Avenue of the Americas

Sightings like this seemed comical, or at least unusual, when they first started occurring years ago. Nowadays I don’t even notice that a human fully costumed as Elmo marches among us on 6th Avenue/Avenue of the Americas. This photo was shot more or less by accident. I did not even notice Elmo coming at me until seeing the photo.

The midtown holiday season hell hole brought me as close to a panic attack as I’ve come in quite a while. I randomly spun into that cycle a couple of months ago when I was on a bus that idled in traffic for what seemed like an hour but was probably just a couple of minutes. It was on a bridge over the East River, which further fueled the fires of anxiety. Anything around me comes close to vanishing when this happens. I just want to retreat into a cocoon. That might be where I was when Elmo passed by the other day.