Blackout
And G-d caused a blackout. And it was good. No, seriously. I didn't mind the blackout at all - when it was happening. I left my house at 4-something on Thursday afternoon, and spent another 20 minutes in Jersey before getting to Manhattan. Between the time when when we paid the toll to cross the bridge and when we arrived in Harlem, the power must have gone out. By the time we were driving down the streets, none of the traffic lights were working and it was absolute Bedlam. I got to where I was going, found my friend at the hair-braiding place where she was getting her hair done, and went inside. The ladies who worked there were West African, and were communicating amongst themselves in French. Yay! So while they were having a good time talking about the customers, I was having a good time listening to them. They didn't talk about me or my friend, but I think they thought that I was African, so maybe they were just being careful. Anyway, I got my hair braided, and I went to try to take the subway - I hadn't yet realized the extent of the blackout. The gates were closed, so I decided to take a bus home. Thankfully, it wasn't hard to catch a bus uptown from 125 St, so I managed to get on one.The lady who boarded ahead of me hadn't paid yet, and moved aside to let me pass after I'd used my Metrocard. The guy on the first seat complained about "[her] ass being in his face," and she just let him have it. She used one hand to punctuate her words and another to hold on to her four-year-old daughter. That woman cursed him in at least two languages that I recognized and one that I did not, and everyone on the bus was just rapt. I've never heard anyone get told off for so long. That man never said anything after his first phrase, but that was enough. Finally, the woman's companion, who had boarded and found a seat, went back up to the front of the bus and tried to pull her friend away from the visibly deflated man. Telling-Off Woman hadn't had enough yet, and had to be dragged to the seats that her friend had saved. At the next street corner, the bus driver stopped, waved a policeman on, and had Told-Off man escorted off.
The man a couple of seats ahead of me was so unnerved by the presence of a police officer on the bus that he spilled a large portion of his beer all over himself. That's right, folks, his beer. I didn't ask. It's a good thing, though, that the police officer didn't come any further on the bus than necessary to get Told-Off man, because that other guy just reeked of beer. After that, my bus ride was uneventful. I took the bus up to 168 St, and then started to walk further uptown. I refused to pay the extortionate prices that people were asking for water, but I couldn't help sneaking longing looks at the cold bottles that were in the coolers that I passed.
I made it to 178 St, and I was going to go to the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal, when I realized that I could catch a bus to Jersey on 179 St without braving the hoards of people on 178 St. As I was going to 179, I looked back and saw the masses of people lined up at 178 St having a huge shoving match. It was crazy. People were yelling at each other and I was just relieved that I didn't have be at that line. I got on my bus, and there were about 12 other people on the bus - max. A man and a woman who boarded the bus talked about how they had been stuck in an elevator 5 floors up and had to be evacuated by the fire department. I figured that my own "I got my hair braided in a place with no air conditioning" wouldn't have held up against that, so I kept my mouth shut. I didn't realize that other people were having trouble leaving Manhattan, because my own exit was pretty much a piece of cake.
When I got home, my parents and I chilled on the back porch. I couldn't contact the new guy, so the blackout put the kibbosh on my date/caffeinated beverage. I can now blame Canada for the fact that I am alone. Michelle, a family friend (and my brother's ex-girlfriend) was up visiting from South Carolina, and we all just sat around, ate dinner, and talked. Later, my dad, brother, and myself went to Newark to get my brother's current girlfriend, and what a difference! Newark was lit up, and even though there were police officers around, none of them were really necessary, since the city had power.
Then we went home and saw all of the houses in our town with power. YES! Except that our area was still in the dark. For the rest of the evening, we went listened to the Yankee game on the radio and then went to sleep. The end.
The next morning, we heeded the warning about not creating any non-essential traffic by going to the mall to shop. Kind of like the New Yorkers who heeded Bloomberg's warning about sewage at city beaches by going to the city beaches. But smarter.
Work yesterday was an absolute nightmare. I work for a call center that takes car reservations, and very few of our vendors were working yesterday, so we were only taking reservations from certain areas. No Manhattan at all, which sucks, since that's where about 90% of our customers call from. I had to put up with some super rude people, but I felt the worst for the ones who were polite and nice and just wanted to get home.
Now I'm at work again, and we're still having some delays, but they're much more manageable today. Still, when people complain about the wait of up to an hour, I want to tell them about how the wait yesterday was anywhere from 3 to 5 hours - and that's once we started taking reservations again!
Things that happen when people are too reliant upon electricity:
My parents and brother kept trying to answer the cordless phone when the one non-cordless phone we had would ring.
People in my house kept flipping up light switches.
People were sitting at traffic lights that weren't operational, waiting for something to happen.
All in all, the blackout was an interesting experience.
