Heigh-di-ho
Apr. 18th, 2007 03:45 pmAs my extremely tedious 1:00 p.m. meeting ground to its conclusion this afternoon, my colleague C's cell phone rang, which startled all of us a bit--it's an emergency-only one that never rings during the work day--and she gave it a worried look and went out in the hallway to take the call. While waiting for her to come back, I noticed the sound of helicopters, close by overhead, which made me just slightly uneasy--there's something viscerally unsettling about the sound of hovering helicopters--but which I figured was just patients being airlifted into the university hospital nearby. Then C. came back in and said, "I'm so sorry--that was [C's boss], and apparently there's been a bomb threat, and they're telling everyone to go home. I'm sorry," she said again, since C. is someone who would apologize for the Apocalypse.
I went outside and joined the crowds milling around in the beautiful spring sunlight and warmth, and tried to glean gossip--it was only a couple of buildings that had been threatened; no, it was seven or eight; whatever, the list definitely, probably, included the one I work in, unless it didn't. What did seem unambiguous was the "everyone going home" part, but nobody seemed ready to leave, standing around instead staring at the police officers who were, in turn, milling around on the other side of the yellow tape that had been strung all the way down the street, barricading off the core of campus, and at the hordes of news crews trooping past with cameras on their shoulders.
I ran into my old buddy N., who said, "It was weird, I got an e-mail from the dean saying that our building wasn't one of the ones that got a threat, so we should all sit tight. I went down the hall and stuck my head out the door, and there was a cop coming in who told me to get out. I told him, "Gee, I got an e-mail saying I should stay,' and he said, 'Kid, I don't give a shit what your fucking e-mail said, get the fuck out of here.'" N., who is a long-time far-left anti-authoritarian activist type, shook his head. "So I said 'Yessir!' and I got the fuck out of there."
After a while, I gave up hoping that I'd be able to get past the police tape to retrieve my bicycle, and, rejoicing that I'd had the wit to have brought my bag (with wallet and keys) to the meeting with me, I headed off to the bus stop. Near the bus stop is a line of flagpoles, and I watched the flags--U.S., state, university--all at half-staff, fluttering in the warm spring breeze, while I waited for the bus to take me home.
I went outside and joined the crowds milling around in the beautiful spring sunlight and warmth, and tried to glean gossip--it was only a couple of buildings that had been threatened; no, it was seven or eight; whatever, the list definitely, probably, included the one I work in, unless it didn't. What did seem unambiguous was the "everyone going home" part, but nobody seemed ready to leave, standing around instead staring at the police officers who were, in turn, milling around on the other side of the yellow tape that had been strung all the way down the street, barricading off the core of campus, and at the hordes of news crews trooping past with cameras on their shoulders.
I ran into my old buddy N., who said, "It was weird, I got an e-mail from the dean saying that our building wasn't one of the ones that got a threat, so we should all sit tight. I went down the hall and stuck my head out the door, and there was a cop coming in who told me to get out. I told him, "Gee, I got an e-mail saying I should stay,' and he said, 'Kid, I don't give a shit what your fucking e-mail said, get the fuck out of here.'" N., who is a long-time far-left anti-authoritarian activist type, shook his head. "So I said 'Yessir!' and I got the fuck out of there."
After a while, I gave up hoping that I'd be able to get past the police tape to retrieve my bicycle, and, rejoicing that I'd had the wit to have brought my bag (with wallet and keys) to the meeting with me, I headed off to the bus stop. Near the bus stop is a line of flagpoles, and I watched the flags--U.S., state, university--all at half-staff, fluttering in the warm spring breeze, while I waited for the bus to take me home.