i now angela from our time spent together in virginia, but for the last few years, she has been living in florida. for the last couple of years, i've been able to spend some time with her there while in town for my big january conference, but i missed her this year thanks to her recent move to new york.
lucky for me, this event gave me an opportunity to catch up with her again, and, as always with angela, it was quite an adventure!
it started as a result of my intense aversion to solo subway riding in new york.
of all the public transportation systems i've braved, and there have been many (and many with foreign language challenges), new york is the only one that absolutely terrifies me, and which, i will never, on pain of death, attempt by myself. it probably comes as a result of having terrible subway experienced with seasoned new york riders, but regardless of the cause, i simply cannot do it.
since angela lives in queens, it meant i'd have to suck it up and pay for a cab, which i was happy to do, on the condition that she'd drive me back to manhattan at the end of our day. she agreed, and in the pouring rain i hailed a taxi to take me across the 59th street bridge.
but, as if the rain and the guilt i felt from making this driver take me to an outer burrough weren't enough, about half way across the bridge the car started moving oddly. at first i thought maybe the bridge was heavily potholed, but it wasn't long before i realized that we had a flat tire. a very flat tired, as a matter of fact, and with every rotation, it got flatter, leaving us, by the end, riding on the rims.
when we got to the far side of the bridge, he asked if he could drop me off at the subway station. i told him that was fine and i'd figure it out. lucky for him (particularly when i saw how seriously trashed his tire and rim was) his garage was about two blocks away. unlucky for me, it was raining, and i was about twenty blocks from my destination. at that point, i was ready to face my demons, until i realized that it was an above ground station, with three flights of wet metal steps ahead of me. my resolve crumbled with visions of knees twisting and falling and ipads and iphones being stolen while my body lay a twisted heap on the sidewalk, and i walked the twenty blocks.
when i arrived, only slightly worse for the wear, and with a great story to tell, things were far less exciting, but so much more enjoyable!
i got to meet angela's daughter for the first time, and see how much her son had grown. we were able to catch up on life and love (-less, in my case) and play angry birds and hide and seek and watch star wars and laugh and laugh some more. and when steve came home, he joined us for what was a muy delicioso dinner, 'thrown together' but one of the best cooks i've ever known.
i am always so grateful and so happy to spend time with 'old friends' who know me so well, and who i can be so completely myself with. it is a wonderful blessing to have such wonderful girlfriends, with whom time forms no barriers.
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