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03 august 2000
----- This morning, I altered my three-day-old commuting routine. Disembarking the NJ Transit train in Hoboken with a slight hangover, I eyed the mass of people heading to the left, towards the PATH trains that would take them on a ten minute ride through the stinky train tunnels into Manhattan. Thirty "lanes" of humanity, merging like cattle into a narrow staircase, descending into the overheated bowels of the NY/NJ underground rail system. I paused to gain strength and steel my stomach. And then I saw it. A little sign, pointing to the right, that simply said "Ferry". I couldn't resist. Five minutes later I was stretched out on the roof of a mostly empty boat, enjoying the skyline of lower Manhattan, which was fast approaching. It was a cool $2 boat ride, and just as quick as the PATH train. Just when I was wondering why more people didn't take the ferry, the water got a bit choppy and the boat started pitching up and down. My stomach began to mildly protest as my mind quickly chastised itself for getting on a boat with a hangover. A slight worry about puking turned in upon itself to multiply, and that worry manifested more worry, and upset my stomach more. I took deep breaths as the twin towers got closer and closer, wishing I was one of the "cattle" comfortably speeding through the "stinky" tunnels beneath my unsteady feet. Mercifully, the boat docked, and I disembarked, feeling just a little green. I normaled myself on the ten minute walk to the office, got my fifty cent street-cart coffee in the "It's Our Pleasure To Serve You" royal blue cup, watching the automatons on a long line at Starbucks (tm) across the street and wondering why they bother.... ... and thus began another day of web work in Manhattan, albeit with more cigarette breaks to indulge my newly found love of people-watching on Wall Street. ~~~ Yesterday I ran into an ex-girlfriend from high school. My second girlfriend, to be more specific. We had a quick drink after work and talked a bit, and then made plans for dinner tonight. To say it was strange to see her after all this time is an understatement. It kinda brought me back to a time I thought I had remembered better than I remembered it, for when I saw her a whole wash of other memories came back, and instantly contradicted many pictures I had painted of my distant past. We were "involved" in 1987, and I had last seen her ten years ago. Our relationship had pretty much marked the end of sexual innocence for both of us, and it was a strange feeling I had about the whole thing, seeing her again after all this time; strange but also inviting. So tonight I met her at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station, where we talked again over drinks, before heading ten blocks north in pouring rain to dinner at Benihana on E 56th. The night was filled with a lot of reminiscing, sometimes in a bit more detail than I would have expected.... "Do you remember that night ... in the car ... parked on Maple Avenue?" (blush) "Oh-moy-gawd" (as my NJ accent somehow bursts up from beneath 8 years of LA conditioned diction -- flashbacks to high school will do that to you) "I'm wondering ... if it would feel the same ... to do that now?" It's a dangerous thing when two lonely people with a "history" run into one another. Home at 2am, overtired and feeling quite strange. Young but old, confident yet insecure. Tomorrow I leave for DC in a rent-a-car, and I really just need to sleep. Too much thinking could be dangerous right now.
In the forum: 03 august 1999: : didn't write 03 august 1998: eleven herbs and spices : I don't remember my sex drive being this strong when I was 18. There's something wrong with me. Maybe I need to see a doctor. [ swim back | email me | swim ahead ] |
