More than meets the eye

So today, a transformer exploded in midtown Manhattan, a couple blocks away from where I work. I had just gotten out of work minutes before it happened, and I will admit, I was scared shitless. It's not every day you walk out of work, see a crowd of people staring uptown at a bunch of smoke, while firetrucks and police cars, race across the street, and all you hear is chatter about the Chrystler building exploding.

I didn't know what to do, so I immediately walked downtown and started texting everyone I could think of, basically saying "Oh fuck, the Chrystler Building exploded, oh fuck!" I walked across the street and I saw a woman running. She was crying. This was bad.

I had a couple of three thoughts going through my head as I walked.

• "Fuck, if Osama is behind this, then the Empire might be next. Fuck, I'm about a block away from the Empire. Fuck, is it possible to survive chunks of concrete falling on your head? Fuck."
• "Maybe we'll get the day off tomorrow."
• "Fuck, I hope the Apple Store doesn't close." (I wanted to buy an iPod car adapter for the road trip.)
• "Why isn't anyone panicking?"

It was weird, I was walking uptown now, trying to get away from the Empire State Building. A lot of people were talking on their phones, but no one was freaking out like the lady I saw moments before. I checked my phone and I got a couple of messages back. One of my friends texted me back, asking if I was kidding. Another texted me and wanted me to go online to send him a link. My sister said she hated me. I text-walked all the way to 42nd and looked east, and there was tons of smoke from beyond 5th Ave. It looked like a warzone, but strangely people were calm. I heard one guy even say "It's okay, we can stop caring again."

I saw some people standing around taking pictures of the scene, so I went up to them and asked "what happened?" One of them said that a transformer blew up, it was by Grand Central Station, not the Chrystler Building, and that it wasn't terrorists, but that it was still really bad.

So immediately, I sent a text out to a group of people who wanted to know what was happening, because it hadn't hit the news yet.

"Transformer exploded. Not Osama. No word whether it was Megatron or Optimus Prime."

I'm going to hell when I die.