Concrete Jungle of Crazy

This week has been a little crazy, even for New York. I had run into some crazy people, dealt with crazy transportation, and had crazy little sleep.


Let's discuss the events in no particular order:


The Time I Got Kicked Off the Bus
I was riding the bus one afternoon and the driver stopped at a stop, stood up, and asked the crowd...Who is going above 125th street? A few of us raised our hands and responded. His response was "Get off the bus and wait for the next bus, I don't want to go that high, and I'm stopping at 125th street." Those of us who raised our hands didn't know what to do or what we could do so we stood up and got off the bus and waited for the next bus. I was so confused and angry, but didn't think to get his name or number so I can't really do anything about it now except think about how pissed I was. 

The Time I Had to Walk Half of Manhattan
After meeting up with a friend in Rockefeller Plaza, I had to head East to catch the bus to work. I walked a few blocks East and then hit some barricades that blocked off the streets for the 6 blocks surrounding the UN General Assembly.  To continue East, I had to first walked about 4 blocks South and then turn East. Easy, done. No problemo. I arrive at the bus stop and have plenty of time to reach my job in time. I am standing and waiting with about 10 other people when someone realizes that traffic has been stopped, barricaded off, and no one is moving. We realize that Obama is entering the meeting that I had just walked past and they shut down the center of Manhattan for about 20 minutes for his protection. This means that no buses, no taxis, no cars. I was no where near a subway heading the direction I needed to go and had no choice but to walk or be late. So I walked........24 blocks. I was not super excited about this, but I did get to work on time.

The Time I Saw Something So Unbelievable I Can't Even Write a Title
On Wednesday night, I was waiting for the bus and was having no luck. Seriously 5 buses passed me, but none of them were the M1. I was minding my own business, leaning against the building near the bus stop, and listening to my Ipod. About 30 feet from me was a man, clearly homeless, resting with his walker. I thought he was dead because for the first 5 minutes that I noticed him, he never moved. I watched for at least 5 more minutes before he actually moved and every person that passed us on the sidewalk clearly questioned whether this gentleman was alive. Once I knew he was alive, I sort of ignored him because I didn't want to get involved. After a few minutes, he started to really move around and cough and I backed away a little. Then I saw a stream of water on the sidewalk and thought for sure this man was emptying a water bottle. However, I was just being naive because this man was peeing on the sidewalk. Totally normal.

Being grossed out beyond belief, I moved further away. At this point, I believe the man must have forgotten they he was sitting on a major road in the middle of Manhattan because he then dropped his pants and began to scratch away like he was in the middle of his private bedroom. It was so beyond what I was expecting to see that I think i just stood there, in shock. The best part of the entire experience is the reaction from passerbys when they realized what they were looking at. Girls yelled, men cursed him out, and mothers moved their children to the far side of the sidewalk. Awesome.