Meeting At The Top Of The Stairs

I reported for jury duty at 8:00 a.m. but not a single name had been called by 9:45 a.m. I was tired of reading and coveting the laptops and fancy phones of those around me when I decided to get up and move around. Then, it hit me. I had my MP3 player and access to water. I headed toward the stairs.

My goal was to do 42 flights to mimic the Master the Met stairclimb. This guy sees me trekking up and down the stairs and asks How many times are you going to do this? I tell him that I am unsure.

At some point, I see a woman in the corridor on her cell phone. She is near the banister. I see her and she sees me. I think that I'm about 28 flights into this quest and as I'm heading up again, I'm getting ready to head to the bathroom to get rid of some sweat and she meets me at the top of the stairs with some tissue. I was unbelievably touched. She doesn't stop her conversation. She just matter-of-factly hands me the tissue. I keep going.

I also realize at this time that I am carrying goats under my arms. Goat carrying has become a running joke between Jessica, Patti and me. When we were rock climbing once, Patti said something about suspecting that her deodorant wasn't holding up. I was reading a back issue of Mental Floss and, unbelievably, came across an article about deodorant about a day after having the conversation with Patti.

3. The Roman poet Ovid preferred a more proactive solution. In Book III of the “Art of Love,” he cautions women against carrying goats under their arms.

Now, we joke about carrying goats under our arms because rock climbing will put your deodorant to the test.

I didn't care about the goat thing though. I kept climbing and, eventually, climbed 44 flights. I could have gone further but I was a mess. My back was wet. Sweat was dripping off my face. I did not have on wick away moisture clothing and it was chilly outside. As it turned out, the courtroom ended up being completely frigid. Really, I wanted to object -- big time.

While my clothing might not have been ideal, I did have on my very comfortable BOC shoes which allowed me to trek up the steps without discomfort.

I did reconnaissance for lunch and decided to go to Culinaria, a relatively new grocery store downtown that has gotten rave reviews. I almost freaked out when I saw how long the wait time was but it ended up being a much, much shorter wait. I was so glad that I took an apple and Greek yogurt to snack on because I was ravenous after the stairs.

I enjoyed being downtown as I usually do. I love the architecture and seeing one of my favorite landmarks from different angles. So, I had jury duty but I didn't take it sitting down. Yay!


(View from courthouse which had some strange barbwire-like covering over window)




Civil Courts from Citygarden



Side of City Hall


Old Post Office
What was your last encounter with random kindness?????