Karma, traveling and the light fantastic

February 22, 2009

Wanting to go was never the question. In what manner was the only thing at stake.

Normally I would have gone straight from work. Not this time. Because I had counted on stopping at home, I had left everything at home.

I thought I left with plenty of time left. However, along M11 there was an incident, which caused the traffic to a complete standstill in both directions. By the time I was clear of the incident, I pretty much decided that I would not be able to make it to the train station on time. Given the time and traffic, I also decided driving would be too painful.

When I got home, I wasn’t even sure if I would even try to get to the train station. I did. No dinner. Miraculously I made it to the train station with about 4 minutes to spare for the 7:20 train. The ticketing machine was acting strangely so that took another 2 minutes. I went through. Now which platform am I supposed to go to? Platform 4. I turned right. Platform one, two, three. Okay I must want to turn right again. I got onto an empty train going through three or four cars. Hmm. This is weird. I looked out of the train. It’s platform 3! Oh no. Where is platform 4? Darn! I was supposed to turn left and had no business missing the train! I seem to make wrong decisions all the time when rushed. I saw the train leaving as I got near platform 4.

Now what? There is a train leaving at 7:28. It’s a slow one though. I bet this wouldn’t get to Kings Cross until 9 rather than 8:15 or whatever time the earlier was supposed to arrive in London. Oh well. I already paid for the train ticket. Royston. Baldock. Letchworth. Hitchin. Stevenage. Finsbury Park. Finally Kings Cross. Hmm. That was a little better than I expected. 8:40 PM.

One would think karma might at least favor me with a nice SOS. Karma schumala. SOS was held on the South side tonight. On second thought, maybe it was the curse. You know who you are – the reason why I had planned to go home first.

The outside signs were not great either. As I neared the entrance following a herd coming down from the North side, Eva walked out of the entrance with Mauro and told the group not to go in – a sure sign that it must be ridiculously hot tonight. I considered going back and actually turned around. But then another pair of people I know walked in and asked me if I was going in. I said in a minute after getting rid of my glasses.

It was hot and steamy alright. I didn’t have much will to do much to start with. It took me three songs to get my first dance in. After a break and another dance, someone asked me so I ended up with a two in a row. After that, I lost the will for quite some time. By ten, I had only five dances. All night long, I’m not sure if I had ten dances. I probably did. Maybe even twelve. I think it was close to two thirds On2 – or trying to stay On2 in some cases. I really couldn’t fault some of the partners for losing concentration given the conditions and perhaps their inexperience or (absence) of expertise.

A bit after 10, I was asked for a dance right after another. I was amused for two reasons. The song being played was the second version of Camina Prende Y Fogon of the night. Also just like the first time I was asked, I ended up dancing On1 – I’m thinking half of my On1 dances were by someone who asked me. To boot, the next song was the second version of Agua Limpia Todo for the night. There were many others versions of lesser known covers (e.g. Hacha Y Machete, Mambo Diablo (T.P. but from the 70s), Bilongo (T.R.), others?), many of which I would have been happy to dance to if it weren’t so hot.

It wasn’t like they weren’t using the AC. The funniest thing was that the AC right in front of the DJ was so overworked that the DJ must have thought he was looking at the dancers through a mini downpour. The floor was wet of course. They even placed a large green bucket underneath a particularly wet spot. By the time I was came over to the DJ booth to comment on the second duplicate songs of the night, the bucket was full and in danger of overflowing. No joke.

There was absolutely no reason to stay for the last song. I wasn’t going to take any chances missing the 11:15 train back to Cambridge. I did dance with someone I know for the next to last song – one of my favorite London partners – as perhaps could be demonstrated by the fact that tonight I only danced with only two people, whom I have danced with more than once before ever to my best knowledge. Too bad the song was the most difficult song of the night too.

I wonder if I’m lacking sleep. I feel like I have been having mild hallucinations frequently. Maybe it’s because I’m hungry too now. I’m breaking down things I’m watching into actions and consequences – more in the physical sense than mental sense. I pull my fingers against each other and watch my arm moving in response. I see a video where a guy pulls a girl into an elevator and I break down the mechanics of how it is being done. I’m sorry; I don’t love you. I’m not sure if I like you all that much either. I think I’m getting sleepy.

The laptop has 21% of battery power left – supposedly good for 38 minutes of power. I think there’s about 20 minutes of train ride left before arrival. What’s with using beans to write? The words make no sense to me. Maybe it’s heat exhaustion – but I didn’t dance very much, and I’m not especially tired – at least not due to physical exertion. I am also cold though not as cold as about half hour ago when my clothes were wetter. I seem to get these hallucinatory sensations once a year or two – perhaps most vividly in Phoenix on my way to a grand Oregon-California trip before graduate school. I guess it’s an amusing coincidence that Ben just e-mailed to suggest a dip at Lake Ediza?

It really hasn’t been the most efficient day aside from making travel plans – not that I am anywhere near finished with this either. Paris next weekend and then a 2-week trip in April in the UK, France and possibly Netherlands – I guess I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be my grand European trip.

Hmm. The train stopped. It’s Cambridge. I better hurry and get off. I don’t want to go to Ely.