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Posts Tagged ‘Bus’

Time Waits For No Man or Woman (for that matter)

Posted in BY THE WAY, Friends, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , on August 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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!

English: blue espadrille from Los Espadrilles.com

Espadrilles ARE NOT water proof

May the craks and bams be with you!

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Living Life On The Cheap in NYC and Murphy’s Law on Steroids!

Posted in Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on February 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

OH I had so many titles in my head today for this blog; It was a day of making do, a day where if it could go wrong, it went wrong…oy what a day!   And why? Well if I ask my sister-in-law, Juanita, she would say,”Mercury is in retrograde” and if I asked my friend Susan, she might say, “It is what it is”.  I say when you don’t have a lot of money,  you have to go  outside your comfort zone to get something done and along the way, if it can go wrong it will.  I’m not a total pessimist and I’m not saying every day is like that BUT today….!!! and I’ll try to be concise.

I woke up with oozing eye and a puffy eyelid as a result of trouble that began last night when I was out and of course did not have my lens case with me so I couldn’t take it out.  I got on the bus with my $1.15 in change because my metro card rang NOT VALID yesterday. YIKES I thought my account must be overdrawn since the card is an EZPay auto refill. I tried making a quick call to the bank – Oh ha, ha, ha, like anyone could ever make a quick call.  I’m sure the woman on the other end was in a foreign country anyway since I couldn’t hear nor understand her.

English: image edited to hide card's owner nam...

English: image edited to hide card’s owner name. author: Arturo Portilla (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m on the bus headed to West 114th Street for a bone density test. Why there? Well, I had no health insurance from 2009 till mid 2012 when I went on Medicare. I had to find a way to get mammograms and some general health care should I need it. Seek in this City and ye shall find!  Hence I’m on my way to St. Luke’s Roosevelt.  And from them, I learned about the Ryan Health Center which is located also way uptown on the West side but is  heaven sent for people who don’t have insurance and need general health care.  The difference is, as you can guess, no frills but good skills and long, long waits.

Just before I left the house I looked at my phone and of course  it was on critical battery. It is always on critical or almost dead.  I’ve just been procrastinating doing something about it because I haven’t found 2 hours of my life I can give over to do battle with Verizon!  So I grabbed my charger and figured I would have time in the waiting room to charge it.  I checked my emails before it died completely and there it was…an email from the broker telling me that his buyer was backing out of the deal we had just accepted the night before and in doing so broke some couple’s heart who really wanted the apartment. Uh huh, this was going to be quite a day!

I had asked Peter to call the MTA to find out what was wrong with my Metro card  while I was gone  and should have known better.   It’s hard enough dealing with any public agency person to person let alone trying to have a 3rd party do it. Of course, there were no outlets in the waiting room and Peter called on the dying cell trying to get info from me for the MTA and of course they called my name at that moment and I had to hang up. Then the woman behind the desk said she didn’t see any Lori on the list and where was my referral? Of course this was the morning I left the referral home.  A supervisor happened by while I was explaining I DID have an appointment and she asked me my name to which I replied, “Lori or maybe it’s under Lorraine”.  Oh yes, there it is ! I guess looking at the list and seeing the same last name but with a shorter-but-also an L name did NOT ring a bell.

In the test room I was asked to remove  the ID bracelet I had on my right arm. This was actually my husband’s high school bracelet with a very old fashioned kind of double lobster claw clasp.  I couldn’t see the clasp (no lens, no glasses) to undo it. The woman couldn’t get it off either.  We were both laughing as I told her he put it on and maybe he would have to take it off  since it seemed locked on like a chastity belt!!

I left the hospital and headed for the clinic thinking I’m in the area and I could be a walk-in to see the ophthalmologist. Along the way, I stopped at a Starbucks to get my caffeine fix.  I ordered my usual Grande Americano with a touch of steamed brevi.  I said a touch! The counter boy charged me 60 cents for the brevi.  I protested I only wanted a splash and that on 85th St they didn’t charge! He said his manager was here and he would get in trouble, of course! I spoke to the manager and Starbucks being the customer-driven company they are, in 2 minutes I had a card for a free drink!

At the Health Center, they told me it would be an hour, so I plugged my phone into the only outlet I could find which was in a hallway and watched it so no one would steal it and waited for someone to come by and ask me just what was I thinking plugging my phone into their wall?  I tried to call Peter to find out about the Metro card and of course, they called my name immediately. I’m in with the preliminary doctor who wants to know what meds I put in my eye last night and the brand of lens I use.   I need to call Peter but my cell is dead so the physician’s assistant says I can use the office phone.  I do and of course, he’s  in the shower.  I insist he get out and get me the info because I have to have it NOW! Then back to waiting room to wait for ophthalmologist and plug in the phone charger again.  Immediately they call my name, of course!

I left the clinic and of course,  now it’s raining. I had only 20 minutes left to use my bus transfer so I race to Columbus Avenue to hop on a bus and when I put the transfer card in, the bus driver says it’s not valid – because I’m back on the same bus line I got on before! Dear God!  OK, I’ll take the cross-town bus at 96th St and then buy another fare to go south on Second Ave.  I see a bus approaching and run across the street and just make it onto the bus, drop my transfer card in the slot and I’m on my way! At Fifth Avenue, I hear a fellow passenger tell some other riders that if they want to continue East on 96th they should get off now because otherwise the bus turns – WHAT?  Of course, I’m not on the real crosstown bus!  I realize right then and there that I’m only a new New Yorker!  I inch my way to the front of the bus and ask the driver where are we going?  Luckily, at 106th St, the bus will go East again.  

On my way down Second Avenue, finally going home I decide to get to Gracie’s Diner and have Peter meet me there for a very late lunch. Uh, of course, I don’t have a cell phone to call him.  I asked the cashier if I could use her phone to call him, hoping he was home and he could just come across the street. Of course, he wasn’t home and he didn’t answer his cell phone either so I left and went home.  I did reach him and we did meet and had the best time eating brisket sandwiches and cole slaw!

So happy to be home…

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