Someone is getting forgetful, and it's not me.

Today, RQS had to go home after a weekend at my place, and things started off relatively normally for a Monday.  Both RQS and I would get showered and dressed, and I would drive her to the train station to go home.  And our routine followed along this path until I got home.

For the next 2 days (as I write this), the one functional "Big Boy" locomotive UP#4014 would be available for viewing at the Steamtown National Historic Site.  And then, UP#4014 could be serviced by both Steamtown and Union Pacific personnel until the end of the month, when UP#4014 would make its way to Philadelphia for America's 250th anniversary.  If I had made my plan to drive to Scranton, PA immediately after dropping RQS off at the station, RQS would not be able to communicate with her family - she had left her cell phone charging in my bedroom, and the earliest I could get it to her would be Wednesday.  If I couldn't get it to her then, it would be another 11 days before she'd have her phone in her hands.  (You can imagine what it would be like if you couldn't return phone calls for 2 weeks!)  So, I decided to drive to her place before I'd be affected by rush hour traffic jams.

It was a perfect day for me to wear a summery dress with a denim jacket - the weather was warm enough for a nice dress, but cool enough to want something to keep me warm after the sun goes down.  So, I figured that I'd get to RQS's place by 3 pm, surprise her with her phone, and then have a couple of tacos with her before driving back home.  And the dress was the most comfortable thing I could wear when walking to the taco shop.

But back to RQS's place....

I used my keys to enter her building then knocked on her door.  It was the most pleasant surprise she could have gotten.  A couple of hours later, we were eating tacos, and I was ready to drive home.  And that's where the 2nd forgotten item was left in the wrong place.  She forgot to take her keys when she want to the pottery studio.  Luckily, she has a neighbor who has broken in to her apartment (with permission) in the past, so that she could get into her apartment.

I'm glad I could have been there for her today, and that her neighbor was available to help her as well.

A day with RQS at her place as Marian, then going to my place for the evening

 

After 9 days away from home, it was nice to spend the better part of the day at RQS's place in Marian mode.  Unfortunately, I had to make it home, as I had an appointment at the bank as Mario, so that I could take care of some co-op business the next day.  So both of us trekked to my place to spend the evening together - something we haven't been able to do for a while.

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As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I spent the whole day in transit from LA, returning to NYC.  Neither RQS nor I wanted to get up.  So we lollygagged a bit, then went out for tacos.  One thing about the Ridgewood Taco Factory I can say is that its food is as good as any Mexican food I've had in California. And it was a better choice for food than the bagels RQS might have selected for our meal.

Once done with lunch. we went back to RQS's place, picked up our bags, and proceeded to the bus for our trip to Croton.  I had chosen a subway route which would allow us to use "Accessible" stations (elevators from/to street, mezzanine and platform levels), so that neither of us would have to use staircases with our rolling bags.  All went well as we transferred from the bus to the subway, and that's where the irritation started.  One of us used our transit cards to open the gate used by handicapped people, and a stream of 20 people entered without paying their fares.  We encountered some of those people again at the elevator, as these mothers with children took up the space on the elevator for two cycles.  Luckily, we still had time to spare before the train to Manhattan came.

We took the train into Manhattan, and got off at Union Square for the next leg of our trip to Grand Central.  And this is where we encountered another glitch in our plans - the elevator to the uptown platform was out of service until the summer.  So we ended up having to use a staircase after all.  I had no problem with the large suitcase that weighed over 50 pounds, but RQS was having trouble with the smaller suitcase that may have weighed 30 pounds.  Luckily, some good Samaritan helped RQS with the smaller bag, and we were able to make the train to Times Square, then a transfer onto the shuttle to Grand Central.

Finally, at Grand Central, we were able to take a break for 5 minutes.  I was already sweating a little because of my wig and my physical effort, and knew I'd need to take a break when we got to Croton. We ended up taking the local, then caught a cab to finally reach my apartment.  Although we later went out for a bite to eat, our day was effectively over, as neither of us had much energy to do anything else but watch reruns of old TV shows before finally going to sleep.