I was lucky enough not to be stuck in a high-rise building in NYC in 2003 during the infamous black out. I had the day off and I was doing my 'Cuse education proud by life guarding that day. The 80 year old woman who bathed nude (I shit you not, this happened every three days and I happened to be the lucky "senior" guard on duty that always had to tell her to put her top back on...kicker...she spoke VERY little English. That means this conversation always went on uncomfortably long while my gaze stayed focused on her eyes and my abs ached from holding in the nervous laughter) had just finished her laps and I felt as though the pool needed a good sanitizing so I had turned the chlorinator all the way up. Then it happened, I heard it so clearly. It is amazing how loud the sound of silence really is when you are used to the hum of mechanical noises all day long. There was a thud and then deafening silence. OH CRAP! I thought to myself, Did I seriously just overload the pool's power? I was then told that it wasn't just the pool area, but the entire condominium complex that I worked in. OH NO! Paul is going to kill me, I totally just blew the power in the entire complex!
Paul was my boss, and I was terrified of him, why you ask? Well it's simple enough, I had worked at this complex for an entire summer and had never seen Paul face to face, however, I shared many phone calls with him, usually at least two a day. My first phone call with Paul was when he called to offer me my job. After NEVER meeting me, he called at 5:00am. Who calls a normal person at 5:00am let alone a college student? We talked for a bit, he outlined what my responsibilities would be, how I would get my key, uniform, and schedule. (Not from him, because he was an invisible entity as far as I am concerned) Then he said, in a thick Irish accent, "So Beth, what da ya think? Do ya want tha job?" Of course, seeing as it was now 5:10am I answered incorrectly and said, "Can I call you back later today once I find out if those hours will work for me?" Now, I know this sounds rude, but what you have to understand is that I had an internship at a Soap Opera that summer as well and I needed to talk to my boss to make sure that my hours at the pool with work with my hours there.
Then Paul barked at me (the first of many times I wold experience this), "What da ya mean ya need to think abou' it? It's yes or no, do ya want the job or not?" As I said before, I had an internship and I needed more money coming in so I cracked under the pressure and accepted the job not worrying about the more important hours that I would need to fill. I would work it out with the head guard it would all be okay.
Now, remember I never met Paul, but boy that guy have long arms. The very sound of the guard phone ringing was enough to send me into cold sweats that summer, I was petrified of Paul and I did my job extremely well because of it. He would periodically "threaten" (read: say he would come down to visit, but he was scary so it seemed like a threat) to come down to the pool, which would send my anxiety level into super drive as well as my productivity. Let's just say that the PH levels were checked more that summer than probably ever were in the entire existence of the pool, the chairs were straighter than need be, and there was absolutely NO horseplay while I was on duty. Unfortunately "the reach" was never strong enough to get me to kill the hornets that resided in the men's bathroom, this resulted in my other fear that summer. In case you didn't know, a hornet NEVER stops chasing you.
But I digress, I was positive that I had overloaded the power and knocked out every one's power that lived there, which would not only piss them off, but would also send them all packing for the pool when their ACs went down. I was very soon going to have a packed pool and a power problem that I wasn't sure how to fix. I'd probably have to call Paul. The cold sweats set in, then the guard phone started ringing. I saw double the entire way to the phone worried about what wrath was about to be laid down on me. It wasn't Paul, it was my mom. A wave of relief passed over me as I started to tell her all about what I had done, "MomrememberwhenItoldyouthattherewasalady... thatbathednakedatthepool? ShewashereandIturnedupthchlorinetosanatizethepool...
andIknockedoutthepowerintheentirecomplex!!!!!" My mom told me to calm down and told me it was the entire North East. "WHAT?! I BLEW OUT THE ENTIRE NORTH EAST?! Paul is REALLY GOING TO KILL ME!!!!" I was so terrified of my boss that I actually thought that this could be a possibility! Then I took a deep breath and realized how ridiculous this was, of course I didn't do that, that would be insane... Not because blowing out the entire North East was totally asinine but if I had I would definitely already have been fired, Paul knew these things, he didn't need to come down here to check them out, he just knew. My mom informed me that people thought it was a terrorist attack (side note: It was sad that we all immediately went to that assumption, but that was life in NY post 9/11) and that I had to come home before it got too dark and it became too dangerous to drive with no street lights. My immediate thought, NO! I don't want to call Paul and tell him that we have to close the pool...because I DON'T WANT TO CALL PAUL!
I called Paul. He yelled at me. "Beth, ya can't close tha pool, people are goin' ta want ta come ta tha pool when thar AC is out." I took a deep breath and stood my ground.
"Paul, they suspect that this is a terrorist attack, I hardly doubt anyone is thinking about going swimming, further more I live twenty minutes from here and I need to take a major highway home, I am really not comfortable driving home that far with no lights. " The highway was dangerous to begin with and Paul agreed with my logic so I shut the pool and went home.
By the time I got home it was a well known fact that this was not a terrorist attack, however, there were still hundreds of people stuck in the city, one of them being my dad and there was still no power coming back anytime soon. We called my dad half a zillion times and found out that he would end up hanging out in his friends building lobby/garden for hours (ironically, his friend was already back in the suburbs and wasn't staying in his city apartment), he refused to go to a hotel because it was an adventure and everyone around him was experiencing the same thing. I am assuming this was my mom's idea of personal hell, but my dad's idea of slightly roughing it. My idea of personal hell? The phone conversation I would inevitably have to endure with Paul when I got back to work, on the positive side, I didn't have to go back for four days and there was a possibility that the appearance of the nudist during the male guards shift would have him forget all about me closing the pool during the blackout of 2003!
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