So, it’s 5:20am and Sheila and I leave home as normal. Sheila starts work at 6am and I usually walk her there then just walk back – but not today! Having just gotten my Permanent Resident’s Card I am now able to go and get a Social Security Card and Number, so today I’d be going to do that instead.

I wander around for an hour or so taking photographs of the Sears Tower from the south-side, the sun comes up and at the same time various dark clouds begin to appear in the sky. “These are probably the clouds – and storm – that were meant to arrive at 3pm yesterday afternoon” – I think to myself.

As I begin to walk back towards the centre of the city I hear a rumble of thunder and the heavens opened… Finding shelter by the side of one of the many skyscrapers I notice a store inside the lobby that would probably sell umbrella’s. I walk in and buy an umbrella that says “Wind-Proof” on the packaging… I walk outside and on only the second or third gust of wind, my “Wind-Proof” umbrella breaks.

Now using my broken umbrella, I continue to wander around. I find the building that I think is the Social Security building and I walk inside to ask one of the Security Guards – he confirms I have found the right place. I memorise the cross-streets that run alongside the building entrance and leave to see if I can find something to eat as I still have about an hour to wait.

I see a McDonald’s Restaurant near the Daley Plaza and wander inside. I walk up to the counter and order a McMuffin, Hash Brown and Coke. I swipe my card and literally not one second later, my food appears next to the payment console. “Wow! That was fast…” I thought to myself.

I sit myself down on a bar stool style seat next to the window. Helpfully there is a bank outside it with one of those temperature and time readouts and someone also left their newspaper. So I read their paper, eat my food and stare out of the window until the clock across the road reads ‘8:20am’.

I walk back to the Social Security Administration building, using my broken umbrella to keep myself as dry as I can, go through the ‘airport style’ security in the main lobby and head up the two escalators to the office I need only to find I was beaten to it by about ten other people – and it’s only 8:30am. The office doesn’t even open until 9am! I sit on the floor along with everyone else and as 9am gets closer, more and more people turn up and sit around (there are no chairs in that office lobby).

Then finally it’s 9am and some sort of Security Guard walks up and goes into the office. He looks like one of those guys who probably used to be in the Army, who probably was a Drill Sergeant, who probably could have been in the Marines – but felt they weren’t tough enough for him, you know the type. He gives a little speech before he opens the door, telling everyone to check-in using the computer terminal, take a number and wait until you are called to a window.

As everyone moves towards the door I suddenly find myself no longer the 11th person in line, but the 29th (I counted because it pissed me off). How that happened I have no idea, but the rest of the folks queuing up obviously have no idea how to be polite enough to realize it should be first come, first served. I finally get my ticket printed at 9:05am.

About an hour flashes by and I’m still sat there. I have already noted that people who came long after me have already long-gone, but I’m not bitter, oh no, I’m not bitter. Those people who left, missed one of the most entertaining things I have ever seen in my entire life. The entertainment came from the aforementioned Security Guard and a guy who seems to lack both common sense and decency…

So, it’s about 10:10am. Bearing in mind that what people do in a Social Security office is work with people’s private information, you’d expect people to be pretty respectful of one another’s privacy, wouldn’t you? Well, I watch a man walk up to a window where someone else is being served, he stands right at the side of the other person and starts butting into their conversation. He probably only wanted to know a little thing, he probably only wanted to talk for a moment, but he could have waited… If he had, maybe the Security Guard wouldn’t have seen him and said “Excuse me, Sir? Can you move back and give that Gentleman some privacy?”

No response. He continues trying to talk to the person in the window…

“Sir, move back and give him some privacy.” Says the Guard.

“Sir, move back and give him some privacy.” Says the Guard again.

This time, the man turns and in a pretty disrespectful tone of voice says “What!? MAN!”

The Guard repeats “What. Man? I said can you move back, Sir.”

The Guard notices pretty quickly that he is being ignored and he walks around the desk where people are filling out application forms, walking right infront of me to do so. It’s at this point that I thought to myself how I wouldn’t mess with the Guard…

The man, seeing the Guard approaching him, starts to walk backwards away from the window, but as he does I could hear a few things being said under his breath. He then says “Don’t touch me, man. Don’t put your hands on me.”

The Guard, probably as puzzled as I am by how the man was reacting, says nothing.

As soon as the man said “Don’t fucking put your hands on me, man!” He had crossed a line.

“If I do put my hands on you, your face will be pushed to the floor.” Said the Guard. “You need to leave the building. Now.”

The man, who didn’t seem to have grasped that his visit to the Social Security building was over, just repeated what he’d said before…

Suddenly the Guard in one swift motion seemed to both push and pull the man at the same time. The man ended bent over, with his elbow inverted and his hand being held by the thumb. It sort of looked like the Guard could have broken both the man’s arm and thumb at the same time if he had wanted to. The Guard started to march the guy, still in the arm-hold, to the door while the man continued to say things I couldn’t really understand (because of his accent) except for the swearwords.

Then, the magic happened, the man came out with the funniest thing he could have possibly said… “God Damn, Robo-Cop, Mother Fucker!”

The rest of my day pales in comparison, but never wanting to leave a story unfinished, here it is. I applied for my Social Security Card and it’ll arrive in about two weeks, I waited about two and a half hours in total. After that, I walked (with broken umbrella) back to the nearest Bus Stop for the Bus that goes by our Condo, got the bus, then sat on it for ten minutes while the driver (who presumably doesn’t like the work breaks given to her by law each day), went to the store to buy groceries. Of course, as she is out of the bus, a queue begins to form of various people who’re all getting wet… But hey, at least when the doors opened and my ride continued home it was first come, first served.