There are days when every inch of your existence lines up perfectly with what you are trying to accomplish, even if you are not quite sure what that is. I must say, not to my dismay that today was one of those peculiar yet satisfying days.
On the contrary of perfectly timed days, a hefty handful of them it seems you happen to "just miss the boat" and usually by milliseconds which of course makes missing it, a thousand times worse. It is seeing it right in front of you, slowly chug-a-lugging away from the dock, too far to jump but close enough that you can smell its fumes that makes it so tough. Just out of reach. A taunting such as this surely instigates tantrums. A determined child mounting the kitchen counter, stretching his eager little hand onto the cabinets top shelf only to graze the toll house cookie bag with his finger tips. So close. The anticipation, the escalated feeling of want because of the proximity of the wanted; makes one drool like Pavlov's dog. I guess it would be most appropriate to quote, "Close is only good in horseshoes & hand-grenades"--two things I rarely come in contact with, half thankfully.
But let's get back to today...and perfect timing.
Early this morning my mom and I headed into Boston for the annual grab, in other words, my mom had a date with the boob doctor (mammogram city). Unlike most hospital visits, today we were in and out like a ground hog and scurrying over to Umberto's (in the North End) for a hot cheesy dream...mmm Sicilian pizza. The lines at Umbertos are usually down and around the street by 11:00AM, fortunately, our timing was perfect (hence the title: Timing is EVERYTHING) and we slid through the door at 10:53, steaming slice in hand at 10:54, bellissimo!
After our delicious encounter, things got extra sweet. Powerless, our tooth (the sweet one) dragged us into Modern Pastry and we were "forced" to decorate our noses with powdered sugar as we wolfed down cannolis and planned our trek to chinatown.
Chinatown housed a hidden gem. A 1 dollar dvd movie store was the X on our treasure map. However, before we reached the booty we came upon a tragic accident.
A boston public vehicle had hit a pedestrian. Only the crime scene remained.
Timing is everything? Morbid I know but painfully true. I can't help but wonder if this victim will survive and the thoughts she had when she awoke this morning all the way up until the incident. I'm almost positive amidst her stream of consciousness she never fathomed for a second that she would be in this life threatening predicament. But every single second of her life led her to this moment, moments as small as bumping into a stranger or stopping for a coffee, even pushing that snooze button one more time brought her to brutally rest on this city street pavement. Timing had to be perfect.
It's hard to understand that even writing this post (the time it takes, the thoughts it brings me to examine) will change the path laid out in front of me, and your path for taking the time to read it. Maybe you will start your own blog or pay more attention when crossing the street for the next week, or possibly crave pizza and cannolis therefore taking an unintended trip into boston. You never know. But we can't deny that it will effect both of us, however small.
My mom and I finally found the dvd store and made out like bandits. Feeling thrilled about our successful galavant and all the exciting movies we now had in our database, it was time to click the heels of our red shoes and head home.
Again, timing was perfect as we came around the corner of Tremont Street to hear bagpipes and people marching. The Veterans day parade was starting at our feet. We watched and listened to the music for a while and then something odd occurred. At the end of the parade there was an anti-war protest. We had just watched hundreds and hundreds of young-barely adults march in their uniforms signifying their contracts and now we had a large crowd peacefully objecting to war entirely. How ironic. I would pick peace over war 8 days out of the week and could have easily dropped my bag of dvd's and joined them. But, please don't mistake my stance as being ungrateful for everything we have fought for in the past for I am a patriot and love many aspects of our country. I'm just no fan of war. As I studied the uniformed faces complete their march and turn to watch these protestors, I saw unsure eyes. These soon to be war veterans seemed just as unenthusiastic as me, even a bit fearful. I saw unsure eyes, I saw eyes filled with humanity and it made me sad.
As we entered the station we made a quick decision to catch a train that got us almost to our destination, hoping we could call someone for a ride. We got lucky (timing is everything), we plopped down next to a nice girl from my high school (who I hadn't seen in about 6 years), within seconds of hearing our gamble she had offered us a ride to our car at the train station a town over. I am always warmed by the philanthropic heart of our population.
An obscure but somewhat wonderful day. Aside from a few thing of course (unfortunate pedestrian/saddened soldiers) but everyday has its poopsicles and popsicles, I suppose.
