I slept heavily last night, which is a treat because usually I’m stirred from slumber by the slightest creaking sound. At about ten o’clock this morning I awoke refreshed and ready to start the day. I was excited about picking up my paycheck and getting something to eat because I haven’t had a normal meal in a few days. Last night I had a muffin and iced-coffee from Dunkin Donuts, and the day before I had a slice of frozen pizza for lunch and dinner. Of course, the traffic on Route-24 was slowed to a crawl near the I-78 merge, and then at the Maplewood exit there was some kind of accident that stopped traffic for an hour. I sat with my engine off listening to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s album Honey’s Dead and watching the sun disappear and reappear behind the steadily graying clouds. Once the cars starting moving it was only another thirty-seconds or so until I reached my destination…
…Then the skies opened, so I had to hang around talking until the rain let up. My boy (that’s what black people call their friends) Andley showed up to pick up his paycheck as well, so I asked if he wanted to go get a burrito. He kept making remarks about how exciting it was for him (a young black man) to be riding in a car driven by a white man. I said it was like a reverse Driving Miss Daisy. He seemed to enjoy that. He didn’t like how black musicians are grossly outnumbered in my CD collection and iPod. After pointing him to Miles, Coltrane, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Gary Davis, Hendrix and Howlin’ Wolf, he said there wasn’t any rap. I told him it was because rap is an inferior style of music. He didn’t seem to enjoy that.
Of course, we hit traffic in both directions on the way to and from Qdoba, so it took another
hour to drive a total of three miles. The burrito was good, though. Totally worth it. Then I hit traffic again on the way home (despite choosing an alternate route) because the city streets were congested at two critical junctions. It was just a miserable day to be driving anywhere.
I’m supposed to be going into the city tonight but I haven’t heard anything yet. That’s what I get for including a horrible typo in my text message last night. Hopefully I’ll just be somewhere I can watch the Mets game.
