The Post Office, The Bank and Rollerblades

Today during lunch I had to run two errands: the post office and the bank. No big deal usual lunch time errands, but I had two interesting encounters I had to share.

The Post Office: I was waiting in line with the rest of the city to mail my taxes. I’d filled out my certified mail and return receipt cards and was ready to go. I don’t know about you, but I feel like the post office employees are always cranky – especially this time of year. So I was completely caught of guard when my teller was not only chatty but nice! She seriously chatted my ear off. As I was leaving and she was wishing me a wonderful weekend I noticed she was putting up her “Next Window” sign. It all made sense – I was her last customer, of course she was happy.

The Bank: After my pleasant but random post office experience I was off to the bank. On my way to the post office I had past some street performers – nothing out of the ordinary now that the weather is nice. It was three guys hip hop/break dancing. On my way to the bank I noticed they had already packed up and moved on, but then as I walked in the bank I realized they had not just packed up and moved on but they had moved inside the bank. They were at the teller next to me with their huge bucket of money handing it over to the teller to count and deposit. Wads of ones and handfuls of coins. This must be a daily thing otherwise I doubt the teller would do the counting for them. Maybe I was eavesdropping? The teller said, “Two hundred and fourteen dollars - is this just from today?” The dancer smiled and said, “Nope, it was just from this morning!” I think I need to change professions – oh wait, I can’t dance.

Oh the random things you see in the city.

And to top it all off, last night Mel had a rental car so Mel, KC, Holly, Kelly and I went out to the Cheesecake Factory. On our way back Mel was dropping us all off and our apartments when we came to the intersection at 71st, Broadway and Amsterdam – it’s a weird huge intersection. Out of the middle of no where this random guy on rollerblades is standing in the middle of the road pretending/trying to direct traffic. No, not a policeman, just a random guy (who was probably very very out of it). It’s almost midnight and a guy on rollerblades with a helmet and whistle is trying to direct traffic – when the traffic lights are completely functioning! Basically he just created a huge traffic jam, and it’s amazing he was still there and ALIVE when we came back through the intersection after dropping Holly off.

Who are these people!?! No pictures, just a lot of words - which I’m sure don’t do the situations justice - about random people in NYC.