BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

A Threatening Situation

So today I was helping to do the AV stuff for graduation.  It was a good ceremony... everything went pretty well... then at the VERY end when the graduates were walking out for some reason they designed the tent and seating arrangement that people on the far side of the tent couldn't leave during the walking out of the graduates.  There was only one entrance and exit on the near side.  Since the graduates were in the middle and the stage was in the middle front and the AV equipment where I was was in the very back of the middle... this basically meant EVERYONE on the far side of the tent got stuck in during the end until all the graduates left.

Well let me tell you this angered a lot of people.  And they were expressing it.  Lots of people were just walking through where our equipment was without any sort of notion of how close they came to knocking over some very expensive camera's among other equipment.  The security guards were around the perimeter so they weren't really paying much attention to the people just walking on by.  Well I was instructed to block people from coming through.  So I told the next lady that tried to come through that she would have to wait... she got very upset and just huffed and puffed a lot and then tried to go another way around and got told she couldn't by another guy I could see and it looked like she started to become very angered with him.  Then more people saw that we weren't letting her out and they started to try and get out and say "well how come we can't leave!"

I didn't have a reply to this because I didn't design the setup and I didn't understand either why they would have any period of time especially a good 20 to 30 minutes where people would have absolutely no exit available.  It was beyond me!  But I was pretty stuck too.

Well so then one guy stated motioning to me and saying "hey buddy, come over here."

Then he said "How do we get out of here.  I'm ready to leave, where's the exit."

I said "Well you can go around in front of the AV as soon as the gradutes leave, it should only be about 5 more minutes."

His reply to this was "5 Minutes!  That's BULLS#@T, that's BULL F#$KING S*#T!"

I was kinda taken aback... He then started to move the rope out of the way and come in any way... so I got one of the nearest security guards and the guard came over and talked to him and he went back behind the rope.

Then about a minute later the guard left... and the guy said "Hey Buddy" again and then I turned around and saw him start to move the rope again... then he motioned with his fist punching it into his hand and then pointing at me.  He moved the rope aside and came inside.  He kept looking over at me and making other gestures... that were not polite and more of the balled fist into the hand and then finally one with his hand across his neck.  He kept slowly moving closer to me in the confined space.

I just panicked and then said to my coworkers "I gotta get OUT of here before that guy kills me!"

I grabbed my stuff and ducked under the rope on the other side and pushed my way through the gradutes walking out and then pushed some chairs out of the way.  I brushed past a couple people and finally made it to the exit and then booked it back to my car.  I mean I was SERIOUSLY booking it.  I've never run as fast in my entire life!

I got to my car and jetted out of there and drove around for a while to make sure he wasn't following me.

It was pretty crazy.  I thought maybe I might have to call 911... but I've never had anyone make those gestures to me!  It's not fun at all.

So I seem to have escaped it ok.

Now I'm back home.  I took my mom out for an early mother's day dinner because tomorrow I have my comedy improv class downtown and then I'm going to come back here and then head up to church and then go a run in Valley Forge and then hit up Iron Hill and get a burger and write and work on my book.  I now know that they stop serving at 9pm sharp.  SO I have to be there before 9pm if I want to order a burger!  I'm also thinking of stopping on down at the open jam since I don't have work on Monday.  I might just come home after writing.

I've decided to just keep going church at the original place and just stay there and make it my home church and just try to go as much as possible.  I like the people, I like the teachings, I like the music, I like it all.  Plus it's the first one I started going to... so it feels like I have history there now.  So I feel more connected to it.

Anywho so that's yea... That was my very threatening situation.  It was scary!  But thankfully here I am and I made it home safe and sound.