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somebody needs a hug!
I ended up in a somewhat awkward embrace with a middle-aged Suit on the crosstown bus this morning. As the bus slowed down and a cluster of air conditioning-dazed riders approached the back door, the driver slammed on his brakes, sending this man flying through two people. This buck stopped with me however, because via either a momentary sense of self-preservation or deeply ingrained instinct, my arms shot out, hooked underneath his and I somehow managed to break his fall.
It's an odd thing, to say the least, to find oneself in a close embrace with a complete stranger (a man, no less!) without fully realizing how this came to pass. He quickly gathered himself, jumped back — I'm certain dying of humiliation — and hurried down the back stairs. I was so startled I turned left instead of right when I hit the sidewalk, and rubbing my aching arm.
I blame the old folks for this, you know. Years of working in a nursing home and being on the constant lookout for the oft-toppling 87-year-old set has absorbed into my muscle reflexes, and now I'm catching complete strangers, embarrassing everyone involved.
I also blame this stifling heat, making me soft. [Thank god this whole global warming thing is just a farcical creation of the liberal media or it would be really scary, huh? Sorry, bad inside joke as I apparently work with someone who shares this view.] It was very un-New Yorker of me to not step aside and save my own ass, boasting Pollyanna instincts I'd never own up to if my brain hadn't steamed itself out my ears before 10 a.m. It used to be I just watched the Crazy, now I'm part of it.
I'm off to melt my flip-flops onto the sidewalk and try not to bear hug any more strangers today en route to the gym. One can only hope.
comments (11)
I think your heroic action should be tomorrow's headline of the NY Post: Archive This: Blogger Saves Life!
1 | Neil | July 17, 2006 07:28 PM
and so now the praise begins :)
2 | Floridagal | July 17, 2006 10:14 PM
*cough*
3 | meep | July 18, 2006 08:15 AM
maybe you are part superhero and you didn't even know it.
4 | clearlykels | July 18, 2006 11:41 AM
Darn do-gooder. Thanks for ruining the schadenfreude for the rest of us.
5 | Dupin | July 18, 2006 01:48 PM
since so many of the people i associate with are star wars fanatics, i try not to catch them when they fall. i'm pretty sick and tired of yelling, 'NO, you most certainly do NOT owe me a LIFE DEBT. LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE.'
6 | brandon | July 18, 2006 06:44 PM
How dare you actually catch someone and save them from possible injury and further humiliation. What is the world coming to!
Good Job Smitten for being in the right place at the right time!
7 | Stephanie | July 19, 2006 09:03 AM
Global warming is a creation f the liberal media? Get real. Don't be STUPID. Global warming is a real and serious and fatal issue.
8 | Cynthia | July 19, 2006 09:30 AM
Cynthia, she's KIDDING! And you must be the stupid one to not read (or just not get) the next sentence where she refers to the statement that "global warming is a creation of the liberal media" as a bad inside joke. Get a life.
9 | Jess | July 19, 2006 11:55 AM
Was he tall, dark and handsome?
10 | Uju | July 19, 2006 12:15 PM
why am I wondering if he posted a missed connection thanking you for your heroics? :) Nice reflexes by the way, Smitten.
11 | PLD | July 21, 2006 12:24 PM