The Soundtrack of My Life

Sorry I’ve been out of the blogosphere for so long. I was in England and while there, came down with the flu and have pretty much been out of commission.

Okay, what I’m about to tell may seem crass but it really happened just tonight on my way home. And for me, it was really part of life in New York and its ups and downs.

First of all, let me say that I’m no stranger to gastrointestinal issues. I probably threw up a minimum of three times a week until I had my appendix out when I was 17. Just talk about a stomach bug going around and the next day, I have it. My first trip overseas was to Haiti. I didn’t get Montezuma’s revenge but I did get seasick. I already know some of you are laughing at the memory and well, you’re just mean! That boat hadn’t been seaworthy since Peter, James and John took up fishing for men and you know it. Not for a ten mile journey across open seas.

After a week on my internship, we were in Costa Rica. I had gotten food poisoning at Pizza Hut, of all places. That thrilled my host family, not that I was sick, but that we went to an American place and got sick. Okay, I’m going to be really crass here. I could poop through a straw. I remember walking with one of my friends after a day in Spanish Language school. You know that feeling when you know you’re not going to make it. We were walking, feeling terrible. I said, “I don’t think I’m going to make it.” Two steps later, I said, “I didn’t.”

I could tell similar stories (and have!) in just about every country I’ve visited.

So today, I went back to work after being sick all week. It wasn’t that kind of sick. But I hadn’t really eaten much all week except soup so maybe my body just wasn’t ready for the junk I ate.

Also, I don’t usually do rush hour. I work midnights so I never really have to deal with the rush hour crowd. But I had been asked to work day shift today so I had to face the Friday rush home on a day when a snowstorm is expected so it seemed especially brutal. I chose the A-train because I wouldn’t have to transfer. I’d only have a little further distance to walk when I got off.

So, I sat down and started my book. Everything was going smoothly. The train seemed to be running fast until we hit 125^th Street in Harlem. When we got there, we didn’t move for 10 minutes. That was an omen and something deep in my stomach started rumbling. It must have been that tuna with everything from Subway. Finally the train started moving while my insides were churning.

Realize that there’s really nothing at all you can do once you’re on the subway. There’s nowhere to go. Nowhere. So I sat tight.

I was listening to country on my iPod but it just didn’t feel good. It was grating on me. So I put on some of the most comforting music I know: Carole King. She soothes me. She just makes me happy. The first song that came on takes me to so many places with so many beloved people: Now and Forever. It makes me think of so many people I’ve enjoyed the world with in Asia, Africa, North and South America and Europe. I mean, that song makes me happy. I want to play it at my funeral. So, that was playing when I got off the subway and I was feeling pretty good.

But as I came out onto the street, my mood started to change and I realized things weren’t really feeling right. I was really starting to hurt down there and walking wasn’t helping. There was nowhere to go. Only up. I have to walk from Broadway to 215^th street. I have to walk on 215^th street exactly one block and that one block is 111 stair steps. Yes, this part of 215^th street is stairs. And I was trying to walk gingerly but, what has to be done, has to be done. So I started up. And Carole King started singing “I feel the earth move under my feet.” And I started thinking out funny it was. And then she says, “I just lose control down to my very soul. I get hot and cold all over all over.” And now I’m trying not to laugh and wishing she would stop saying “a tumble-ing down, a tumble-ing down, a tumble-ing dow-owwn.”

By now I’m at the top of the stairs and I still have a block to go. I’m walking very slowly and I must look like a freak. But, hey, who’s going to notice here right? It’s an up and down walk. Once I enter into the complex where I live, I have to go across a courtyard, down some steps, up some more, into the building where I have to decide whether to take the stairs up one flight or the elevator up one floor like a wimp. All this is going through my mind and I’m thinking, “Well, if there’s anyone in the elevator, then I’ll take the stairs, just in case something happens.”

And I’m not kidding you--Carole starts singing in my ear, “So far away, doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore.” And I know that Carole is singing just for me. Yes, it did seem so far away.

Then I’m into the building. No one is in the elevator so I go for it. My key goes right in. No fumbling. Thank goodness no roommate this weekend. I burst in the door and make it to the bathroom JUST IN THE KNICK OF TIME.

Just as I know I’m home free, honest go goodness, I hear Carole singing, “Well, it’s too late baby now it’s too late though we really did try to make it.” Well, Carole, not this time. This time I really did make it.

Sorry everyone. I know it is crass but true.