(See what I am saying?)

Time Zones

"When people aren't asking question, They're making suggestions
And when they're not doing one of those ,They're either looking over your shoulder or stepping on your toes
And then as if that weren't enough to annoy you
They employ you. Anybody at leisure Incurs everybody's displeasure.
It seems to be very irking, To people at work to see other people not working,
So they tell you that work is wonderful medicine, Just look at Firestone and Ford and Edison, And they lecture you till they're out of breath or something
And then if you don't succumb they starve you to death or something.
All of which results in a nasty quirk:
That if you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't have to work."

i looked up from the yellowed paper and hand set type and knew that one thing i need to learn is that there is a time and a place for every day of this life. and no matter what perfect part of it i am in, i always think and wish for what is next or what else there is and when i get there i wish what it was, was right back again.

there is a time to sleep on couches and to pay for dates with pocket change. to need more money than what i have and to live out of duffel bags. there is time for drive in movies on monday nights and a time to sleep in late and plenty of time, the last two years in fact, to not know what day of the week it is. there is a time to forget what state you were in last week and unfortunalty, a time not to remember where and in what situation you saw your best friends last, and a time to read your debit card and gas station reciepts to remember what cities you drove through between the sunset and the dawn. there is i time to never imagine dying and if you do you'll do it young. there is a time to be madly in love and to have no earthly idea how to handle it. there is time to be young and healthy and to live your life in a manner that will change both. and there is a least one time to enjoy the weight of decisions that will truly change the course of your life, and to have enough life yet to change even after the choice has been made.

there will also be a time when i look for a change by shopping for groceries at the market on the other side of town. and there will be a time when i look at photographs of my friends to see how there were instead of how they are. there will be a time when there will be more to remember than to imagine, more i want to not have than to wish i did. and there will be a time when i am comfortable and calm and perhaps, incredibally bored, and when couches will be owned by me and used for sitting not sleeping.

and right then, for once in my life, i understood that there is time and place for everything. and if i am going to it, no matter what is, i will do it well. and that night was the night to sit at the table reading my grandfather's book by ogden nash while my grandmother, my mother, and my sister played chineese rummy and listened to the country radio.

tabletop observation

Pre birthday travel Log (summer blond):

5:30 PM:

"by tomorrow at this time we will be on the boat under the sun." woody said.

"by the way, i think i brought some sun-in. i hope my hair gets blond this summer." i reminded myself out loud. (emabarsssing enough to admit, until you keep reading.)

"we can get it blond. blow dry it." woody replied.

"i am sure you brought your hair dryer on this trip to your parents lake house." i said, with not an ounce of sarcasm.

"No." woody replied calmly. "but my dad uses the same model i use." (with not an ounce of sarcasm.)

7:35 PM:

check voice mail, leanne called from london to wish me a happy birthday, 6 hours to the right around the globe. says she's in the hilton hotel and asked me to call the hotel and left a her room number, 1301, and a number she thought was correct. i also wrote the number down before her departure.

7:38 PM:

pulled out her itinerary used as my bookmark from page 95 of The Alchemist from between the seats. i read down the list of her european trip until i reached the last stop. in my own hand writing i read: "London/july2-4 phone---->next page/

there was no next page.

7:40 PM:

Cross pennsylvania state line.

7:44 PM:

call sister at home to see if missing "next page" of leanne's intenerary is on the kitchen countertop.

it wasn't.

7:51 PM:

call voice mail again to get phone number from voice mail. write down alleged number in margin of epilogue in The Alchemist.

8:05 PM:

dialed my international calling card number, 1-800-811-9186.

then i dialed 378 350 8949.

then i dialed 011 for international calls.

then dialed 0442174938000

the call could not be completed as dialed.

8:18 PM:

i thought maybe i should add a 0 in front of the number, in case the calling card didn't add it automatically.

i dialed my international calling card number, 1-800-811-9186.

then i dialed 378 350 8949.

then i dialed 011 for international calls.

then i dialed 00442174938000

the call could not be completed as dialed.

8:25 PM

called snags in columbus, who is a world traveler and a former resident of london. she said that indeed 44 is the england country code, you only need a one 0 before the 44.

8:40 PM

i dialed my international calling card number, 1-800-811-9186.

then i dialed 378 350 8949.

then i dialed 011 for international calls.

then i dialed 0442174938000

the call could not be completed as dialed.

8:48 PM:

called prescott in detroit. it was friday night. i figured he would be drinking and have immediate access to the internet.

he picked up on the 2nd ring.

"what are you doing." i asked.

"drinking beer on the porch with sara." he responded.

"i need you to to find me the phone number for a hilton hotel in london." i said.

i could already hear the keyboard.

"i am not putting this beer down, so i am goggling with only one hand. hold on." he said.

"okay what is the name of the hotel?" he asked

"it's a hilton." i said.

"dude." prescott said. "what isn't a hilton hotel?"

his search returned 66 hilton hotels in the london area.

i told him my bogus number and he gave me the top 3 closest phone numbers according to leanne's likely location on the globus travel tour and woody wrote them down in the margin of the inside back cover of The Alchemist.

9:12 PM:

cross New York State line.

9:16 PM:

dial the aforementioned calling card, calling card code, and international prefix, along with the provided phone numbers by prescott to various hilton hotels in the greater london metropolitan area, including the heathrow airport, hyde park and picadelly square.

none even had a room numbered 1301.

9:38 PM:

dial the aforementioned calling card, calling card code, and international prefix, and dialed the front desk of the last hilton hotel, and asked them to look for any room in any hilton hotel in the city that has a room number 1301, and a girl named ford staying in it.

9:47 PM:

my international calling card ran out of minutes.

9:47 PM: hung up the phone, turned up the music and put down the window and watched the last few hours of another year slide by in the moonlight.

* nearing 11:00 perez, whose own birdthay and time zone i was both in at the time, called me slurring from a bar in michigan to tell me he loves me. and i told him that i loved him.

at least i got to hear it and tell it to somebody, i thought.

i turned to woody under the full moon falling in the moon roof and asked, "so how long do you think i will need to blow dry this mop to get it blond?..."