Sleeping through the emergency

Written last night:

These past few weeks my brain has curdled. It is smoothing out now, but … I am changed forever. 

Some things stay the same, thankfully: I’m still a sound sleeper. Oblivious, you might say. On the elevator this morning everyone was buzzing about the fire alarm that jolted them from sleep and sent them hustling down to the lobby around 5 a.m. “Two fire trucks!” they marveled, and they looked at me. “Huh?” I said. Turns out I missed the excitement, slept through the emergency. Someone smoking in a hallway set off the fire alarm; no one was hurt, and I slept right through it. 

Soon after, I was having coffee (and a chocolate croissant!) at Ambrosia Cafe, looking out the window and across K Street at what is called Cathedral Square. I’d never been quite this early before, and so today I saw the homeless wake up. Many — maybe 20 people — were cupped in their private spaces in the small plaza at the foot of the tall steps going up to the monumental church — one on the bottom, two on the side, another in a corner across the way, and so on. The ground today was cold (I shivered on my way here.), but somehow they found hard rest on blankets and behind shopping carts, scattered in that space at the foot of the church. Following some internal clock, they roused, folded their blankets, and formed a straggly line. They shuffled toward a man in a blue shirt, who seemed to be handing out brown paper sacks. I say seemed because I’m not sure what I saw. But soon there were men, and a few women, walking away in different directions, fondling whatever was in that sack, and the day began.

On my way back to the hotel I forced myself to deposit two checks in the Wells Fargo ATM that was along my way. For some reason I expected the machine to swallow my checks, chew them up, and leave me penniless. It is a machine, and before machines I am vulnerable and stupid. But now I love the machine! It’s better than Tallahassee’s ATM; I didn’t need an envelope. The screen showed a picture of what I’d just inserted. It asked me to approve with a click, and I did. Nice machine!

There followed lots of phone calls and tinkering on the computer as I arranged (with Stephanie’s help) for the POD to be delivered and unloaded at my new place. Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!

Then Rosa and I wandered in and out the midtown streets, without purpose, just getting the feel of our new home. I stopped to buy a cooler at Ace Hardware, which is an echo of the Ace near the Y on North Monroe in Tallahassee. Except, as I got back into Rosa and started to back out, I glanced up and saw that this Ace Hardware has solar panels on its roof. I only noticed as I was leaving; I’m getting used to these California details!

And back at the hotel an employee was rustling suitcases onto the elevator. “Study Tour” was lettered on each one. “Students?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. "Fifteen busloads of students from Japan will be with us this week.” (There are more than 500 hotel rooms here.)

Very interesting, but I am ready to leave.