i'm just not that threatening

I counted cars again today. This time i stood at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. It's a major truck thoroughfare, and i got hooted and hollared at by truckers. I felt so suspicious standing there, facing traffic, with my clipboard and backpack and little counters from Staples. The counters hang from my wrists by rubber bands, the way the pen hangs from the clipboard by a shoelace. I've got the hookup.

I'm standing there thinking some cop is going to come over and ask me what i'm doing. I'll say i'm counting cars, "See - there's my clipboard!". He'll ask me to put my hands up. When i do, he'll see the shiny metal things hanging from them. I'm thinking about Amadou Diallo, wondering if cops are still as trigger happy as they were under Giuliani. As i'm thinking this, a guy leans out of a commercial van and makes kissing sounds at me.

My next observation point was at the corner of Sara D. Roosevelt Park, watching the traffic come off the bridge in another direction. I had my back to a sunken ballfield full of Chinese senior citizens doing tai chi. I overheard the following conversation:

Hipster chick: Hey neighbor! You're up early.
Hipster guy: What up girl. It's the crack of dawn.
Hipster chick, looking at me: Something is up in this city today, right?
Hipster guy: Yeah, somethin is up. It don't feel right.

Apparently i am a sign of doom.

I returned to my paranoia about getting questioned by police. I ran through a list in my head of different types of identification i had on me - - which ones were more legitimate, and which were easier to get. My work ID could be a fake, but it's in my front pocket and it's got a big American flag on it... just as i'm thinking this, an NYPD truck starts back up right onto where i'm standing. I moved; it took my spot. Two cops sat in the front, drinking coffee and blocking pedestrian traffic, and one cop got out and started pulling over trucks. I guess they were doing random searches. I stood right next to the cop van and kept counting. I felt like I had a police escort for the rest of the morning.

** Fact: "New York's Boldest" refers to NYC Corrections Officers, just as the police are "New York's Finest", the sanitation workers are "New York's Strongest" and the firemen are, i suppose, "New York's Best Looking." No wait, they're "Bravest."