Over to Straight Soda

I’ve so many ‘big’ calls lined up, one after another they don’t really matter much anymore.  I did fine for the first.  I knew what I wanted to discuss.  The second went as well as it could go.  I’d stressed about it much more than I should have.  I wanted it to go well. But once it was done I didn’t really care.

 

Fasting on Wednesday, as I often do and so it's grinding.  From the early part of the day, I slurp black coffee and move over to straight soda water.  More coffee.  Listerine Cool Mints, those'll do.  There is black tea in a bottle in the fridge.  A few ice cubes help to dress it up a bit.  

Way out of practice, I used to be arranging for hotel stays every week or so.  SPG generally, until they were bought by Marriott.  Down to Shanghai, down to Shenzhen, over to the Miyako, a stay in Kowloon.  The same perambulation, month after month, year after year.  Ctrip for domestic flights.  United 1K for international.  And I haven’t flown anywhere for the last fifteen months or so.  I booked a hotel once last year.  Haven’t rented a car, either. 

 

The second of my father’s four sisters passed away and the funeral will be held down near Annapolis MD, where she and her brood lived.  This will be the same day as my daughter’s AP French examination.  Stressed, there’d be no way for her to get into school that morning, unless she slept over at her grandmother’s and so I offered to just rent a car and head down.  I’ll stay in a hotel. 

A bit rusty but my passwords are all still logged there in the Marriott site.  The Westin Annapolis appears to be near to the downtown area.  Can I remember anything about that city? I suppose I’d visited my aunt once or twice when I was ten or twelve or so.  The car rental bit seems a racket but what can you do?  You’re in the United States and there are no high-speed trains. You’d be half-way there by the time you’d driven to the airport.  I’ll try to make a lot of phone calls while I drive and take my early morning Friday calls the in a lonely hotel room, just like the old days.

Wednesday, 05/19/21