The crane

Not too long ago I moved into this building possibly in search of some new life that didn't even vaguely represent the one I let go of. What made the move so easy for me had a lot to do with the building sitting in what I consider the most beautiful part of Manhattan. And amazingly, despite all the evidence Manhattan has to offer on how life can change so quickly right in front of us, I didn't really learn this lesson until my engagement ended.

And since I cannot seem to face anything without a trace of sarcasm, I turned this quazzy theoretical philosophy into its most literal form and saw my death at each and every turn. And shortly after moving in, the crane appeared. This crane spent each and every morning attempting to kill me by hovering various objects of gigantic strength and size over my head in its effort to build the super modern complex known as the beaver house. As the crane continued its effort every day to build this monster sized tower, I continued becoming quite attached to it. The crane came alive every morning and fell asleep every nite. It went through changes, first it was wrapped in the advertisments of the building in the hottest months of the summer causing the poor thing to sweat profusely and have to flash the dreaded bastard beaver in hopes of claiming new tenants upon its completion.

A letter to the beaver board president did nothing to remove the wrap. Not even for my crane party which, despite the wrap, was a great success.

Then the lights that lit up the great crane were taken away leaving nothing but mad giant darkness.

As the building went up, the crane was given the gift of height. I will never forget that day as a differently shaped crane made a guest appearance taking up the entire 5 way intersection just to help with the gift.

Sure, I went around the city viewing other cranes, I even made a map of the active cranes, Hell, even the cranes in Brussels looked interesting but the truth is, this crane was the only crane in my radar that made sense. This crane spoke a language only I could understand.

At 3am on Saturday morning, the guest appearance crane returned and started working. As I made my way to the deli below, seeing it was a thrill as I knew the top of this beaver house still had so much work to complete. They could only be adding even more height to my crane. There was tons of noise but I had trouble viewing the progress mainly cause my windows are so dirty I can hardly see out. So the morning became a project cleaning the windows for my perfect crane view.

At lunch, I schlepped down for a tuna melt and a tired construction worker walked in.

Me: "How tall will the crane be after they are done?"

Construction worker: "What? No, they are taking it down."

Juan found me outside staring up at the crane when he brought me my tuna melt. I had completely forgotten I ordered it. All I could do was stare. All I could do really was think that its ok for the crane to leave cause I'm leaving. Maybe this is lifes way of telling me what I already knew about how life can change at any moment. So there you have it, the book of crane has opened and is now closed.

So I'm gonna update my map.

Goodbye friend.