Getting Settled
It's about 4:30 am local time and I'm restless. I've listened to some music for a while but decided to write.
Dinner was great. Margo's cousin Stu and his daughter joined us (it was great for Sarah to have someone to play with) and Reenie and Mitchell. I got lots of great advice from Stu and Arthur about how to take the train to downtown without upsetting the locals and getting killed. And could dinner be more chaotic? Here's sensitive new-age me, quiet as a mouse, parachuted into this chicken coop. You can't talk quietly. You can hardly talk at all. You don't wait for permission, for a turn, for a space in the conversation, because it's got the flow of a firehose. And do you want to say something to someone in the next room? Many rooms over? Just shout louder. It was probably the first time ever that I've heard Margo unable to finish her sentences. But it was fun! I was close to messing with people and just butting in and shouting, "What are you tawkin about?" at no particular time.
We're sleeping in a Murphy bed. Not too unusual - the Marriott had one - but I guess this one even says Murphy on it. Maybe Murphy himself made it. Things are older here on the east coast.
Yesterday we were navigating to get here. Margo drove, of course. I was too freaked out, so I was happy to let her Southern Californian Darwinian driving skills be of good use. Anyway, we were looking for an exit for a northbound expressway labeled 28A, but we hit 28N and 28S and I know we needed to go north, so we took 28N not knowing that 28A was the next exit, but that's how things are numbered. Anyway, we went through Levittown, which if you look at the link I just put in, was the first planned community in America, I guess the first subdivision ever. And it didn't look too different. What would you expect to see, I guess? The houses seemed smaller than now, of course.
Dinner was great. Margo's cousin Stu and his daughter joined us (it was great for Sarah to have someone to play with) and Reenie and Mitchell. I got lots of great advice from Stu and Arthur about how to take the train to downtown without upsetting the locals and getting killed. And could dinner be more chaotic? Here's sensitive new-age me, quiet as a mouse, parachuted into this chicken coop. You can't talk quietly. You can hardly talk at all. You don't wait for permission, for a turn, for a space in the conversation, because it's got the flow of a firehose. And do you want to say something to someone in the next room? Many rooms over? Just shout louder. It was probably the first time ever that I've heard Margo unable to finish her sentences. But it was fun! I was close to messing with people and just butting in and shouting, "What are you tawkin about?" at no particular time.
We're sleeping in a Murphy bed. Not too unusual - the Marriott had one - but I guess this one even says Murphy on it. Maybe Murphy himself made it. Things are older here on the east coast.
Yesterday we were navigating to get here. Margo drove, of course. I was too freaked out, so I was happy to let her Southern Californian Darwinian driving skills be of good use. Anyway, we were looking for an exit for a northbound expressway labeled 28A, but we hit 28N and 28S and I know we needed to go north, so we took 28N not knowing that 28A was the next exit, but that's how things are numbered. Anyway, we went through Levittown, which if you look at the link I just put in, was the first planned community in America, I guess the first subdivision ever. And it didn't look too different. What would you expect to see, I guess? The houses seemed smaller than now, of course.
posted by Michael Nelson at 1:35 am
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