Its a long day working in the city and while I do it every day I have to admit that I am pretty tired by the end of the day. The plan was to meet the boy at Port Authority, grab some dinner and run some errands. (I know, I'm sorry, not every night is a swanky night).
So about a block from Port Authority I'm greeted by a number of New York's finest (aka, the Police) and a HUGE crowd. Not an unusual occurrence, but it was a surprise nonetheless. Immediately, the worst possibilities run through my mind. As my heart starts to beat faster and I think to myself, "please let everything be alright" I hear someone say "there he goes." I see the cameras pointing up and along with the other two-hundred fellow New Yorkers and tourists craning their necks to look up in the air, I too, look up. We're all jammed together so tightly onto the sidewalk that you can't tell whose hand is whose (or more importantly, exactly whose hand is on my butt). And then I see him. Some jack ass is climbing the New York Times building.
So about a block from Port Authority I'm greeted by a number of New York's finest (aka, the Police) and a HUGE crowd. Not an unusual occurrence, but it was a surprise nonetheless. Immediately, the worst possibilities run through my mind. As my heart starts to beat faster and I think to myself, "please let everything be alright" I hear someone say "there he goes." I see the cameras pointing up and along with the other two-hundred fellow New Yorkers and tourists craning their necks to look up in the air, I too, look up. We're all jammed together so tightly onto the sidewalk that you can't tell whose hand is whose (or more importantly, exactly whose hand is on my butt). And then I see him. Some jack ass is climbing the New York Times building.
Seriously? What makes someone do that? While some would say heroic, I would say CRAZY!!! He could get himself killed AND he's screwing up my commute. Hello, it's 6:15!
As he scales the building, my mind flashes to a cartoon scene where I imagine someone on top of the building finishing a banana, dropping the peel over the side and the climber slipping on it then falling off the building -- very Tom & Jerry, I know, but that's what I was thinking. What? It would serve him right.
After pushing past the gawking crowds, taking half-steps at best, I was able to make it to the bus and alas, found the boy. I called my Mom, of course to tune her in to the happenings of the Big Apple and caught the story while on the way home. I, along with the other commuters, scoped out cnn.com on my blackberry all the way home to get the details on Spidey. Turns out he missed the banana peel, made it to the top and was promptly arrested. While it took a little while longer to get home than usual, now I'm happy to be home and skyscrapers everywhere are safe from building scalers.
This is the girl signing off-goodnight New York.
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