Full Day, Full of Surprises

The weekend Rachel went well. We didn’t have a long drawn out talk but I did get to say my peice and it worked out ok. There’s still more to work out but I could definitely tell that things are changing for the better.

It didn’t start off well on friday night. I took the coward’s way out and picked a fight. I hadn’t intended to, wasn’t going to call even, just wanted to wait til saturday. But she’d called me so I called her back and mentioned that I wanted her to tkae the 11:30 train bakc instead of the 10:30 even though I originally said the 10:30 woudl be ok. And while I did need to tell her this it also wasn’t rocket science to know that changign the plans at the last minute at night when she was tired would lead to an arugment. We ended the convo on good terms tho.

I get up at 10:45 the next morning ot meet her at the train station at 11:20. She calls almost as soon as I get up to tell me that she worked it out and was fine with taking the later train home. “It’s too nice of a day outside, I really don’t want to waste any time fighting and I really just want to have fun.” Gulp! I wanted to have fun too but I would kick myself if I didn’t also say my peice.

11:30am. We meet at the train station. I’m huffign and puffing and out of breath from runnng from the sub to the flip board cause i know I”m late. I missed the sub and had to wait for the next one. She told me she’d just gotten here too and not to worry. She figured I’d probably be a few minutes late so she’d gone and gotten her Metrocard. No getting angry at me. Just rolling with the punches and accomodating it. Wow! On the train ride over we caught up on things and enjoyed the view of Queens. I love it when the subway goes above ground. We got to Shea about an hour early and the lines weren’t long and it was a beautiful day. Not ot hot or too cold and not a cloud in the sky. The seats were terrific! About equivalent to the 500 level at the vet and right over home plate. Shea is a cool stadium. For me it blends the best of the vet (maximum seating, multicolored seats) with the best of camden yards in baltimore (real grass field, lower outfield fence so you can see the skyline) It was WEIRD rooting for the Mets though. Espescially since i found out that the phillies lost 🙁

I lost interest in the game after a while. It’s just not the same if the Phillies aren’t in it. But Rachel and I had fun talking and it was nice to have the ballgame in the background and neat to be just a fan again and not working. Then around the 5th inning we were all jolted back into attention. A small tower of smoking was slowly climbing above the trees from the outfield parking lot. At first it didnt’ really register. Once it did I was paralized. Billowing black smoke…I’d never seen it live in September, but the repeated image is forever seared in my mind. This wasn’t anywhere near the magnitide, but the thick black smoke was just too familiar. I couldn’t do anythign but stare in awe at it. Other’s were pointing and talking and Rachel kept asking if we should move but i just wanted to stay put. It was far away from us, and the game was still going on and I…just…couldn’t…move. Then someone in the box behind me took out their cell phone and called 911. I hadn’t even remembered I had my cell phone with me right there. The dispatcher assured us the fire dept was already on their way. 2 minutes later we saw the shiny red trucks racing to the scene. And still the game continued. The crowd gave a standing ovation and a loud cheer To New York’s Bravest. Within minutes the fire was out. The smoke turned from black to white to nothing. Our eyes turned back to the game, the fear receding back to normalcy.

The Met’s went on to beat the Brewers 2-1. The game was really short, a little less than 2.5 hours, so we still had plenty of time to kill so we went to Central Park. On the train ride back from Shea I finally found my opening. Rachel K was supposed to come do Karoke with us later that night and I had to call her. Rachel had asked if I’d be really bummed if Rachel K wound up not being able to go. I said no, why would I and then asked her if she minded that Rachel K was coming. She said no. I said i was glad cause I wanted her to meet my friends cause it seemed like we either hung out just the two of us or with her whole group of friends and that i felt it was really unbalanced. She wasl ike “really” And I said yea. We were quiet for a while and then went on to talking about other things.

Hung out in the park and people watched for a while and I tried to track down RAchel K. She was online and it took a half hour before i could reach her. She said she still wasn’t sure if she was coming. Meanwhile RAchel and I had wandered past the playground and over towards the Carousel and found it still open (it was 5:15 and i thought it closed at 5) As we were walking over to get in line she apologized about the whole friend thing and said she never knew i felt that way. And i explained to her how i feel like I can never invite her to hang with my other friends cause it always feels like she’s upset that she doesn’t have my full attention. And she said she’s sorry i felt that way and that it wasn’t true and that she’d be down to hang with my friends. And then we went on the carousel.

“Steph, I hope you find a great guy who makes you really happy. Nobody deserves it more than you.” It made me wanna cry it was so sweet. And then the carousel started and we laughed as it whirled around and around on New York time.

After the carousel Rachel wanted to sit out with a cup and sing. I was hesitant at first, but as we got into it I was enjoying the music and just having fun. And people passing by in the horse drawn carriages were smiling and waving and clapping for us and enjoying our show. I love how our voices blend so well together. And then as we were singing “Tomorrow” from Annie this cute guy came up and started singing with us and dropped a dollar in our cup. Our first money in the states! In Israel we’d sung at the Savat bus stop and made about 3 shekels, enough for hot choclate for each of us. By the end of our session yesterday we’d made 1.45 each. Almost subway fare for both of us 😉 (continued next entry)