Observe and report

My friend Tina and I just spent 36 hours together in New York City.* We’ve been friends for more than 20 years, so getting together with her is like wearing your favorite broken-in shoes. (Not that I’m comparing my friend to footwear, of course.)

While together, we:

• shopped at FAO Schwarz, Pearl River, Dean & Deluca, Flight 001 and a variety of other stores (which then required a trip to FedEx).
• ate everything in sight at places such as Artisanal, Le Pain Quotidien and Two Boots Pizza.
• worked out (yes, I even worked out on vacation!) at NYSC.
• admired the tree at Rockefeller Center.

• sampled some wine and cheese at Eataly. (This place is amazing! You can drink wine while you shop for all kinds of delicious products. There’s a whole cooler just for sausage!)

• enjoyed a performance of “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (Patti LuPone! Justin Guarini!).
• talked for hours.

One of those topics was pessimistic vs. optimistic people. She and I tend to be optimistic, but there are those in our circles who are most certainly not.

A faulty washer and subsequent flood does tend to cloud the sunny disposition, though.

Imagine this floor with two inches of water:

Intrigued? Yes, a sad little story follows.

We stayed in Tina’s sister’s place on the Upper West Side — a fantastic Riverside Drive address. Marion was in Florida and graciously let us stay. In return, we wanted to leave the place tidy with clean sheets. Tina left very early yesterday morning, so my job was to wash the sheets using the washer/dryer in the kitchen.

After the rinse cycle, I went into the kitchen and found the flood. Expletives followed. I spent an hour and a half physically mopping and mentally freaking. (Side note: I’ve met Marion three times, maybe.)

I even had to move the refrigerator.

As Tina’s other sister, Ann, remarked, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

I called Tina and left a message for Marion. Then the super appeared. Glenn was alerted to a water problem by a tenant on the 12th floor. Marion lives on the 16th floor. Yep. It was that bad.

Thus began a series of unfortunate events that challenged this optimistic person. So let’s look at those events from two points of view.

WASHER LEAK

The dark side: Massive flood that trickled down four flights and seeped into parquet floors — in the condo of a woman I barely know.

The bright side: I was still in the place when it happened. And Marion came home to clean sheets!

FEDEX SHIPPING (I offered to take another round of packages to FedEx for Tina, and I needed to send some of my own. The closest place wanted to charge $80, so I had to find an actual FedEx shipping center — 20 blocks away.)

The dark side: I carried 30 pounds of packages 20 blocks.

The bright side: I need the exercise, and my biceps got a workout.

AIRPORT RUSH (Because of all of the above, I ended up running late to get to La Guardia. To make matters worse, I had to get to the airport during Friday afternoon rush hour. I took the subway to 125th street and waited for the M60 bus. After a long wait during which I was silently screaming more expletives, I suggested to the four other La Guardia-bound people that we share a cab. They agreed, and the four of us got to the airport at 6:15 p.m. My plane was supposed to leave at 7!)

The dark side: I waited 45 minutes in the cold for a bus that never came, and then shared a cab with strangers. During the ride, I nearly soiled myself out of fear that I was going to miss my flight — the last direct one of the night.

The bright side: I made my flight, and even landed a little early. Plus, I met some interesting new people who all made their flights also.

I always say that it is great when good things happen. But if something bad happens, there is still something good: It makes a great story.

Hope you enjoyed mine!

* While in New York, I also had a lunch date with frequent blog contributor He Who Has Three Names: Shane Marshall Brown. Yay!