Realized I Was Getting

I taught all day.  A good group.  It all went well.  And, as always, I’d booked more meetings, one after the other for as soon as I was done.  I was late for the first appointment and needed to leave it  early.  I was quite late for the second.  I forgot you were this far across town. Arriving someone said they’d come down to meet me but then told me to wait a moment, as they had gotten pulled into something.  I tried one elevator that wouldn’t let me press their floor and figured I needed a pass to get up on to their floor. 

By this time, I was in desperate need for a toilet.  This lobby had a Starbucks, but it was closed up.  I searched for a while and finally chased an attendant into the control room.  He confirmed that I’d need to talk upstairs to the second floor.  I did.  It was open.  And rather than feel relieved and comfortable after that very lengthy session over the urinal, I realized I was getting sick.  The absence of the bodily discomfort, around reliving myself removed, I could now appreciate that I didn’t feel good, period and I started to analyze just what was happening to me.  

I eventually hitched a ride with someone up to the twenty-first floor and charged up my devices while I waited for the meetings to start.  My host was kind and patient and explained how it was her boss viewed our contract.  We’d need to re-do things.   I’d need to rethink how to frame things.  It all made sense.  And inside I just wanted to lay down in a bed and rest. 

It was that or have burgers and beers and nachos with the friend who’d been expecting me to arrive thirty minutes ago.  I felt better, after I ate some and drank some, but I suspected it was illusory.  The conversation was first-rate with equal measure of insights and laughter, and that helps to adjust the mind’s aperture.    We talked until it was time for me to head to my mid-night flight out of Pudong.  Finally I arrived at something ahead of schedule and settled myself down in the Pudong Air China lounge.

Monday, 02/25/19