The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock

The opening night of Bryant Park - HBO film night was very fun. As usual, the planning and execution before the event made all the difference. At 445PM I arrived with a large and small blanket in my hand, sandals on my feet. I made pleasant conversation with a squatter who let me onto the line. The I removed my sandals and held them in my hands. Speed would be essential this evening. The entire perimeter of the park was surrounded by a mob ready to pounce at the bell and lay claim to a piece of that prime Manhattan real estate, if only for an evening. A handful of security guards stood in the grass, keeping people from getting a head start, eyeing the crowd, then their billy clubs.

The announcer used her cell phone clock to keep time, which was 2 minutes behind schedule and served to envigorate the crowd even more. "10 - 9 - 8. Ok everyone. Walk, don't run to a spot. There is plenty of room. 3 - 2 -1. Go!" I bolted, striding ahead of the squatter to my right, then I cut a deep right and felt that I was ahead of the scrambling multitude. I threw down my large blanket and fought to stretch it out on the ground in its full size. Then the small one. Less than a minute had passed but most of the grass was covered. It was over. Borders had been defined.

I looked to my left and viewed Robert, which was unbelievable. Somehow we had managed to stake land very close to one another. Another group wanted to switch spaces and we did which allowed us to fuse our areas into a large L shape.

In total our group had 22 people, of which 19 actually stayed for the movie. We also made an alliance with the group next to us, which encompassed another 8 people.

The opening act was a show of tweety and the bad putty tat. Very fitting for a story about birds. The crowd was in high spirits and made some funny comments. We were fortunate because it threatened to rain at least 3 times and the chance of precipitation was supposed to be 60% yet the show went on.