Summer of Excitement: New York City Work Adventure - [a case of the summer]

So this installment of Summer of Excitement is actually for last week.  Sorry for the lateness -- my Internet was out all of Sunday (which sucks, since I was intending to spend the entire day watching Breaking Bad!), and then I was too busy yesterday to churn one out before doing my LIVE Raw thoughts.  Plus, I had to catch the True Blood finale and catch a few episodes of Breaking Bad.  I'm a busy man!

Anyway, one of the new additions to my recent promotion at work has been my increased travel schedule.  No, I'm not going anywhere ultra exciting (not yet, anyway), I'm mostly just traveling to the firm's other offices.  Well, this past Thursday I had the opportunity to work in our New York City office.

As I've often said, despite living -- literally -- about 15-20 minutes from the city, there is NO convenient way for me to get in if I have to take public transportation.  There's no train (silliness), so I have to take a bus.  And the bus, despite being advertised as "Express," stops at virtually every street corner for several towns.  This is a big reason why I never worked in the city (while it would have been more lucrative).  Quite frankly, I didn't want to spend over an hour traveling a distance that is, in reality, about 20 minutes.  So at the ripe age of 31, this was going to be my first endeavor doing the working man's city commute!

Truth be told, the ride in went wonderfully.  I didn't hit any traffic and the bus arrived moments after I got to the bus station.  And the office is within walking distance of the bus terminal (and I found a Dunkin Donuts along the way, which I was craving!)  I also had a lot of fun during the day, working alongside my marketing colleagues (who I don't get to see often, as we're divided among the various offices) and even grabbed a couple of drinks at a nearby bar afterwards.  Not too shabby.  The real excitement came during the journey back, however.

After grabbing a couple of beers I arrived back at the bus terminal.  Not knowing how long I would be waiting for the bus, and how long the ride back would be, I wisely decided to use the bathroom.  So while at the bus terminal urinal, I suddenly hear some yelling.  Near the stalls, an old homeless guy (white) had said some highly inappropriate things to a young man (black).  Understandably, the young man got angry and the two started yelling at each other.  It quickly turned physical, with the young man LITERALLY doing a Sweet Chin Music crescent kick right to the old man's chest.  The old man's backpack falls to the ground and his flask slides across the bathroom floor.  The young man then picks up one of those plastic yellow "Caution:  Wet Floor" signs and throws it down on the man.  He then walks out before inflicting any more damage.  About 90% of that happened right behind me.  While I was peeing.

I purchased my ticket and made my way to the gate.  Where there was a long line.  After waiting about 15-20 minutes, a bus arrived, but it filled before I could get on it.  Another arrived a minute or two later and I was able to sit!  Which is good, because as we're heading towards the tunnel the driver slams the breaks, nearly knocking over those standing.  We move forward a little bit and then stop again, and I hear some yelling.  I look out the window and see that our bus driver is YELLING at two police officers standing at the street corner.  Evidently they were responsible for slowing down traffic, which is why he needed to stop short.  Yes, this guy was YELLING at police officers.  Who does that?  And then, about a block away from my stop, some dude flies through a stop sign and nearly hits us!  What an ordeal!

It was a fun day.  And it gave me plenty of stories to tell!