Have you ever had so many things gone so badly wrong all at the same time that you could only sit there and laugh? Well, that pretty much sums up these past 3 days for me.
As you know, I’ve been in New York/New Jersey this weekend for work. After arriving at JFK and stood at baggage claim for about half an hour and noticing the crowd thinning out, I was called to the airline office where an airline employee gravely pronounced in a low voice that my luggage “didn’t make it” (like it was a terminally ill person that had died, I almost felt I should've wept). And, of course after I had scrambled to buy all new clothes and toiletries and makeup (all accomplished in an hour in between meetings with some serious power-shopping skills), as if on cue, my luggage arrived cheerfully in my hotel room as it was just fashionably tardy for a cocktail party (Sorry dear I’m late, now where’s the margarita?). I swear my luggage shot a sideway glance at my overstuffed bag of Duane-Reade toiletries in mockery, looked back at me and said, You silly woman, you didn’t seriously think I would leave you out here on a lurch, did you?
Power shopping through jam-packed Manhattan on Saturday (before the storm hit)
Regardless, I was glad that Bag and I were reunited. Relieved, I walked the few blocks from my hotel to Time Square to take in the sights and sounds that you can only experience in Manhattan. It was a Saturday evening and the streets were choked with throngs of tourists and seas of yellow cabs, all spilling into each others’ territory precariously. I was waiting to cross the busy intersection when, THUD!, everyone’s heads turned to what sounds like a dull collision right next to me. I looked down to discover in shock that a homeless man was knocked down by a car that’s now passing directly in front of me. And it didn’t even stop! I reached out a hand to tap on the window when it just quietly slipped away. Everyone just stood there agape and stared as the man grimaced for a little while, pulled himself up and limped away. What bothered me almost as much as the hit-and-run itself was that nobody reached out a hand to help this poor man (including myself, I admit). Were we just immobilized by the shock? Would we have reacted differently if it were not a homeless person? Were we really that jaded? When senses came back to me, I tried to call 911 to report the plate of the car, but was told that if this man had walked away “uninjured”, that they could not take this report as it is not an emergency. Go figure.
And these are only the “minor” incidents, of course, compared to what’s to come next.
And yes, I mean the horrific storm (the “Nor’easter”) that you've proabably heard on the news. Combining the intense core-soaking downpour that lasted more than 24 hours straight, the gale-force wind that blows away roofs and topples boats, and its stubborn refusal to move on out to sea, it turned the streets of Manhattan (and the entire Northeast for that matter) into a giant water park overnight. Airports shut down, highways closed, entire towns evacuated, lives lost.
So what did I do? Well, half of our meeting got cancelled (including the most important part why I’m here), and seeing that I’ve “wasted” one day here already, I was determined to keep my plans despite of inclement weather, that is to drive to Brooklyn to meet up with Cousin Andy and his girlfriend Karen for dinner, then drive that evening over to our company’s headquarter in New Jersey for an important meeting Monday morning.
View of Time Square from inside my rental car, notice the people in umbrellas and the heavy sky
And I’m so very glad I did, even though I had to drag my soaked body 12 blocks in the flooded and deserted streets of Manhattan to retrieve my rental car. I'll estimate that, oh, perhaps 10% of my driving ime the car is actually under my direct control, the majority of the time I was just skidding and hydrofoiling in half a foot of flood water (quite exhilarating, even though a bit scary, I must say). And if I didn't have GPS in the car, it's safe to say that I'll probably be somewhere in Saskatchewan right now with all the accidents and road closures. It's a small miracle that I made it to my cousin's and NJ at all. But the Monday meetings turned out being very productive and the dinner and company of Andy and Karen most enjoyable, it was (almost) worth risking my life.
Chef Andy and Chef Karen preparing our gourmet dinner
Our delicious dinner: pork chop with a mushroom sherry sauce and 2-cheese polenta. Yum!
Even though things didn’t exactly happen the way I planned, I’m glad that I managed to see the people that really mattered, I can check off “experiencing a nasty Nor’easter in the middle of a flooded Manhattan” on my must-do-before-I-die list, reflect upon how I treat people around me, and most important of all, acquire a whole new wardrobe of business clothes. What can I say, mission accomplished.
