Monday, June 9, 2008

Is That Wet Cement In Your Hair?

I have a new fear when it comes to work. It's not the thought of getting fired or the idea of someone at work finding out about my blog. It's not about letting a typo slip through my copy-editing hands or putting the wrong dates on my promotional pieces. No, my fear is my commute that could lead to my imminent death.

All right, so I'm exaggerating a little (but like I said before I'm great at that and whining - my specialties if you will).  But anyone who lives in New York City will agree with me when I say that construction sites as of late are giving me the heebie-jeebies. Crane collapse stories are filling the headlines of CNN and MSN and The New York Times (you get my point). 

These tragedies on 50th and 91st streets have started to creep me out. Before these cranes started literally falling out the sky, construction sites meant no more to me than memories of lewd cat-calling and potbellied workers. Now I walk past construction sites and I think about metal falling on my head. 

It also doesn't help that a week ago, I was walking from my subway stop to my office and I saw a full-fledged fire taking place at construction site across from my favorite bagel shop. Red fire engines, a ladder being used to save people, streets being blocked off - the whole nine yards. They even started using a fire hydrant. Can you tell I've lived in a small town most of my life? 

And to boot, the other day Small Fry got pelted with wet cement when exiting our local Subway. "Eat fresh my ass," Small Fry had sputtered as she had sauntered up to my desk after eating. That's when I noticed the gray powder in her hair. Apparently she had been waiting to cross a street underneath a construction site after the sandwich eatery and a glob of wet cement had hit her smack dab on the head. Fortunately, our other work friend who I will call Red (for her stunning red hair of course) was there to clean her up. And don't worry we all had a good laugh at her expense. 

Of course it was nothing a shower couldn't fix. But now on my walk to work I have started avoiding construction, which all us New Yorkers (shut up, I know I live in Jersey, but please humor me) know is hard to accomplish. This has officially added on five extra minutes to my walk and more frustration to my already not-so-fun commute to work not to mention the lives these cranes have taken in the past few months.

My plea? Can someone fix this construction site problem? Because this city is damaged. I thought that I should let you know. So to quote Danity Kane some more, how you gonna fix it New York? 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yikes. I would be afraid too! :(

Marshall Family said...

its sure not a good thing to be worried about walking down the street because of falling debris! x

Miss Caught Up said...

Ugh, I hear you... When I was on the streets of Hong Kong a piece of cement fell 10 feet away from me due to construction.

Scary stuff...

alexa @clevelandsaplum said...

my sister witnessed both of those crane disasters.horrible!

i've been pooped on by a bird a couple of times. does that count?

Dana said...

it really is scary... I am nervous about all of the construction as well..I was in NYC during the time of 911 and during the time of the steampipe explosion... Pretty close to both.. NYC is amazing but overwhelming at the same time!