Letters from NYC

Slight Kvetching/Complaining Session

I normally don’t like to complain about my life. Mainly ‘cause as far as lives go I have it pretty good. But this week was one in which Murphy’s law was off the hook in my personal life! Believe me, I don’t want to dwell on it, so I’ll just record the highlights below the fold, for those who want to read what an urban, hard-working, single-parent deals with on a daily basis.

Monday: After dealing with a major clogged toilet in the middle of the night, and a 10 hr workday of fielding hundreds of emails and calls from lobbyists, legislators, industry professionals and politicians, I got home in time to read my son a story and tuck him in bed and put on my nicest and softest pajamas 'cause my aim was sleeping early after trying to deal with the digital divide on my turf. I was in bed tring to sleep when I began to smell what seemed like gas. After the fire dept showed up and tested the environment, with very sensitive sensors, they found minor readings of chemical traces and evacuated my building. Unfortunately I was in my thin silk pajamas only had enough time to throw on a fleece and coat and do the same with my sleeping son. Luckily, one of the firefighters (the captain) remembered me as Larry’s friend and from me bringing them my “delicious 3 cheese baked ziti” in the days after 9/11 [Who says the way to a man’s memory is through his stomach?] and brought me and my sleeping son (he carried him actually) back to the firehouse (just 150 ft away) where my son slept part of the night on one of their bunks. Most of my neighbors went to a shelter set up by the red cross.

Tuesday: In the morning I was allowed back in for 5 min. only to get some clothes. Luckily, I keep a Business Go bag for myself and an emergency sleepover bag for my son and had enough time to grab the laptop and the file with our legal documents. Because my son felt he was ok to go to school and I had a day jammed with mtgs, calls and reports due, we went to our respective places, Midday at work I was called by my son’s school, he wasn’t feeling well. So I was scrambling to see if we could finally go back home before I picked up a sick child. Luckily, when I called the captain gave me bad news with good. The bad: we still couldn’t go back home. The good: he offered his place as he was still on duty for the next 30 hrs and afterwards was going to stay with his girlfriend, so we could stay till Friday if we needed to. Since I know him from when Larry worked under him I accepted. I also had few choices as my son and I are highly allergic to animals.

Wednesday: Dropped off recuperating child at the sitter. Work was at a fever pitch me following legislation winding its way though 3 states houses and hearings in Congress. Which meant lots of calls & emails, while in the back of my head, wishing I could be with my son and checking on him. I did all this while traveling to the state capitol to attend a meeting, which got cancelled in the end after I arrived. Grrrrrrrr! Get home to a smiling child that feels better and is eager to return to school the next day which is good news to me. We go to the Captain’s quarters once again. As my son slept I called the captain and asked permission to move things around a bit. Well, after he said yes, I moved the couch and one chair and then wound up re-arranging the furniture and a few other things. I then sent pictures to his cell phone and he came over to check it out and loved it! He hasn’t given me permission to post yet but I’m working on him. So I took out my work stress on cleaning, organizing and moving his furniture. He called me last night to thank me again for his apt makeover. Me, I was glad to have something constructive to do.

Thursday: School was great for my son. Work was hell for me as the volume and sensitivity of calls reached a fever pitch. I was also asked by my boss to sit in on a mtg. with very Senior Mgt. on his behalf, as he needed to be briefed immediately afterwards as it related to a million dollar deal. Days like this mean no eating and if there’s a 2 min lull in the calls, I’m lucky and I get to visit the bathroom. I finally got home after an 11 hr day with a brain that was fried crispier than toast and hungry as all hell and as a result crankier than ever. My son was lucky as he was tired and asked to go to bed early. Me I was so wound up I couldn’t sleep much. At 10PM the Captain calls and gives me the good news, my building has been given the all clear, the fumes were from a smelly chemical being used to seal/waterproof the roof of a construction site behind my building, they corrected the issue and I could finally go home.

Friday: Because I had early morning mtgs. I took all our belongings with me into work after leaving a clean apt. The sleet had already started but I wasn’t able to retrieve my son’s snow boots so we’d have to deal with this as best we could till later. Dragged myself into work and got a pat on the back from my boss as all our work ended successfully. He was given kudos by the Chairman and CEO and was promised a big bonus. I asked if there was any trickle down effect to that bonus – not really, you’ve just returned from 2 months of medical leave – was the answer. I knew that was coming, but in consolation he said I would be compensated come review/raise time if the same performance continued to be stellar. We’ll see! It was a flurry of activity in the morning as most legislators and lobbyists in the northeast were trying to go home early due to the storm. Which left me part of the afternoon to finally begin to unbury myself from the onslaught of the week. My desk is currently piled high with seven 3” binders containing reams of paper of legislation and their various updates, which I will have to read Monday for next week’s onslaught.

Before I left the office at 4:00 (due to the worsening weather conditions), I emptied one of the small rolling suitcases because I realized I needed to pick up groceries on the way before the local stores closed. After picking up my son early, we walked 2 miles to the supermarket because we couldn’t get a bus (traffic was at a standstill) and cabs passing bye were all off duty. But I was determined as our food provisions at home were low. You should have seen the look on the clerk’s face when I opened the small wheeled suitcase and loaded the grocery bags in it. But I was still hopeful we’d get home somehow. Well, after 20 min of trying to call car service (they weren’t even answering the phone) and trying to hail a cab on the street as the storm grew worse, I knew that our only way to get home would be to walk. The trains had already been suspended due to heavy ice on tracks so we didn’t have any other option. So schlep the 2 wheeled bags we did in 2in. of slushy snow, as I got pelted with icicles to my face (my son was well covered). By the time I got home, it was 7pm. It took me 2 hours to travel a total of 4 miles while making little stops along the way to warm up and take breaks. When we finally got home, we ate leftovers and I finally promised an anxious and eager child over dinner we’d get up early to build his first fort and have a mean snow ball fight. Hopefully I won’t regret it tomorrow. I’ll try taking & posting pictures.

In the meantime, lets see if I can finally get a couple of hours sleep now that I have single-handedly, and without any help from the guys in Bangalore. managed to restore order and cohesion in my digital world! YAY! I think tonight I definitely earned my super-geek-girl designation as my inner geek was truly ON!. Here's to believing a better week is ahead.

Posted by Michele at March 17, 2007 03:50 AM