Dangerous They All Made

Today started poorly.  I was up, concerned about my bag.  At least my passport wasn’t in it.  But my laptop and my novel were there, in my bag, which I left in a pizzeria last night.  I asked the concierge for a place where I could get some tacos on the late side.  I wished I hadn’t.   I debated whether or not to bring my bag, on this late-night taco run and decided that you never know, and you might have time to kill and then you could be productive. I wished I hadn’t. 

One colleague was willing to head back out with me and we made it to the restuaruant we’d been searching for, only to discover that sure, they were “open” but they hadn’t been serving food for the last half hour.  Across the street was a decidedly less interesting place that advertised pizza.  It will be better than the airplane food, I told myself. 

Soon a colleague had joined us and we had a big stand with a meatball pizza on top, that wasn’t great but was acceptable. Beneath an antipasto salad and some wine.  Soon another colleague joined us, and we closed the place out with our chatting.   It wasn’t till about twenty minutes later that I realized I’d left the bag under the table when I’d departed.  We call came back and looked inside.  There’s the table we sat at, in the dark.  But no one was there, no one answered the phone and it was clear we’d need to return in the morning. 

So, I wasn’t going to be able to do all those emails I thought I would.  And I’d have to do something else with my time in the morning when I woke early.  I tried to meditate, and I fell back to sleep.  I stared at the T.V. and considered “watching” the news, but opted for a run down to what turned out to be a very modest “gym,” where the television was ready for me.  I turned it down, but the “news” was unavoidable as I tried to break a sweat and look at Chinese flashcards:  body washed ashore, a man standing in a flooded highway, a murder in house overnight.   I felt oddly sensitized, this first morning in America to how dangerous they all made America appear.

Before heading to my meeting I swung by the restaurant.  It wasn’t supposed to open till 11:00 but at 9:50, I noticed there were chickens on the rotisserie spinning.  I notice as well, that the door was open, and most importantly, my bag was there on the counter!  “Hello?  Hello?”  I called out loudly about seven times expecting someone to emerge from the back but no one came.  I looked outside in the street, glancing up and down both ways.  No one to be seen.  I wasn’t going to make it to One California on time.  One more yell, and with that I just took my bag, made sure they key contents were inside and left, throwing it back over my shoulders.

Wednesday, 02/27/19