new friday night workout

last night i left work right on time. it had been a long day [a long week, for that matter] and i couldn't wait to start my three-day weekend. b said he'd be ready to go at 530 also so i swung by his desk to pick him up.

due to the never-ending remodeling, his team is now moving from the third floor to the fourth floor (we will now be working on the same floor...interesting...). he had to finish some stuff up so i offered to move one last box up to his new cube so we could leave and he'd be all packed up. then he got a phone call and who KNEW how long he'd be (similar scenario happened last week and he ended up getting home at 11 p.m.) so i headed for the train.

walked to pershing square, rode the subway to union station, got to the gold line train to pasadena just as it arrived. i love when that happens...i hate waiting long for a train. sat down and reached for my cell phone...and it was not there. searched the purse...nothing. then i remembered: i had thrown it into b's box while moving and NEVER PULLED IT OUT.

i weighed my options. i could leave my phone there, no big deal. but it was a three day weekend. there would be snoopy construction workers all over the place. we have a lot of plans involving other people this weekend so i'd probably need to get in touch with them; we have never owned a home phone in our married life so my cell phone is the only way for people to reach me.

the verdict: FRICK.

of course, i had no way of calling brandon to ask him to grab my phone before he left. i had no choice but to go alllllll the way back. luckily the train hadn't moved, so i got off and hurried down the stairs. in a last-ditch attempt to save myself, i bravely asked two girls sitting together in union station if i could borrow a phone.

one girl was european and apologized that she didn't have american minutes or some crazy thing. i didn't think the other girl was listening until she asked me what number i needed to call. she punched the number in her phone and held it out to me and said in a very thick latina accent: "don't you grab this and run - i'll chase you down, you know." i believed her. but i'm not into stealing phones, so we were cool.

but there was no answer. i reluctantly handed back the phone and headed for the subway, all alone. luckily who did i see coming up the stairs? none other than my sight-for-sore-eyes wonderful husband. we made it a subway-riding date and hiked all the way back through downtown (third time that day) to retrieve the lost phone. talk about a good night for walking. [earlier that day i had hiked another four blocks to return a book at borders...i think i got my 10,000 steps in for sure.]

also on the return train i saw an exhausted-looking latino man covered in paint splotches give up his seat to a blind man with a seeing eye dog. i don't think the paint man spoke english but he guided the dog-man to his seat and helped him sit down and then stood up for the rest of the ride and i thought about how GOOD people are in the world.

between
the girl who offered up her phone at the peril of having a skinny innocent white mormon girl run off with it and
the tired man giving up his seat on the train and
the miracle of my husband coming up the stairs at JUST the right moment when i could reach him in no other way in a busy city of 3.8 million people,
my hourlong delay last night warmed up my heart.

and then, like i needed any further amazing blessings in my life, i got to eat THIS for dinner:



(we shared the fries and i only ate the hamburger -- no-tomato-grilled-onion-with-a-side-of-spread-thank-you-very-much -- this tray is not ONLY mine.)

all in all a good night.