Monday, May 19th
Another stressful day. I did manage a smile for a good couple of hours before my students with their usual determination, wiped it right off. So, a quick (I hope) summary of my weekend.

On Friday(evening), May 16th, one of my epals sent me an email cancelling our planned walking trip through the Bronx Zoo. All week, the news reports mentioned Saturday being a cold and wet day. I was planning to send an email to suggest a change from zoo to movie, but I got beat to the punch by minutes. I already had my email written with the movie schedule saved for Saturday on my desktop. I started watching movie trailers, and lost track of time. I got the cancellation email minutes before I was about to send mine. Problem? Not really. It seemed a bit strange that he had to go out of town at the last minute, but that could have happened. I was watching the trailer for Kung Fu Panda -- it looks very funny!

Anyway, since I no longer had plans to do anything, I fell into my old weekend hermit habit, I slept Saturday away. I was a bit annoyed that the weather turned out to be very nice. I was also a bit annoyed with myself because I had wasted my chance to get organized, and with nothing exciting, or at the very least interesting to do, I answered an online ad from someone seeking "anyone interested in going to the movie tomorrow to see Prince Caspian. Normally, I don't read ads below the age of 35. I also don't like last minute plans. However, on an impulse, I answered the ad agreeing to go. The ad maker was 32yrs old. Moments after getting a "hello" email, I quickly fell into my old hermit habit. I changed my mind. I even started a "Cold Feet"(I won't be able to attend) email. Since the guy left his phone number, I thought the least I could do was to cancel in person.

Well, within minutes of answering the phone, the guy was already offering to buy the tickets and making arrangements to meet. I froze and agreed to go. The meet up time was 3:15PM. The guy also mentioned that if I got there early, we could "get something to eat". Normally, I would have gotten there early, but I was not comfortable with the idea of being stuck with a face to face meeting with someone I had not met before and may have nothing in common with. My plan was to arrive on time which would have kept the possibility of a long conversation to a minimum.

Sunday morning. Still having done nothing in the way of lesson planning, laundry, or shopping. I was both excited and nervous. The weather returned to cold and damp. I cut and shaved my head, took a bath and was out the door about 1:50pm. My plan was to take the bus because the MN train would have gotten me in NYC too early. The bus only operates 2 per hour on Sunday, so I was not expecting it to be more than 5 or 10 minutes late. The bus was over 15 minutes late! When it arrived at my stop, there was no one the bus, but it was still late. Ten minutes into the ride, the driver informs us (the passengers --all 6 of us) that due to a parade, he would have to make a detour. After about a 10 to 15 minute detour and the driver needing confirmation from the officers blocking the street and his dispatcher, he decides to pull over and wait for the parade to pass. Most of the 6 of us got off the bus. I decided to walk to the Yonkers MN station and take the express train into NYC. I walk about a block and the parade of high schoolers stop at the intersection I want to cross to do a number. I walk a couple of blocks then a guy with a horse of a dog who had his dog aside maybe due to the loud music disturbing the dog starts walking in front of me at a snail of a pace. He also had his young daughter with him. A few more blocks, the parade's path was a right angle into the Yonkers MN station area. I felt like I was in one of those movies or comedies when the main character has one obstacle thrown in front of him.

Anyway, I arrived at 34th street about 3:40PM (movie start time). Since it was raining, and I was only about a block and a half from the theater, I just walked as quickly as possible. The guy was not there. I was annoyed and embarrassed at being late. I bought a ticket knowing that the guy had already paid for my ticket online. Since the guy did not have the cell phone area code of 646, I just assumed that I had his home phone number. I didn't think to call him. I'm not too bright.

Anyway, I got my ticket with the idea that maybe after the movie ended, I might see the ad poster (he attached his photo to his post). I walked into the theater with the idea of sitting as far back as possible (still annoyed, angry, and wet).

Well, it turned out I sat down right next to the ad poster. Amazing!!!

The movie was nice. The special effects were great. After the movie, my epal asked if I was interested in getting a drink. Coffee at Starbucks.

Short story made long...sorry. I need to wrap this up. Long story short, I was amazed at how much we had in common. It was strange meeting someone who shared the same interests that I do. Also amazing was that his conversation almost seemed to be a step or two from what I was thinking. Even about an hour ago from typing this blog. I was thinking about what kinds of city type activities I could suggest. I thought about museums, but I thought that was something he might not be interested in. I was wrong. I wanted to meet my new epal again, but next week (even though it is a three-day weekend), I thought it might be difficult because I was planning to make arrangements with "Macy's Walker" epal. I also signed up for a group meet up next week. Well, my new epal told me that he couldn't do anything next week. Amazing!!!


Completion Date - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:08AM
Post Date - Monday, June 16, 2008 7:10PM