home or to work or just OUT of what was dubbed the "Frozen Area" by news reports. Some were even taking camera-phone pics of the area!

I really couldn't see any damage or smoke anywhere and I was barely able to hear myself think with the propellers buzzing in my ears. I finally looked up and counted 3 copters (NONE Police choppers ironically!) hovering over us only a mere few miles apart from one another (I actually feared a mid-air collision was possible!).

I was strapped for cash so I brown-bagged lunch today, all I needed was a soda so I went to a deli, got change and then called mom to tell her I was OK out here.

Damn, this felt like 9/11 all over again...

She had just gotten home herself after going to a doctors appt. after work. All the networks preempted regular TV to report what was going on. I asked her for details but all she knew was it was some kind of steam explosion. People on the street nearby had been hurt, manhole covers flew to the sky, she said there's a BIG hole in the street!

Whoa.

And we're right here, on the brim of the insanity.

"How are you gonna get home?" she asked me.

I jus said "I don't know."

I finished the call and found a bench nearby to eat.

Like I said, there was no panic in the faces of people I saw walking by, we were cool. I saw a group of bellhops and hotel maids and workers moving in a group somewhere...

"They probably had to evacuate the nearby hotels..." I thought.

I finished my lunch and went back inside at 9pm. All the supervisors were going online checking with the MTA. Grand Central Station was being bypassed by every train possible. The 4,5,and 6 lines were stopping at 86th Street, no other trains on the east side were working from 86th All the way down to City Hall. Anyone that was going to Brooklyn, Queens or up to the Bronx was screwed.

The Streets were blocked off from 40th Street to 43 between 3rd Avenue and Madison. There was no way to take my crosstown M42 or M104 buses to 6th Avenue to catch my bus home...I was going to have to walk...and FAST!

We kept cool and worked the rest of the evening...Midnight came and we clocked out.

Outside, 42nd was still taped off, and the damn MetLife building was right smack in front of me. The only thing to do was walk UPtown a bit.

Time was against me, it was a lil after 12 and my bus would be coming up 6th avenue around 12:20am.

I walked up to 45th and looked crosstown, there were still police blocking the way...so I then walked up another to 46th and the the coast looked clear...but DARK.

Cutting across these isolated streets of midtown was no joke.

I walked fast and didn't stray my eyes anywhere.

People always like to take advantage of a catastrophe to Act a Fool and start somethin'!

I couldn't believe how long these blocks were! I past the Helmsley Hotel and took a moment to think about the "Queen of Mean" then kept going.

It nearly killed me, but I made the walk to 6th by 12:17am...5 minutes later, my bus came and I was cool...

I couldn't help thinking of that long hike I took from Wall Street to Columbus Circle back on 9/11...How fortunate I am to be near these crazy moments and still make it home in one piece.

I wondered how things would be tomorrow...and couldn't believe the timing of it all...

Something like this happening the moment work started building up again.

As if you haven't heard by the time you've read this you can read about the story here.

This shit is WILD!