Earphones and the City

It’s 2:00 in the afternoon and the noise down on 42nd hasn’t stopped since 8:30 this morning.

You gotta love New York City.

It actually started yesterday before I left work. Noise—beyond that created when Miley Cyrus visited Bryant Park a few weeks ago—started to invade my warm cocoon of quietude up here on the 17th floor of the Tishman Speyer building around 4:00pm. Every few minutes the screaming would begin accompanied by a few moments of quiet. Then—AHHHHHHH!!!!!! Then quiet. Then—AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! It was incessant. I walked outside around 5:30 and there they all were…clad in Jonas Brothers t-shirts and ready to spend the night in the park to get the best seats. They were some crazy 13 year-olds. I didn’t even do that for NSYNC and I LOVED NSYNC.

So this morning I got to work and the screaming hadn’t stopped. And it didn’t stop until 10AM, when the sleep-deprived hormone-driven teenagers meandered home to fall asleep with their new “OMG!” moments to treasure. In my opinion, GMA needs to find a better—less professional—area to host the Jonas Brothers next time. I couldn’t hear myself think.

But—hey—who am I kidding? I liked the excuse to peer out the window and watch the concert myself. Those kids are pretty cute. Not worth sleeping with nature—but cute.

Then—when I thought all was safe and I could begin working on those expenses I have been dreading since yesterday—another hullabaloo began. This time the noise was less teenybopper love and more United States Government hate. The AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! turned into more of a OHHHHHH!!!!! And instead of a few minutes of quiet and then screaming again it turned into a beat. It was like: dadadada (a second pause) DADA!!!!!
Over and over and over again.

It turned out it was a protest of our involvement in the Olympics. Apparently the Chinese haven’t been on the up and up with human rights. Especially with Tibet. Big surprise, huh?

That lasted for at least three hours. Three very long hours.

And then—quiet. Or so I thought.

And then the drums began. Bum budda bum budda bum bum bum. I still have no idea what this was for—perhaps a remnant of the Tibet protest? Or homeless bums? I guess I’ll never know for sure. What I do know is I lost two more hours of my life wondering when that cacophony would stop.

I guess the moral of this story—I need to buy better earphones. I hear Bose has a good pair…any suggestions?