Unemployment adventures continue: I went to Wall Street today!

After a brief meeting with Payroll to develop a script idea I decided I would head to Ikea (yes again) to explore my storage options since I have way more stuff than closets now. I had read about a free water taxi and looked it up with my iPhone for details, since it sounded way cooler than the stupid bus at Borough Hall in Brooklyn. When I realized it left from Pier 11 at Wall Street I was even more interested, thinking maybe I'd see the current economic climate written all over the faces of the bankers and brokers. Woohoo!

I actually did sort of feel tangible stress in the air. Classy restaurants were notably empty at lunchtime. No one was smiling (but maybe that's normal? Finance seems like an awfully boring profession to me). I was impressed by the monolithic feeling of it all, passing Trump and Schwab. Then I noticed somewhere the bull of Merrill Lynch. I remembered that Bank of America ate Merrill on Monday. I thought about Lehman and looked up as the icon of banker suicide flickered through my brain.

The scene was a lot different when I crossed South Street and hit the pier. The retardedly expensive waterfalls cascaded below the Brooklyn Bridge. Flags everywhere whipped around their flagpoles on the blustering wind. I breathed salty air and giggled at a duck wiggling his tail at me. Seagulls roosted or stood serenely atop wooden poles (what are those things called?), belying their pesty, scavenging nature.

And then the taxi came, bouncing side to side in the wavy water. I sat on the top of course, letting the wind bluster my braids around and snapping photos like a cheesy tourist. It was so much fun bobbing around in the New York Harbor while the other passengers got nervous and the guy with the pronouncedly Jewish accent behind me gave a play by play of all the stuff we passed. While the hipster roommates scoffed at those of us taking photos. While the token annoying guy-on-cell-phone shouted in German over the airwaves. While the big, hyper-industrial boat passed us and the condemned Red Hook warehouses loomed abandoned and Governor's Island twinkled in all its pretty uselessness. It was beautiful!

I can't think of a better way to go to the store, and I'm glad I spent my afternoon doing it!