oh, hi o!

i fled chicago.

i don't think i fled chicago like a stool pigeon realizing what they just said about capone. i fled chicago trying to beat nature. water was starting to come down in larger bits from the sky and it seemed like just as good a chance as any to outrun it. maybe if i beat traffic, i could outdistance myself from the crazy storms that the newscasters kept fretting about over the news. midwest storms are the stuff of legend. legends that i want no part of.

i checked the map, calculated some travel time and realized it would take me a couple days of driving before i reached my next destination in upstate new york. ohio and pennsylvania were in my way and had to be traversed first. unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a whole heckuva lot of stuff in those parts. the most exciting thing to visit appeared to be the amish, which was a little disappointing, especially when you consider that the amish aren't exactly known for their excitement.

i got as far as toledo before realizing i was too tired to go much further. just for safety's sake, i made it a habit to always end the day's drive before the sun set. this plan of attack left me in a super 8 motel somewhere in toledo, ohio. wasn't toledo where klinger was from? i remembered him getting all dressed up in crazy women's clothes, talking about trying to get out of the army. was that the only thing i could think about toledo? that's disturbing somehow.

the further east i found myself, the more anxious i realized i was becoming about finding parking in manhattan. what the hell was i thinking, trying to bring a car into manhattan? sure, my parking karma might be good in san francisco, but new york city? i must be crazy. darting at windmills.

i realized that the person i had to get a hold of, who might have this extremely valuable information about where to find parking in manhattan, would also be the same person who could tell me about where to find the best bagels. three years ago, ross had proven to me that new york bagels are the best in the world. prior to that day, i always thought that the whole bit about new york bagel superiority was just a myth. how frikkin' different could a bagel really be from the ones i ate in california? the moment i tasted that first fresh new york bagel, everything was different. i had seen the light.

when i finally got settled in my toledo hotel room with comedy central on the television and a hot shower just completed, i decided to call jory so that he could get me in contact with ross. the sooner i could get a hold of ross, the less anxious i would be about this whole parking thing. the less anxious i was about the whole parking thing, the less likely it was that i was going to completely freak out.

jory couldn't immediately get a hold of ross, but he sent out an email, instructing him to show me a good place to grab dinner, bagels and parking - though not necessarily in that order. satisfied that i had gotten the ball rolling on that potential barrier, i collapsed into a pile and spent a quiet night in ohio. <05.21.04>

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