Well I’ve finally returned from NY, back into good ol’ Irvine, CA. And let me tell ya, my mundane suburban home never looked so good… Now, don’t get me wrong. I had a great time in the Big Apple, as I always do. Like the t-shirt says, “I (heart) NY”, but yesterday’s random chain of events was a great reminder to really appreciate your everyday.
On the way to the airport, my colleague and I decided to take the “Airtrain”, which we actually took on our last trip, and it was great- $7 ($2 subway fare from Midtown, $5 to actually jump onto the Airtrain monorail thing) as opposed to say a $65+ dollar cab. We found it took about an hour, with all the stops- but that was no big deal. Although, next time, I may seriously reconsider, hehe…We finally arrived at the Howard Beach Station, waiting to board the Airtrain, when a crazy guy started screaming weird things. Stuff like he had a “plastic in his bag”.. he knew how to fly a plane…etc… I think most people thought he was just… crazy, but harmless. We thought they would have had security out in seconds to stop him, but instead, it took awhile for the cops to arrive, and everyone was just sorta quiet and staring at the guy. Finally cops came, but then they told everyone to evacuate the area. We all were a little confused, but left the building. About 20 minutes later, they still didn’t let us back in, apparently they were trying to make sure the area was secure. No trains were coming in, and we heard that all the stations were stopped. On the one hand, it was great that they were taking no chances, for safety and all. On the other hand, it became clear I was going to miss my flight. We were in the very residential Howards Beach area, with no taxis nearby. Luckily there was one cab service in the area and several of us stranded folks called in. We were able to snag a cab and jet back over to the airport, barely in time to make the second and last Jet Blue flight back to Long Beach.
Then five and a half hours later, we’re back in lovely Southern California. Just as we were about to de-board, the captain comes over the loud speaker and goes “Please remain in your seats, we have a passenger that needs some assistance off the plane, and we’d appreciate your patience and cooperation…” I assumed it was some elderly person or perhaps someone disabled, but then suddenly several very large cops came on board. They very calmly took a middle eastern looking man off the plane in cuffs. Yikes! During the flight, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary, but apparently someone must have. No one around me knew what was going on or what the situation was. It was all very hush hush… (sigh) It’s definitely a different world out there. So, if you’re travelling, be careful kids… and make sure you leave extra time… No matter where you go, there’s no place like home…
Well, enough of the travel talk, I will be back tomorrow with lots of fun things to look at… hope everyone else is doing swell!