Anger Management Anyone?

One thing I never thought I'd do is get into a morning exercise routine. I am not a morning person and I need more than a little time to get rolling every day. Since I really don't know when I'm getting out of work each day, however, working out before work is my only real option.

The gym is quite serene in the morning compared to the frantic scene in there at night. This morning the quiet was broken by a certified raving lunatic. New Yorkers are sometimes portrayed in popular culture as brash, loud and profane, but few could quite meet the stereotype like the disgruntled customer who was shouting at the top of his lungs at the customer service desk. Apparently, he was disturbed by the lack of attention his request to cancel his membership was receiving, so he became comically hysterical:

"This gym will not cancel my membership. They've got my credit card and they're not giving it up."
"My friends have had to go through this f&%*ing s#@t and I'm not going to stand for it."
"This is a f&%*ing homosexual gym anyway. Hey buddy, why don't you go suck your boyfriend!"
"I was on the phone for two f&%*ing hours yesterday and got nowhere and you people are not going to ignore me anymore!"

There was a lot more swearing, a stroll through the gym where he made some more homophobic remarks and even some urgent pleas to prospective customers: "do not sign up for this gym! They won't let you f&%*ing quit!" I am sure his voice was heard in every corner of the gym. This scene ended as you could have guessed, with a very young and slightly exasperated member of New York's finest escorting the man out of the building.

I think gyms receive a staggering amount of consumer complaints every year, so I do have some sympathy for that guy. Plus, I have, believe it or not, been driven to out-of-control rants at customer service people in the past. Minus the hateful language of course. The thing that always occurs to me after I've calmed down is that an emotional outburst with that much ferocity usually has more behind it than the matter at hand. During a more civil part of the discussion (with the police officer present) I heard the word "ex-wife" several times. I think this guy may have been angry about a little more than canceling his gym membership.

Change I Could Have Done Without ...

This morning on the radio they were talking about President Obama coming to town and warning people that there would be traffic tie-ups downtown as a result. I wondered what it must be like for people in D.C. who have to deal with presidential motorcades all the time. I dismissed the report though; he was giving a speech down in the financial district and I am strictly a pedestrian.

When I got to work, there were cops all over the neighborhood surrounding school and the streets were being cordoned off as if there was going to be a parade or something. The guy walking in front of me asked what it was all about and a cop muttered something about the president. It struck me that it was sort of weird that they'd care about him way up here when he was speaking further downtown, but I shrugged it off.

I pretty much forgot all about it and went out to lunch around noon. In the deli I saw the president on the TV and thought about the radio guys this morning talking about his overexposure. (Did you know that at this point in their respective presidencies that George W. Bush had had 3 press conferences and Bill Clinton 8? Our current president has had 22! But talking is his thing.) When I got back to my building, I realized what all the hub bub was about: the motorcade wasn't just passing near our neighborhood, it was passing in front of my office.

All of my fellow pedestrians found there was no way to get across West 3rd Street, and the cops were making no exceptions. I always love the people who think they have the one excuse that is going to convince the cops to let them through the barricade. There was one lady in her 60s with a jet black wig and a cigarette who pleaded with the cops, but they were having none of it. So I stood for 10 minutes and looked 25 feet across the street at the door to my office where they weren't letting anyone out of the building.

Finally, the motorcade sped by, a blur of black SUVs and at least one limo with the presidential seal on it. I know he was with Hillary Clinton, but it's anyone's guess which car he was in. In the picture below you can see the back end of the parade of cars just beyond my office. The administrative assistant from across the street called me to say he got out of his car and waved at some people. I hope no one told that to the lady with the wig and the cigarette. She had somewhere important to be.