Pbenjay's Blog

If two weeks ago when I last wrote a blog, I thought it would be two weeks before I sat down at the keyboard again, I would have said, “Oh no, not me, I’m committed to blogging”.  Well so what happened?  I’d say one part life happened, one part physic overload and one part computer game junkieness.   I just made up that last word.

Work has been feeling like 24/7 and I have to get a handle on that.  I’m letting a client/customer run my life and she/he has me jumping through hoops.  Of course I’ve had enough therapy to know that can only happen with my permission.  Oh those intelligent sounding, pragmatic answers are just so…..what?  I don’t know, just so true? hard to do? Yup all of that and more.

And then the worst thing is this new word game that I started to play on Facebook.  If Steven Covey could only see me now, spending hours in Quadrant 4 – time wasting and my numbing!  My Scrabble addicition was bad enough, Lexolous was getting intense and now this – Word Wonder or something like that.   All I can say is it’s a good thing I can’t seem to go any further without paying, something I refuse to do.  Hey even us junkies have our limits!

Lots of things have been going wrong too lately – time-consuming and annoying.  We’re not talking life or death here, just annoyances that seem to piggyback on one another.  Here’s how Monday went:  My intention was to pack up the cottage as quickly as possible and get back to NYC because I knew I wouldn’t be around on Tuesday all day.  That’s a perfect example of my neurotic guilt and sense of obligation.  Gee do you really have to be at someone’s beck and call every day, all day?  OK, well I hustled around and got food packed, windows closed and locked while Peter filled the bird feeders and gave the squirrels fresh corn.  Now for the record, I did strongly suggest we put the car into the garage on Sunday night as well as drop off some stuff with Jane at the hotel.  Didn’t happen – now it’s Monday morning and I’m short-tempered and curt barking orders as to what needs to be done to get this show on the road!   BAD KARMA!  The Metropolitan would not start…. Are you frigging kidding me? We drove it Saturday night to Spring Lake and back. Now it’s raining and it won’t start.  Of course I didn’t know it wouldn’t start because I had already left for the garage to pick up a picnic basket I was lending to a friend in Manhattan and to put away the booster seat we had to purchase when Finley was with us for 3 days!

I realized that the basket would not fit in the car the way it was packed now and you know I didn’t pack it that way!  So I unloaded the whole car and re-arranged everything and put in the picnic basket.  Still raining and where is he anyway?  I called his cell phone and he informs me the car won’t start!  Ay yii yi!  I lock up the garage and zoom back.  He’ll have to call our auto mechanic who just installed a new starter last week.  That’s right, last week.  We’re leaving it out in front of the house and the mechanic will see to it – we leave.  I realize that I’m wearing soaking wet shoes.  Why am I not wearing my usual flip-flops?  Well because I was thinking ahead and wanted these espadrilles to be in NYC so I could wear them on the bus tomorrow to West Hampton.  Do all espadrilles have roped soles?

BAD TRAVEL KARMA is an all day thing I guess, because by Monday evening when I have to get myself to East 50th Street to meet my Mah Jongg group, things are still going badly.  I left the apartment in plenty of time with the intention of taking the cross town bus to 2nd Ave and then switching to the 2nd Ave local to go south.  But as I walked out of my building, I saw the cross town bus heading up the block – I had just missed it.  I waited a while and no bus came.  So I walked to 2nd Ave and one block south to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited.  Not one but two Select (express) buses went by but no local. I kept looking at the time and said to myself “take a cab”.  I hailed the cab down and just as I was about to open the door I realized that I did not bring my handbag with me and had only my Mah Jongg money and no credit cards.  “Sorry” I say to the driver, “I made a mistake”.  This being New York, he’s probably used to a lot of crazy people.  Still no bus.  The Select bus stops two blocks north so I take a long look up the avenue and don’t see any buses coming and decide to walk north to that bus stop.  Walking as fast as I can in my flip-flops I scurry northward.  As I am approaching the block, I see that a local bus has stopped there and if you can picture a woman of a certain age and somewhat overweight trying to run in flip flops down the busy block then you are probably laughing your you know what off right now!  The bus pulls away.  Buses wait for no man or woman either by the way!  The express and local stops are both located on this block.  I’m sure another bus of either type will appear on the horizon soon.  WRONG! Almost 10 minutes later, an express bus pulls up, I get on and thank God for the air-conditioning because I had clearly worked myself up into a physical and mental frenzy.  

Yes I made it there, late of course and missed the first round, oh well no big deal.  However,  bad luck follows you around stuck to your shoe like a piece of toilet paper.  I sit down and start to play.  My hand looks pretty good.  I’m not going to go into the strategies of Mah Jongg here but you must always be careful not to throw someone else’s winning tile.  Because if you do you have to pay double.  Well you know where this is going…I threw the tile.  Now I had to pay her double her hand.  Oh but she was also East and therefore she gets doubled again, and Oh she threw doubles so she gets doubled again!  And Oh the bettor bet on her so she also gets the same amount of money.  When I tell you I lost $8 in one round, you can believe I was ready to pack it in for the night!  I actually had to owe the bettor $2 and pay it off as I won other hands!  

I sure hope tomorrow is much less uneventful!

Espadrilles ARE NOT water proof

May the craks and bams be with you!