Banding Together

Do I have a story for you!!

Well, you may or may not have heard on the news that there was some flash flooding in New York City on Wednesday morning. That morning, I was supposed to be in to work for a conference call at 8am. Well, when my alarm went off at 6:30am, it was pouring rain and thundering and lightning. I decided to take my manager's advice and just take the call from home rather than braving the weather so early.

SO....I took my phone call, got ready and left my apartment at about 8:30am. As I walked up to where I usually get the bus, I noticed a much larger than usual crowd of people. I decided to just walk to the subway rather than get on a crowded bus (by this time it had stopped raining but it was REALLY hot and muggy outside. Anyway, I walked over to the subway only to see more people just sort of milling about, not decending the stairs as one might expect.

It didn't take long to figure out: the subway wasn't running downtown. Now, I know this doesn't sound like a big deal when I say it to you, but just so you know, about 5 million people ride the subway each day in New York City. When the subways aren't running (as I learned on Wednesday, and as NYC learned a few years ago when MTA went on strike for a day) the streets are so full of people and everyone is essentially trying to find some other way to get to their destination. When I looked up and down Central Park West, I saw tons of people trying to get cabs. The buses weren't even stopping to pick people up because they were already full. All hope of getting to work within a reasonable amount of time was pretty much lost.

Instead of stanging in Hopelessville, I decided to cut up an obscure sidestreet and think about my options when suddenly, blissfully, a cab pulled up and dropped someone off...I rushed over only to see someone already getting in. But, since I rigured he was likely in the same predicament of needing to get downtown as I was, I hopefully asked him where he was going and if I could ride with him. He told me he was going to 48th and 6th, which is about where I thought I might be able to get another train to work (at this point I didn't realize there were no trains running in all of Manhattan). THEN, just as the two of us were settling in, another woman came up and said "Where are you going" I told her we were going downtown and she said that she needed to get to the Financial District. Which is where I work so I told her to hop in and we could both take the cab all the way down.

So, here I am, sitting in the middle between a French guy and another complete stranger heading to work in a cab. We traveled to the first drop-off point, where the French guy gave us $15 and hopped out. Then, we continued down to Water Street in the Financial District. The total came to $35, so Dana (my other companion) and I only had to pay $10 each. Unfortunately, Dana didn't have $10 so I just paid the cab. We then went to the ATM together and then to grab coffee so she could get change for her $20 from the ATM. We finally parted ways around 10am none the worse for wear. It was indeed a good time and an adventure getting to work! It was my first experience of New Yorkers actually banding together rather than cursing each other out, and I must say I enjoyed it!