October 11 – Day 35: Waiting for Pidge

When I mentioned that Pidge would be arriving on the 11^th, John had told me he’d want to change the sheets and towels that day, so I let him know the day before that she was due. He wrote me back that he’d want to come by at noon. That was fine, though it turned out to be a chore in that I didn’t/couldn’t get to sleep much before 5:30, so getting up at 11:00 left me with minimal sleep. (Yes, I know it's late, but I was up late. Sue me.)

I was ready in plenty of time, despite how tired I was. John showed up just after noon, but said he had to move his car and would be back in a half an hour. My immediate reaction was “Where the hell is he parking his car that it takes him a half-hour to get back?,” but I figured that was his business.

I took a short nap, and he came back (as promised) at 12:30, with bags full of linen. Despite his earlier warnings, I assumed it couldn’t take all that long to change sheets on one medium-sized bed and substitute one set of towels for another, so I guessed that he could be more than done in the time it would take me to get a bagel and have a cup of tea (while working) at Starbucks.

Eating the bagel took the expected time, but the Starbucks at the corner of Avenue A and St Marks is fiendishly clever in that it offers a lot of seating and almost as many electrical outlets, but that seating is so uncomfortable and the tables so small that any attempts to stay for prolonged periods will be defeated by the level of discomfort. That being the case, I stayed for a far shorter time than I’d expected (though still about 45 minutes), and when I returned home, there was John in the middle of his work, standing sort of slack-jawed watching a movie on TCM. Now, I have no objection to anyone watching Turner Classic Movies, but this just seemed odd. With nowhere else to go, I went into the back room (which I hadn’t been in for weeks) and wrote a little. Going back there actually had a dual purpose, in that it let me see what room there would be for Pidge’s stuff should she need it.

Eventually, I heard John leave, so I came out and saw that the bed, while changed, didn’t have a bedspread and was covered in towels. I wasn’t sure if that meant he was done or got distracted again, so back to the cave I went. Finally, John returned and finished, so I was able to complete my own process of clearing drawer, shelf, and bathroom space for Pidge. This process took only a few minutes, even though I was watching TCM.

The other thing I had to worry about was making sure Pidge would be able to get into the apartment and have a key. Since I had a show, the hope was that Pidge would get in early enough that it wouldn’t be a problem; I could leave as late as 6:15 and still make half-hour. Just in case, I’d made arrangements with John about the ways Pidge could get a key from him if I wasn’t here. Even though he said he was going to be out the rest of the afternoon (hiking back to his car, perhaps?), if neither he nor I wasn’t here, Pidge could knock on the door downstairs, and John’s wife would give the keys to her.

Pidge was originally due to arrive at Newark at about 2:30, but her plane had been delayed in San Francisco (computer issues), and the arrival kept getting pushed back. For a while, it was 4:00 (which was still early enough), but eventually settled in at about 3:40. It rained most of the day, seeming to alternate between bone-dry and deluges, so that was going to affect her land-travel time, as well. 

When she did land, she kept texting me luggage and car updates about where she was and when she expected to arrive. Finally, about 5:10, I saw the car outside and there she was! I went out to help bring the bag though the vestibule and interior doors (no mean feat), then show her around the apartment. I showed her the idiosyncrasies of the place (of which there are plenty), made sure she knew how to lock and unlock the doors and which direction was which, spent some time talking and seeing each other, then it was time to head uptown.

Despite all the delays, I was still at the theatre by about 6:20. I settled in and, because that 7:15 curtain comes so quickly, it was time for the show before I knew it. The performance itself was okay. Another quiet audience (I guess that’s what we’re going to get). I felt a little logy and slow, part of which I chalked up to being so damn tired. It was enough, though, to make me resolve to just pump up my energy for the rest of the run and really do what I could do move things along. I know I should be doing that anyway, but the performance was an eye-opener in that regard.

Between the rain and Pidge being here, there was no way I was going to walk home, so I got on the train, walked along St Marks hoping something would be open where I could pick up something for supper, but even though the rain had stopped, the earlier weather had pretty much shut everything down, so I settled for a turkey sandwich at home. I stopped on the way to buy some mayonnaise and chips, and got stuck behind a quartet of startlingly drunk women who were trying to figure out how to buy four two-liter bottles of water. The process of selecting the bottles, dividing them up, and paying for them might as well have been trying to crack cold fusion as far as they were concerned.

While I had hoped Pidge might still be up and interested in walking around the neighborhood and getting a drink, she was already in bed. We talked for a while, then she turned in (she’d been up since about 3:00, San Francisco time) and I watched some television and tried to surf, but I didn’t want to disturb her too much. I eventually gave up, turned off the light, and called it a day myself.