Stopping the Air & Water Show Jet with One Phone Call?

Blagica, NBC Chicago Street Team

If you were anywhere near or around the Loop on Monday morning, you must have heard the jets. Voosh!  Voosh!  Zooom! Pow! I work in the Aon Center and my office window faces Lake Michigan. I have a natural tendency to jump at the smallest things in life – including my husband tapping me on the shoulder.  Yah – I’m a jumpy rabbit.

The Air & Water Show is coming back to Chicago this weekend. Sure, we all know this, however, in year’s past, the jet practice began on THURSDAY.

Now. Let’s think about those jets. There I was at my desk. Jumping OUT of my seat every 5 minutes. It was a Monday morning, I was trying to get my work done, yet I felt like Chicago was under attack every few minutes.  Checking in with Twitter and Facebook, other friends and contacts in Chicago were tweeting/writing confused messages about the jets. One of my tweets even made ChicagoNow’s stream of tweets.  I decided to do something. I called up the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.

Yup. I nicely rang the office and asked the woman on the phone about the jets. Why did practice start Monday? Can they stop? What’s the deal, etc. She was super nice (thanks!).  I was told that the Air & Water Show folks were at North Avenue Beach and she would pass on the message. But I didn’t stop there.

I proceeded to post the phone number on my Facebook status, in addition to tweeting the number. I figured, why not? Other people wanted to see about the jets stopping and relaxing until the Big Practice Day – today.

Approximately 15 minutes after I phoned, the jets stopped.

Was it me? Was it the power of passing on a message? Who knows? What I do know is that we Chicagoans have a myriad of resources at our finger tips, including city government employees that can answer our questions when we have them.

As for me? I have to head down to Walgreen’s and get some ear plugs.  The jets will be back today, but I’ll be ready for ‘em! Oh, if you hear shrieks and someone hiding under her desk? That’ll be yours truly.

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