So there I was up at work this afternoon, ready to pack up and split for home when my crazy Italian mother calls me and says:
"Put on the news. We are on high terrorist alert! The subway system has been threatened with evidence of specifically planned bombings! Can you find another way home?"
Granted New York is a very provincial town when dealing with its own people. I work up in Morningside Heights - W. 120 street and Broadway area. I live in the East Village on Avenue A. In Manhattan terms, that's kind of like living on earth and working on Pluto.
Sure. I could walk three billion blocks home but it would take me a few hours. I could take a bus or two home and that could take me a few less hours.
But without a subway....I'M SCREWED. I got off the phone and weighed my options. My colleague and I decided to head for the subway and if we freaked out at any point -we'd just jump off at the next stop...assuming nothing exploded before we made that decision.
I called my mom and husband when I got off the subway a few blocks from my house. I could see on my cell phone that my husband already left several messages. I wondered where my brother and sister were (the two who live in my building). Both live alone right now. I wanted them to know someone was concerned about where they were, so I called them at work and pretended to be freaked out but I really just wanted them to know they were loved. Even if someone might not be there to welcome them in the door.
I guess that makes me a crazy Italian mother too.
8 comments:
I can totally hear your mother freaking out on the phone. I took the subway today, too, and felt a little jumpy. I think the chances of anyone we know getting hit are pretty slim.
I am going into the city tonite and fell just a little pang. I won't *not* go in. I liked what Mayor B did alerting the public. It not only informs us but lets terrorists know that we are even more attuned and aware.
Peace out,
Deb
Moms always worry the most.
Crazy Italian moms are good to have around--most of the time. :)
You guys keep your heads up.
It's good to have an Italian mother and you sound like a great sister.
Crazy Italian mamas are the best, especially the ones who know how to make fruit-and-nut lasagnas...Go Red Sox...WOO HOO..Now If I could figure out how this baseball game is played (you would think after 22 years in this country I could figure it out.....It's nothing like soccer, damnit.. I blame the gay gene!
I love the earth-to-Pluto analogy - hilarious!
Glad you are OK. I would have taken the subway too. Gotta keep living life. And it doesn't matter what happens - I can still hardly wait to move back there.
It makes me proud--is this silly?--to hear you New Yorkers just deal.
It's so foreign to most of us in rural suburbia across the country to know what it's like to live on high alert or have to change our whole lives on a frequent basis to deal with this kind of threatened crisis. You all rock.
Hh
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