3/20-21/2008

3/20

6:00 am: Wake up. Tidy apartment; water plant; take out trash; walk to bus stop.

6:37: Bus to airport arrives.

7:00: At airport. Immense lines.

8:20: First flight to Baltimore overbooked, no seat.

11:00-ish: Second flight to Baltimore overbooked, no seat.

12:00 pm-ish: Reconsider strategy. Hop on flight to Tampa.

6:00-ish: Arrive Tampa, get seat on flight to Islip, Long Island.

11:00: Arrive Islip. Get ride on shuttle to train station, train ideally to take me to New York City (Penn Central, because it’s the Long Island Railroad) in time to get to Grand Central (which is Metro North, the train line to Connecticut) in time for a train to Stamford. Shuttle takes me and three others to some train station in Nowhere, Long Island, where we all freeze our assses off for half an hour on the exposed platform.

11:35: Train. Annnd…it’s a local. Makes two stops before stopping in Babylon, where we switch to another local. The second train stops approximately once every three blocks all the way to Manhattan.

3/21

1:30 am: Arrive Penn Central. I know there is a subway line, called the shuttle, that goes between Penn and Grand Central. I stop to eat some pizza (why is even the most casual NYC pizza better than that done elsewhere…?) before trekking through the tunnels to the shuttle.

1:45: Turns out the shuttle does not run between the hours of midnight and 6:30 am. You have to take the A, C or E train (two of which are not running, I forget which ones) down to Times Square and then get the 7 train crosstown to Grand Central. Fair enough. I count six rats on the tracks while I’m waiting, but disappointingly, only one is longer than six inches (not counting tail). The unheated subways are chilly: not face-flaying sub-freezing cold, but rather a steady cold that settles into your bones and takes up residence in your muscles, making you shiver. Even my ass was shivering.

2:10: Arrive Grand Central. A policeman informs me the station is closed. It closed ten minutes ago and there are no trains to Connecticut. The station will reopen at 5:00 am. Return to Penn Station. By the way, at that hour, the subways contain 75% of the alien life forms shown in the Men in Black movies. I counted.

2:45: Get a coffee at a Starbucks (!!) in the bowels of Penn. This is no time to be slacking off.

2:55: Starbucks closes; I’m ejected. Back up to Penn. There are no seats or benches. Hello floor. The next two hours are kind of surreal owing to the scenery and the wandering spirits that inhabit it. The men’s room has a big sign right when you go in explaining all the rules. And as soon as you enter the washroom area, you can observe each of them being broken.

4:45: Back into the subways for another trip to Grand Central. Hopefully a) it will be open and b) there will be a train to CT.

5:25: Success! Terminal is open–and deserted at this hour, providing a nice view of the Grand Concourse–and I get a ticket for a train to Stamford. Naturally this is a local train, making all stops.

5:35: Train departs. Moment of weakness. I’m tired, dirty and cold. If she were here, I’d rest my head on her shoulder, inhale her smell, close my eyes and drift to sleep on her softness.

6:45: Arrival Stamford, dad picks me up at the station. Soon, a hot shower fixes 2/3s of the ‘tired, dirty and cold’ problem. Not owning a scale I use theirs; I weigh less than I thought at 146. Same as in my freshman/sophomore years–too light, need to eat better & exercise more.

1:30 pm: Recover Tiger! Spend next hour ridin back roads of CT and southern NY.

2:45-ish: Tiger in garage, going over with fine-toothed comb, also install handlebar risers for improved control and comfort, also arrange with friend John to install engine guards (crash bars) tomorrow morning 10:00.

4:00: Watching TV, first time in two months: HBO’s series on John Adams.

7:00: Eat a pasta dinner and drink half a bottle of wine.

8:45-ish: Robert E. Lee once stayed awake, scouting, reporting and leading troops, for over 50 hours in enemy territory during the Mexican-American War in 1848. Owing to my delicate constitution, after only about 40 hours awake, I fall asleep.