Normally, crowds in NYC - or anywhere, for that matter - make me run the other way. But since I am a sports fan, and since I like big, happy occassions, I decided to voluntarily cross through the fray that is the Giants' Super Bowl victory parade to get to my office, rather than go the easier route of the subway. I knew what I was getting myself into - I hiked all the way up from Delaware to go to the Yankees' parade in 1998, so, yes, I was prepared for the insanity. Luckily, it was two hours before parade time, so it wasn't quite that nuts yet, but when it takes me five times as long to walk a mere block, it might have something to do with the city's population increasing slightly.
For the record, when I get off the PATH, I ALWAYS avoid the walkway that is Vesey Street between Church and West Broadway, because it's a crapload of people funneled into one small space, all walking slow when I like to walk…not slow. And then they literally keep you chained in from crossing the street against the light, because I guess people have hurt themselves doing this (not surprising). But today, I figured, "What the hey?" even though it was going to be like ten times the people. And this is what I got:
Then, when I could actually walk further, I couldn't turn left, for, oh, the entire tip of lower Manhattan, but I did get to loop through parade lines and see the following:
All in all it wasn't so, so bad. Everyone was merry (the two guys in Giants jerseys freaking out about this tiny guy's pompadour...and calling him "Afro!!!" and then pulling him aside to talk about his hair was maybe the randomly awesomest thing I saw) and the cops were good about letting people through barricades if they had to get across Broadway to, you know, get to work. Although I did have to wait for this truck to pass before I could go, which is definitely a departure from a normal work day:
You can bet, however, if it were a Yankees parade, I'd have claimed there was no possible way to get to work, and ohmygosh, I'm just going to have to stay here till it's over. Priorities.
