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Wednesday, 6 August 2003
Meeting halfway ::
Here I am at the Shawnee on Delaware Inn and Golf Resort near Stroudsburg, PA. I went out onto the third floor fire escape for a morning nicotine fix to find that we’re right next to a branch of the Delaware River, mist in the valley highlighted by the morning sun trying to pierce its way through the clouds. How did I end up in this beautiful place?
Sunday night I called my friend J in Ithaca. I told her I’d be driving from NYC to Ithaca Tuesday night, then going to a music party in the Catskills, near Woodstock on Saturday. We agreed to meet for dinner Wednesday.
Monday I cleared up loose ends at work, and spent some evening hours trying to put together a minimal synthesis rig to bring with me. By 1 am, I was happy that my PowerBook G4, Logic 6.1 + its softsynths, Reaktor 4, a MOTU 828mkII for audio/MIDI I/O, and the Electrix Repeater was the right tradeoff between flexibility and not having too much luggage. Ugh, I thought, the flight’s at 7:20, which means leaving for the airport by 5:30, which means getting up at 4:30. I didn’t trust myself to not sleep through the alarm, so I took my time packing and stayed up.
Tuesday morning I checked in at the airport but didn’t get a seat assignment. The flight was oversold and they were asking for volunteers to take a later flight. I was getting nervous standing at the gate; if I got bumped, it was going to be difficult to drive from NYC to Ithaca safely that night considering my lack of sleep.
My cell phone rang. It was J in Ithaca. Why was she calling me at 7:15 am?! She had some guests from NYC and had been invited to go to the Poconos with them on their way home. Could I drive down from the Catskills, or meet somewhere in the middle, and give her a ride back to Ithaca on Wednesday? She’d misremembered my travel plans; she thought I was already in the Catskills (where it was 10:15 am)! Interruption: there is a boarding pass for me. I got on the plane. I told J, actually, I’m in San Francisco, and I’ll be driving from NYC to Ithaca tonight—but I could stay in NYC and pick you up on the way to Ithaca, or if there’s an extra bed, I could stay with you and your friends in the Poconos. After a quick consultation with her friends, we agreed that I’d meet them at the hotel around 9:30 pm. I hastily typed directions with my left hand. Fortunately the flight attendant checking the cabin didn’t make me turn off my cell phone and computer immediately as the plane began pushing back, and I had time to get the full directions.
I slept solidly (well, as solidly as a tall guy ever sleeps in a center seat in coach) for almost the whole flight to Charlotte. I hope I didn’t drool or bonk my head too much on either of my seatmates.
I was making my way west on I-80 in New Jersey when J called a bit before 9 pm. I told her I thought I might be about 45 minutes away; I knew it was about 90 miles from NYC to the Delaware Water Gap, that I’d driven 70 miles since resetting the odometer when leaving LaGuardia, that I’d gone some miles out of my way looking for a place to eat, and I didn’t know how far from Stroudsburg the hotel was. But soon the speed limit dropped to 55 and I realized I was very near the Delaware Water Gap. At about 9:20 I pulled into what I appeared to be the right hotel’s entrance and called J. I asked where she was. They were in the parking lot, having just that moment returned from a shopping trip; where was I? We stayed on the phone as I drove further down the driveway to a parking lot ahead. I saw some people standing outside a car. Someone was holding a cell phone - J.
| << Carbon Copy Cloner 2.2 bug | 2003 > August | Freedom jam >> |