All Over Again

When you’re on New York time, there are morning calls you can make and evening calls you can make back home, until they go to sleep or you do.  In the morning I have the best of intentions.  But I’m up later than I figured and I need to attend a number of meetings.  I try to catch people and they want me to call them later.  I start my meeting and then duck out, to take their call. 

It is impolite to have the laptop out during presentations, that one should otherwise be paying attention to.  But smart phones are more discrete.  I look for who is on line.  I ping them.  I’m in my wechat application anyway.  Who else could I ping?  I’ve now reached out to a half a dozen people who it is important but not critical, that speak with now.   No one responds.  I concentrate on the presentation.  Two and now three different people are ready to talk, right away. 

Later, people are waking up, right before my dinner.  They want to talk as dinner is being served.  I suggest I’ll call them back.  But after dinner, and in my room, I am exhausted and fall asleep in front of my computer.

The next morning, all over again.  My body needed more sleep than I figured.  I only have a bit of time to get ready.  I go to buy an espresso, because the coffee they serve for free, is too weak.  Outside the ferryboats dart back and forth across the Hudson.  I stop to watch a tanker sail by.  It reminds me of Hong Kong.  It reminds me that New York is a real port, perhaps not unlike it once was, with a more shipping traffic than simply the shuttling of people or the pleasure boats of the wealthy.   Someone is calling.  And I’m late.