June 13, 2004
Eventful Return
I am watching a scene from the soundless movie on the Limoliner on my way home. An attractive young couple are squashed in the bathroom of an airplane where she has her foot stuck in the toilet. He is trying to extract her. The matronly flight attendant is banging angrily on the door. I was attentive to my duties, again, and passed up the earphones, even though any fancy blogging is nearly impossible with the bumping. I just lost two paragraphs because of hitting an important button while jiggling involuntarily.
Adding to my list of dissatisfactions, I could not extract the Wedding of Krista Smith and Michael Quattrone from the New York Times website, even though I "registered". I just wasted an hour trying. Perhaps they knew that someone from my phoney zip could not be a manual laborer.
It was a complete nightmare getting through the Puerto Rican Day Parade on 5th Avenue to the rendevous with the Limoliner on 6th Avenue. My Sikh taxi driver, turban replaced by baseball cap for safety purposes, (he is voting for George W. because he has brought peace to the Punjab -- I tried to point out that W. hasn't done so well elsewhere) (actually it's a comfort to know that W. has brought peace to somewhere), dropped me off with my backpack, huge suitcase , salad, camera and computer in a spot that he thought was two blocks away from my destination. It was two blocks and one Puerto Rican Parade away. I ended up walking twelve blocks, heavily laden, on my planar flexed forefeet , around the mess through a rather rowdy crowd, just making the LL by five minutes.
On the way, I when I tried to clarify directions with one of New York City's < href="http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment061600b.html">finest , and she rudely assaulted me in the abdomen with her Evian bottle. Bitch. I wish I had had the presence of mind to get her ID. I do have her location (50th between Madison and Park, in case anyone in authority at the NYPD is reading). I hadn't a free hand to write it down anyway. I might have taken her picture, but it could have served to stimulate further viscious behaviors.
Aside: Yesterday at lunch a business card fell out of the menu. I kept it. It belongs to Officer Bennie Barreiro of the Grand Larceny Unit of the NYPD. On the back are numbers for Sgt. Caggiano and Officer Garbutt. It includes his cellie, too. If you need it, let me know. I thought of flashing it, but I couldn't get close enough to anyone stopping traffic to use it.
When I boarded the bus, and called the Birthday Girl for a little sympathy, the man in front of me turned around and told me to be quiet, because "our captain" was speaking. The fucker is lucky he didn't get my snack banana jammed into his internet connection.
Esther Hicks will be very disappointed with me this evening. It's best to keep in mind that I have just sublimated this experience into a creative endeavor, though not one without obscenity.
Photo note: This isn't a very good technical photo, but too good to pass up. It actually isn't the guy that turned around either, but it gives you a flavor of the interior of the Limoliner, just in case you were wondering. The flower was definitely the best part.
Posted by Dakota at June 13, 2004 07:46 PM