Well, New York can throw some weird things at you! It would have been nice though if I had my fortune cookie for breakfast instead of dinner to learn what the day ahead had in store for me:
“Today, be civil, but don’t go out of your way to be over friendly”
It started with a planned trip to Brooklyn. Rolling into 72nd St Subway, I smiled and said hello to the Metro Officer and asked if all trains were running as per schedule today. A short response of ‘yup’ was all I got. So – if you can imagine I go to the platform, and find out that NO trains were going to Brooklyn I was not at all impressed. I came back out and being ‘over friendly’ as I am – I spoke to her again. Her advice was to go on a convoluted route which immediately rang alarm bells to me as I was sure it wasn’t accessible! So I question her if it is, why would I be surprised when her answer is no? What? I am right in front of you in a wheelchair, and asking for help and you give me an option that is inaccessible. WHOA – I LOST IT! I don’t often lose my temper – but this was ridiculous. She obviously didn’t like her job, had no consideration for other human beings and just didn’t care about anything in life!
Basically – the only next option was a cab to Brooklyn! So here we go again!
An “accessible cab” pulls up – and it is a woman taxi driver – and she tells me she doesn’t know how to use the lift in the back to get me in. WHAT? Again, I had started with nicety’s and it quickly turned to let’s get the facts straight! Unfortunately, it went from bad to worse …… she decided that she should pick me up out of my wheelchair and put me in the car! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Yet, another mini temper explosion!
The next cab that came along, was accessible and took me to Brooklyn. I was an hour and 10 minutes late ….. but the civil, or should I say uncivil, behavior didn’t end there! AFTER I had my fortune cookie and received the very late advice – I felt the need to pass this onto patrons at the movie theater.
At the movies, the trailers were rolling on the screen. A commotion began between two patrons, where one was accusing the other of doing something. The loud voices between them made you look their way, and wonder what was going on. In thinking they actually might have known each other, the woman stands up and reaches to ruffle the man’s hair like you would to a 5-year-old if you were teasing them. She was laughing as she was doing this – so obviously this is some kind of ‘in’ joke between them. Um, well NO! They were strangers and things got nasty! The woman sprays her shaken coke, coats and bags are thrown and curse words exchanged!
Theater security came in wanting to remove the woman, however as she felt she had done nothing wrong – she was staying put! The big screen went white – the trailers were stopped. All attention was on this woman as the movie was not being played until she left. Adamant in her conviction, security advised they will remove her by calling the police. Proclaiming innocence the whole way through, all she could say is why isn’t the movie showing? (It was on repeat!)
NYPD arrive! Taking the advice of my fortune cookie – they were civil, but not over friendly! In trying to coax her out, one of the cops had quite a strong voice. All eyes were on them, just waiting to see what happened next.
Classic – almost as if the line was in a movie itself – he raises an eyebrow in disbelief, and almost as if asking the whole audience, “Is she eating carrots?” Oh, the laughter! If I didn’t know any better – this was a scripted play!
The next hilarious display, she jumps the seats and starts weaving he way to play cat and mouse with the cops. Needless to say she was outnumbered – and cuffed and taken out.
We skipped the trailers and 25 minutes later – we ‘watched’ the movie. the pre-entertainment was pretty hard to top!
So is the moral of this story to eat Chinese for Breakfast so you are more prepared for your day in knowing what your Fortune Cookie is trying to tell you? Today – I would say YES! But I think the real moral of the story is to focus on being CIVIL! We all live in this community, we all have to interact with each other – you don’t have to be ‘overly friendly‘ all the time. Please – just be civil and considerate.