we laughed my friends and i

in my past i am running through the business tower's underground parking lot pushing down on all the cars i can reach in as little time as possible.

i've been promising to show rudy what my late girlfriend suse would call 'elevator panic', which would occur in a minute or two as the suits (whose alarm beepers had started going off up above) would jam the elevators to come down and turn off their screeching sirens.

the trick would be to hide nearby, watch the panic, and evade the inevitable security goons that would join the worried 9 to 5ers in the descent to the hot below.

so we pretended to be entering the building just as the hordes came down, and the other trick was to stifle the laughs. that was the hardest.

suse and i used to also bring homemade sandwiches to sell the now frazzled and cranky office zombies, and we were never questioned. we sold 'em all. on our way out, we would swipe some toilet paper rolls and soap or paper towels into our now empty baskets and all in all it would be a mirth filled profitable morning. the best day was the time we took all sorts of office supplies from an abandoned desk.

back then, the cameras weren't everywhere.

the panic happened as usual (we watched in the nicely appointed lobby which in this tower was partitioned off by a wall of glass from the parking area) and now i just saw a lot of poor pissed working stiffs. a few seemed relieved to get out of the cubicles, i thought. but still, it was mostly sad.

in this now rudy and i had no sandwiches. stifled laughs, yes.

this time a security guard glared at us suspiciously, but that was because here were these two latino punks out of place, and he was black and back then the animosity could be greater.

rudy had a blast, i felt awful. this attempt at cheering up just wasn't what i thought it would be.

it just wasn't the same without her along.

rudy and i left the lobby and went to catch the bus back to venice.