Is Time To Leave

The weather really does make a difference.  You stare outside.  You consider the layers you’d need and you stare outside and it just doesn’t seem as likely that you’re gonna bike to where you need to go.  I had biked everywhere last month.  Now I think twice. 

My old pal wanted to have some shawarma.  Could I meet at 11;30PM for lunch?  I pushed back to noon.  One call, and then another carried me on and on.  Out the door and into the Di Di all the while talking away with someone in Shenzhen.  I manage to wrap up the conversation just as my driver swings in, to the side of the road.   

It’s a mall, that I’m not familiar with.  I see a Starbucks , of course, but nothing to suggest a shawarma place.  I ring him and he confirms that I should look for the Dunkin’ Doughnuts.  I don’t see a Dunkin’ Doughnuts.  “Do you see the Dunkin’ Doughnuts?  “Yes.” Now I do.  “It’s right beside that.” 

A beef with humous.  I looks big. A chicken with humous.  Let’s split them.  They also cut off and add a long hunk of cheese that looks like a large mammal’s tongue.  Too late now.  It’s been draped onto both of wrapping projects.  Let’s get a side of humous with the carrots and cuces as well.. My fiend explains that no, this was not started by guys from Cairo, but rather is the work of a local Chinese guy who just fell in love with the shawarma and figured Beijing didn’t have any to speak of. 

We are enjoying our digestion, but it is clear that this place is not designed for lingering.  One and then another bunch of lunch-break diners with trays of food are eyeing our table greedily.  My friend has their back to these people but I am absorbing their gaze and suggest to him it is time to leave. 

I agree to head over to his Wework office in Xinshijie not far away.  Later, in the alley way between the buildings we talk about meditation.  Both of us have kept up a modest personal practice for years.  I mention how easy it is to get frustrated about little things, like a website that won’t load quickly enough or a pen that no longer has ink.  A bit of meditation in the morning, we agree, helps to center us.  And he mentions as a counter factual that while he meditates as well, when he finds public ride-share bikes which people have put extra locks on he feels justified to take these personalized public bikes and throw them over the nearest fence.  “If I can’t ride this bike, no one can. 

  

This Wework facility I’ve been to before.  They are not all created alike.  This is less fancy than the one I visited last week in Yinke Zhongxin.  My chum shows me where he has his virtual office set up on the corner of the common room.  I take and adjoining table and figure I’ll do a call there and maybe do a bit of work, as it doesn’t make sense to return home only to head back this way in an or for another meetings. 

I ask him where we-wee and he gets me into the inner hallway.  Indeed its’ the other function I am looking to fulfil in the facilities but both stalls in the men’s room are occupied.  I pace around.  I sigh.  I clear my throat.  I repeat this.  I imagine two young, male weworkers in there playing video games on their phone, on “break” from work.  Both thinking the other guy would flush and wrap up before the other.  My need is becoming acute and I decide to leave and spy a handicapped bathroom across the way, which comes in handy. 

Tuesday, 11/04/19