Leaving the Windows Open

Yesterday I went back to my apartment for lunch, had a nice quiet uneventful sandwich and salad, and then left to walk back to work. When I came out there were three fire trucks, and four SWAT team vans. Seriously. I've never seen SWAT team members that close up before. They had shields and were surrounding my block on three sides that I could see. When I went through they rushed me through to where some other pedestrians who had, until that point, been minding our own business. They were all staring up at a neighboring building, and watching with interest as two guys talked to the police with shields pulled.

I asked someone what was going on (since I'm a have to know kind of girl) and they informed me that there was a man with a hostage inside the building. Something different and exciting happens here everyday. I have to say I was a little surprised but someone passing by had already guessed what was happening, and while continuing to walk said to her friend, "Typical. This place is going downhill so fast it's a blur." Not kidding. So then I tried to be the unassuming pedestrian and walked into CVS to pick up my picctures from the wedding. Then I really did become witness to something. The woman in front of me wanted to pick up her 1 hour photos and they weren't ready. She said this was the third time she had come by and it had been three and a half hours since they were dropped off. The guy working the register had a fairly strong accent so it was difficult to understand what he was saying but it sounded like he was saying that he didn't really care. Well, when she got wind of this she wanted the national reps called and wanted me to be a witness. I was just trying to pay for mine and get out of there and htinking that I was going to try to remember next time that angry customers mean LEAVE for hte rest of us, unless we want to become involved. I have to wonder how this would have been handled in the South. Would we have yelled and screamed? Or would we have smiled and asked if there was a problem and nicely suggested not charging for the said photographs. But in New York it becomes a yelling and screaming type of situation.

Last night I had the windows open because my heater is on full blast and currently it's gone up to almost 70 degrees here in the city. So you either have to live in a sauna or open the windows. Because I'm not paying for the steam used to heat up my apartment, I choose to open the window and set up a fan in front of it. But lately I've been afraid to leave it open while I sleep. Except last night I thought it would be the night. I was getting ready for bed, had closed the window shade with the window open and was finishing up a Tuesday night program. But then the news came on, and with it a story about a man pretending to be a firefighter who not only set off smoke bombs, but had a replica badge he used to get inside a woman's apartment, drug her, and then rape her. On that note, I went out to look at the fire escape (my window opens on to it) and realized I was still too paranoid to leave it open overnight. So I closed it and again had trouble sleeping in the hot environment. But when you have people taking people hostage and pretending to be firefighters IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, I thought maybe my paranoia wasn't so paranoid after all.