Today Was a Good Day

Today was weird. I woke up at 5am at almost the exact instant Bailey emerged from her sleeping spot under the bed beneath me. You might want to say that it was because she emerged from her sleep spot directly beneath me that I woke up. But you'd be wrong. The stars had aligned and granted us both the opportunity to wake up at the exact instant each of us was supposed to.

As she pulled herself out from under the bed, I gave her a little scratch. Right on the spot she likes, right above her tail. She didn't even both looking back as she curled her spine into the scratch. She knew it was me, knew we had both arisen at the same time. She believes too.

I took her outside for her usual morning walk. I said hello to Wilson the sometimes overnight doorman as Bailey and I jogged from the elevator to the front door. It was cooler today than it's been the last few days. The thermometer said 79 degrees, feels like 77, so I wore only a t-shirt and shorts. But with the breeze, the one that took the temp all the way from 79 to 77, I almost felt chilly. I didn't, of course, but almost. I believed I could. Like I could remember what chilly felt like, like I hadn't forgotten one the past two record setting hot days. And almost chilly was a far cry from how I felt not 6 hours when I'd walked home from a comedy show at Comic Strip Live.

I was first on the lineup in front of a receptive crowd. After watching a few comics and hanging out with a few more, I headed home. It was sweltering. My walk to the train station was only three blocks but that was three too many. I entered the station, paid at the turnstile, and walked to the escalators only to find them inoperable.

I thought it was an energy conservation measure the city had issued to prevent blackouts. Our apartment building had to comply with the same mandate and had raised the temperature in the common areas to alleviate the strain on the system. The building sent an email earlier in the day suggesting residents do the same and consider not running their AC so hard, but I secretly hoped Wiff had set ours to 62.

I walked down the frozen escalator steps and as I descended I felt the air get warmer. Each step felt like I was getting one step closer to Hades. I passed a few people on my way down, people who were either too hot and tired or too old to take the steps faster. I wanted to stop and talk to them, to complain about how hot it was and isn't it annoying we have to pay the price for the power company's shitty infrastructure, in the Upper East Side of all places, when I looked over to the up escalator and noticed it was stopped too. People had to walk, without help, up 238 steps in sweltering heat. And I realized I couldn't complain. At least not aloud.

I made it to the mezzanine level, one floor above the subway platform, and overheard an elderly woman talking to someone who looked like he worked in the station.

"Can I take that elevator to the street?" She asked.

"No, ma'am," he said. "That one only goes down to the subway platform. The other one won't work until the power comes back on."

Aha! So it wasn't an eco thing. It was a power thing. Maybe the system couldn't take the stress afterall?

She continued. "Well I can't walk up all those stairs."

"I'm sorry. You can wait here, or take a subway to another station and get to the street that way, and then take a bus back here."

I wanted to help, but I didn't know what I could do, other than offer her a piggy back ride. And I'm a nice guy and all, but I draw the line at piggy back rides for strangers. Especially in this heat.