Wow.

Just...

Wow.

It’s a few weeks later and I’m still amazed at how surreal the entire situation was. You know, that whole New-York-5th-Avenue-Apple-Store-Wait-A-Thon? I’ve been to a few stores in my day, have waited in some decent sized lines and have the T-shirts to show for it. But, this was the first time I’d made an effort to get there EXTRA early in order to have a “good” place in line. No, I wasn’t there the dreary night before where it was icy cold and pouring down pretty good. I walked past, but figured that 6am should be a good time to be in line. (Hat’s off and a warm cup of hot chocolate to those that braved it!) So, I was there the next semi-dreary morning, stepped away during a downpour to get an umbrella and was back JUST in time for...more waiting... and some more rain. I have a few observations that I’ve made regarding my trip and I’ll be posting them as they come to mind.

1) People in New York make up their own ideas when confronted with strange situations.

As I said, I’ve been to store openings in malls and not in malls, indoors and outdoors in a lot of different states. What was common among them all were the onlookers who would ask,”What is this line for?” Not New York! In New York, you would see people glance over (or if it were two, they’d both glance over) and, if you watched their face, they quickly came to the realization that a) they just weren’t interested (because if you were that interested in everything in a city that doesn’t sleep, you’d go mad) or b) that they already KNEW why those people were standing in line, whether they actually did or not. Again, probably a good coping mechanism for New Yorkers.

2) General Rule: Snap first, ask questions later

This one’s probably true of any area where there’s a high likelihood of famous people ambling by. When Steve Jobs came to inspect the Reality Distortion Gen... I mean the cube, me and many others commenced to snapping! Got some pretty good pics, too. Anyway, a woman is standing beside me with her kid just snapping away. After a few pictures, she turns and asks,”Who are we taking pictures of?” I told her Steve Jobs

>-blank gaze-<

The guy that made the iPod

That answer seemed to quell her curiosity. She snapped a few more pics then left. I took up the same idea when I finally got into the store and I’m sure I would have missed a pic of John Legend if I hadn’t!

3) An umbrella rated for 40 mph is of no use in a 50 mph gust.

It was late in the day, we’d been braving sprinkles most of that time when a stern rain decided to come our way. It  started out fine and seemed inconsequential until it’s unruly friend wind decided he’d liven up the place. A group of us had gathered together to act as a rain shield for the umbrella-less when, suddenly, a wall of air came screaming down the side of the GM building, across the fountains (which had no problem hopping on for a ride) such that it appeared to me that the earth’s gravity had suddenly decided to place itself approximately three inches over my left shoulder. The wind and water hit with such force that the one large golf umbrella in our rag-tag group promptly gave up every ghost it had and started doing a poor impression of a champagne glass. Luckily, calmer (albeit wetter) heads prevailed and amid shouts of “We’re taking on water!” and “Batten down the hatches!” we grabbed the tines to flip them back down into a configuration more suitable for keeping dry. Or at least the appearance of dryness. We all ended up wet anyway, I guess is what I’m trying to say.

But you know what? Thinking back on it, it was fun and funny and there were slightly soggy smiles all ‘round our small section of the line. When the wisest of us pointed out that it seemed that the rain was done, it really didn’t matter if he was right or wrong.

By the way, he was right.