Rain date

It rained today. Boy, did it ever. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It was a pretty normal day, if incredibly hot and sunny. Rumor has it, it got up to about 100°F today, and I can believe it. That lasted until the early afternoon, around 3 o’clock, when I headed downtown to Wall Street, to take part in a focus group at Shutterstock my boss had recommended. She had been there herself this morning and said it was actually fairly interesting, kind of neat to see stock photos from the perspective of the people who provide them, and to offer them some perspective on how we use them. Plus, they were offering a $50 Amazon gift card in exchange for taking part, and for half an hour’s effort (plus the subway trip downtown) that seemed like a pretty good deal. (Plus, I could take part during the work day, with my boss’ blessing.)

The focus group itself was interesting: one woman asking me questions and a couple of others following along. I felt like I maybe wasn’t providing them with the answers they wanted, or explaining myself as thoroughly as I could. There were, of course, “no right or wrong answers,” but it’s been a little while since I’ve actively gone stock-photo shopping, and not once since taking on my current development job. But they were really friendly, and the session didn’t last much longer than the half hour advertised. (The chairs in their lobby, though? Genuinely uncomfortable. And I think my ears may have actually popped going up to the 30th floor.)

I knew I probably was going to miss my regular train home, the 4:54. I still had to go back to the office and pick up my bag (with my train ticket inside it), then get the subway back downtown again to Penn Station. A twenty-minute ride uptown, the elevator back up to my desk, then a fifteen-minute ride down to Penn. It was already about 4:15 when I came back down to their building’s lobby. But maybe I could do it, if I caught a subway right away and the traffic lights outside Grand Central were with me. I just needed to…

By that point, it had started to rain. I hadn’t brought an umbrella with me, which in retrospect is what we call a Very Stupid Move. There’s about a block between the Shutterstock offices and my subway line, and I got soaked running that short distance. I had a brief respite while the train took me back uptown, but then it was right back into the deluge at Grand Central.

I hung out under the awning at the exit on Lexington until the traffic light had changed, then raced through the bucketing downpour to the Duane Reade drugstore on the corner. Where I bought what turned out to be a pretty decent umbrella — albeit one that maybe came a couple of city blocks too late. I was thoroughly soaked — or so I thought, until I stepped ankle-deep into a puddle at the next corner and got even wetter.

I’m sure I looked a fright to my co-workers when I trudged back up to my desk. The only positive is that I was by that point too soaked to even care.

I headed back out into the rain, which by that point had not remotely let up. Bright flashes of lightning, loud cracking booms of thunder, wind thrashing the rain at you left and right, and giant puddles everywhere you step. Luckily, though, our office is only a block from Grand Central, and my umbrella was still holding up, so I got to my subway without too much more trouble.

I had some trouble finding my MetroCard, of course, and I most certainly did miss my original train out of Penn, but by that point those were just minor annoyances. I’m actually amazed that the Long Island Railroad didn’t collapse under the pressure of this afternoon’s storm. (I wish I could say the same for our home phone line; even with all of yesterday’s work, it went out again in the downpour.)

With luck, the rain — which actually stopped altogether around 7 — will cool things of a little. I’d hate to think all of this was for nothing.

Still, I did get a $50 gift card out of it, so that’s something.