All in a days work...

Today was the first weekday in over 2 years without my boys Nanny (she is on vacation from Wed-Mon) and boy did it get started on the wrong foot. The Happy Boy, the older of the two, came into our bed at 3am, not to sleep, but to toss, turn, talk and cry especially when Mummy turned her back in him. Sigh. So in a moment of self-sacrifice, Urban Mummy sent me out of the bed and into his room to get some sleep before a very big day.

As a result of sleeping in the Happy Boy's room, there was no clock and I had to leave the house by 7:30 in order to walk leisurely to the subway in my suit and crappy dress shoes for a 9am interview of the job seeking kind. Hopefully the first of many. For those of you who know me, you would be surprised how nice I clean up in a suit... I even surprise myself.

Once that was done - about 30-45 minutes later, I went down to the lobby and summoned a friend of mine who works in the same building but in the North tower. He did not answer his phone and his voicemail did not indicate that he was away for the day... Hmmm. He did not know that I was coming downtown, but then again, he should be able to meet me... unless... The only excuse I would accept for him not calling me in the 20 minutes I hung around down there would be if he had to run out of the office to be with his wife and son as there was a baby due anytime. So I left him a message and off I went to the office.

It's summer. My employer is not overly concerned about the appearance of their employees, therefor me coming to work in a suit made me REALLY stand out. So much so that if anyone asked me why I was wearing a suit and if it meant I had an interview, I would tell them the following, "No, I was at a funeral". I anticipated the asker would just shut up and I could move along. I was correct, but still had to use that line twice.
friend for coffee / wife had baby

Once off the subway I strolled towards the office and saw a familiar face walking towards me... It was Josh-O. So I grabbed him and forced him to come across the street with me to Starbucks, where I forced him once more to let me buy him a coffee. We chatted. Nice guy. It was LONG overdue.

So once coffee was over, I went into the office and took off my suit jacket, tie and changed my shoes to a less casual brown shoe. It took me about 2 hours before I needed another coffee and that was when this already odd day, got even more awkward.

Coming out of Tim Horton's across the street from my office I noticed two firetrucks decending on the building, from different sides, yet no one was evacuating the building. As I waited to cross the street, 4 more firetruck pulled up and an ambulance drove up on the island right beside me. I crossed and asked the consierage in the building what was happening and she said nothin to her knowledge. We both watch 2 more firetrucks pull up. So I raced up to me desk to notify my Team Manager and grab my stuff in case there was an alarm, and at that moment the alarm came on.

Normally, the consierage comes on and acknowledges that an alarm was pulled, and what the problem was and wheter or not we should evacuate. In this case, the Fire Chief came on, and indicated that a bomb was found and that we should evacuate ASAP.

I made it down 6-storey's in the building when the Fire Chief came back on the loud speaker and told us that the situation was under control and that we should return to our desks. Instead of turning around in the stairwall - still full of people coming down - I walked to the lobby, turned back to the elevators and went back up to my desk.

I sat at my desk for about 5 minutes before I realized that I was the only person on the floor. I picked up the phone to call UM to let her know what was going on, and when I spun to look out the window, I was shocked at what I saw. The police had blocked the street with 6 police cars and were frantically taping off the street to keep cars and people away from the building... that I was still in. I told UM that I was a little concerned and she gave me some sound advice to; "get the hell out of the building ASAP". So I packed up my stuff and took the elevator to the main floor. I walked to the consierage and asked what was going on. She advised me there was a letter bomb scare and that the letter bomb was 10 feet from where we were standing. You see, the police had roped off the building, there were 10 police cars, 10 fire trucks, an ambulance, 2 helicopters already there and the bomb squad on the way. Everyone was across the street looking on, and I was in the middle of the action wondering why.

So I was escorted from the building and wound up in the middle of an empty street. Yonge Street. A very main road, all by myself with helicopters hovering above, walking towards the police so I could get out of the area. Why did they lets us back upstairs???

I hung out for an hour taking in the whole scene before heading to the subway to go meet UM and the boys at a birthday party. Actually ate cake there. First time I'd had chocolate in 2 weeks. Not bad, eh?

After the party, we all went home, I bathed the kids, we all ate, then off to bed. Whew. What a long day.