Lunch with Biden

Walked out of my office at lunch and was struck that the busy lunch crowd in the financial district was frozen. There were dozens of uniformed police with their motorcycles all over the place and everyone was just waiting on the sidewalks. I had to go up to someone and ask. It was for Joe. I’m walking along the route, and more cops on bikes come by and pull over on the side. One cop even addressed a gentleman walking along the sidewalk (just like me) and told him to move over and stand by the building. Very strange, although he was carrying a messenger bag.

I’m almost to the end of the block when all of a sudden there’s an influx of vehicles. On point in the front is a handful of more cops on bikes followed by two limos. I look closely in both but no clue who was who with the slightly tinted windows. They were then followed by a bunch of the dark big SUVs – escalade types and then around the corner comes an ambulance with their lights on followed by two police cars. And they all drove by very quickly – it was over within seconds it seemed. Gave me the tingles.

And then it’s like the world was taken off of pause and all the blue shirts and suits start moving again – the sidewalks are swarming with the business folks that had piled up during the wait. It was very surreal. It makes me appreciate working in the heart of a metropolitan city though. To walk out of your door and stumble upon something like this, as if it’s an everyday occurrence. Similar to when I stumbled upon the victory parade by the Sox a few years back.

I enjoy my lunch of Vietnamese sandwiches in the park that is packed full of people enjoying the second showing of summer days, catching up with a friend and discussing our futures and what we want in life. We head back to our offices when again, we come upon a large spattering of uniformed police. They’re in the street directing traffic, along the sidewalks keeping the pedestrians out of the road. I miss Joe this time round as the wait was taking too long. But apparently he was visiting an office down on Arch street. It was very strange and makes you appreciate not having to tote around such a large and burdensome entourage.