All right, I'm staying in the same place as a five-year-old so the miracle is that I can post at all, but this one warrants a catch-up post even though I'm supposed to be getting ready for a cake party for 23 adults and 10 children that was going to be held in the back garden but will now be indoors because of rain and to say I have a lot to do is more than a huge understatement.
So this was Friday of last week - May 31, I think. Flight from Silver painless and on time. By some stroke of great good fortune, the plane from ELP to DFW comes into the gate where the Popeye's is, and I had just enough time to buy my two spicy thighs, find a seat and gobble them down out of the bag before getting on the Sky Train to the gate for Logan. Quite what that had to do with Mars trine Chiron I have no idea, except Chiron is in the Sixth for me and that was the aspect while I was *dining*.
But that was Wednesday and I'm writing about Friday. Limo (!) scheduled for picking me up in Bronx at noon for drop off at 79th and East End in Manhattan for visit to Dr. M, who I've been seeing since shortly after 9/11. After that a cab to 31st and Eighth for the bus to Cambridge. Piece o'cake. Temperature 98 with 95% humidity.
Arrive at Dr. M's and stagger though door dragging my 50 lb held together with duct tape huge squashy wheelie bag that Ama gave me last year to take stuff back to Silver in that I've brought back with me to stuff with even more stuff and take back and now contains my decent wheelie bag and four cameras, but that's another story.
No doorman on duty but obviously fit maintenance man's eyeballed profiling and am judged eligible to enter building without challenge. Walk through lobby and remember flight of six steps up to Dr. M's. Heave 50 lb bag up steps one by one. Sweat. Ring doorbell at Dr. M's. Nothing. Sounds of banging from within. Ring bell #1 again, marked Dr. M. Nothing. More sounds of banging. Attempt to mop sweat from brow but have nothing to mop with. Repeat ringing six more times while wonder if ringing bell marked with requested person's name is correct way to gain entrance or if a year in the country has deleted proper procedure from brain.
Decide ringing bell marked with requested person's name is correct procedure. Wonder if requested person is at lunch. Wonder if receptionist with whom appointment was made forgot to write it down. Wish had tissue. Wish had Dr. M's phone number.
Leave 50 lb. bag outside Dr. M's door and ask maintenance man if there is anyone in Dr. M's office. Maintenance man stares at me and tells me Dr. M moved a year ago. Ask if maintenance man has address to which Dr. M has moved. Maintenance man has not. Ask maintenance man for phone number of building management so I can ask if building management has address to which Dr. M has moved. Maintenance man gives me phone number of building management.
Bless the day I bought a cell phone and call building maintenance.
Ask if building management has forwarding address for Dr. M. Building management has not. Mop brow with loose unsecured with duct tape floppy bit of huge squashy wheelie bag. Look at lobby clock. Have 20 minutes to get to wherever Dr. M has moved.
Again bless the day I bought a cell phone and call JDG in CA. Ask for Dr. M's phone number. JDG checks Dr. M on google, tells me Dr. M's phone number and tells me he's located at 435 East 79th. Tell him he isn't and call Dr. M.
Me: This is Pamela Reeves. I have a one o'clock appointment with Dr. M.
Receptionist: OK.
Me: Not really. I'm at the old office.
[BRIEF PAUSE]
Receptionist: Oh.
Me: Please tell me he's in the same neighborhood.
Receptionist: What neighborhood?
Me: The one he used to be in.
Receptionist: Well, he's a few blocks west between 71st and 72nd.
Me: How many blocks west?
Receptionist: He's on Fifth.
[BRIEF PAUSE]
Me: I'll be a bit late.
Receptionist. OK.
So began the trek, temperature as before, eight and a half blocks south and seven blocks west, lugging my 50 lb bag, streets filled with lorries and cars and buses and cabs filled with people and sidewalks lined with people waving their right arms up and down, through the site of the Second Avenue Subway construction which has now moved conveniently down from the neighborhood where I used to live to the neighborhood I was then traversing, armed now with tissues taken from the lobby of Dr. M's old building, enabling me to mop but requiring me to stop lugging whenever I wanted to - somewhat akin, I thought, to Shackleton's expedition to the south pole but with the temperature in reverse.
I was wrong. The similarity to Shackleton's expedition to the south pole but with the temperature in reverse was when I left Dr. M's new office and had to walk to 31st and Eighth to pick up the bus to Cambridge, sidewalks lined with people waving their right hands in the air...
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