First Night in Paradise

Here we are in the lap of luxury…well maybe not quite! I’m going to film this and pitch it to Steve Jobs for a Mac commercial. Think PC dolt slowly becoming a Mac hipster.

Here’s the scene. I’m reclined on a makeshift bed made from clothes out of my suitcase The MacBook Pro is on my lap. Of course being ever so Apple user friendly and ultra versatile, it also functions as a night-light and warms my thighs. Does it cook eggs too and did I forget to say it’s intuitive? By the way this freaking thing is heavy enough to press pants.

There is no furniture in the room. The walls are bare white. Light is coming from the overhead ceiling fixture with two unshielded bulbs. It’s a bit garish but functional. If you’re comfortable in a police lineup you’d do fine in this light. MS Word for Apple is set at 200% so the screen is readable at arms length.

Excuse me. Time out for dinner (reaching for turkey club with avocado sandwich from Starbucks).

Okay I’m back after an unsuccessful attempt at sleep. The ‘bed’ unfortunately is unstable because the parquet floor is as slippery as an ice rink. The clothes pads keep moving around like they’re hockey pucks.

Oh well, it’s only 10:15 and my mind has been too revved up too sleep this early anyway. Tomorrow I’ll hop on the R train up to my U-Haul storage unit and pick up the big black trash bag with my pillows and bedroll.

I know it will work because I’ve been sleeping on it for the past 10 years. I may need a mat or pad under the quilt but that will get done after my first visit to the Century 21 Department Store on 86th street. From what I understand if you can’t find it on 86th street, they probably don’t make it.

I’ll also call Sambou (formerly from Zimbabwe). He’s the good soul who bailed me out of the U-Haul truck when I finally turned it in. I wouldn’t have gotten off the truck without him. There are boxes of canned goods from my cupboards in San Diego that were piled on to the truck. He can use them far better than I.

Backing up earlier in the day, I arrived here after a car service ride from the HOJO to discover two guys in the middle of the lobby hunched over weird looking elevator parts scattered on the floor. They were pounding and torching the grotesque looking pieces of metal like there was no tomorrow.

Light from their arc welding was dancing on the walls and ceiling. The scene was from Dante’s Inferno or is Kafkaesque more appropriate. They spoke broken English but I got the message that it was going to take at least an hour. They were obviously working under great pressure.

I knew the elevator had a problem the other day when David Todd and I were here. It was no big deal because just the first floor was blanked out and service worked from the second floor. Not today however! Of course, my timing is impeccable. Here I am, finally “at home” with about 2 tons of luggage needing to be hauled up five flights at the very time the elevator is kaput.

No problem. I called David as planned and we were able to exchange favors. Up went the luggage in short order with David’s help.

He dropped me off at the Starbucks where I posted the news about my new apartment. Later, it was a beautiful walk home after dark. The streets are very well lit and more than charming. I passed a church nearby and the beautiful modern library next door to my building was lights ablaze. How cheerful. It will be picture postcard pretty around here during the coming holidays.

I arrived at the door to have it opened by a young man in the lobby who saved me from fumbling for my keys. He had already pressed the elevator button and we both waited and introduced ourselves. He is Brian (or Bryan) from Arizona. After a bit we realized the elevator was not working.

The torch heads were obviously not able to finish the job today. So, up the stairs we went. We walked and talked as we moved up the floors only to arrive at the same floor. Guess what? He is my next-door neighbor. What are the odds of arriving here precisely at the time to meet my next-door neighbor on my first day? This is a six story building with many, many apartments. Go figure. But then again that’s the ordinary on this most unordinary journey.

BFN BB