Dinner with Dorothy, part I

Tucson Arizona has about 520,000 people living there.  That comes out at about 2,800 people per square mile.

Fairfax County, where I live, has about twice as many people in about twice the area.  But Fairfax is weird.  In the middle of the county sit the cities of Alexandria (where I work), Arlington, Falls Church, Vienna, and Fairfax City.  Fairfax is pretty big and there are sections which are pretty underpopulated as opposed to the close-in suburbs.  Alexandria and Arlington together are about a quarter the size of Tucson but have over 340,000 people.  That's around 8,300 people per square mile.

I didn't know these numbers when I drove from Sierra Vista to Tucson but when I was warned there would be "lots of traffic," I considered that A Good Thing.

It meant I could leave early and co-workers will think I was smart because I was beating the traffic.  It also meant I didn't expect my trip to be any longer than usual.

Tucson traffic is to Washington-area traffic as a home aquarium is to Sea World.

So I started my day extra-early and left by 3 or so.

The plan was to meet Dorothy around 7, for dinner.  If I could get there early, Meg would join her.  If not, well, that was less than ideal but a possibility too.

I got to the hotel in plenty of time and Andrea (the "A" of recent posts ~ she said I could use her name) checked me in.

I'm probably going to repeat some of what I wrote starting with this post ~ I was pretty busy and disjointed last week and I'd like to try to be a bit more orderly.

At 5, it was time to get started.  I was in my room early enough to shower and moisturise and shave my face and touch up arms and chest ~ just a little bit.  I did my makeup and dressed and loaded my purse and put on my wig and jewelry and slipped into my shoes exactly at 7 ~ just as the phone rang.  It was Dorothy.  She had arrived.  She said she was going to look for a parking space but I said I could come out to the parking lot.

I stepped out of my room to an empty hallway.  I got into an empty elevator.  On the main level, I thought the lobby was to the right, but it was to the left.  I took a step to the right with my left foot, then realised I was going the wrong way so I crossed my leg and stepped to the left with my right foot.  I probably looked pretty stupid doing that, so, of course, I had an audience.  Someone was close by, also heading towards the lobby.  I walked on, with the gentleman right behind me.  I wonder if he would have offered to help me up if my manoeuver resulted in a fall.

Andrea was still behind the desk, and I saw only one other person ~ a woman sitting on a sofa which faced away from the front desk.

I have a habit of focussing.  I don't know if it's a bad habit, but it has served me poorly on occasion.  I am known to walk into a room of people I know, talk to the one I was planning on talking to and walking out ignoring the others, even if they're riding tigers or on fire.

My focus was on meeting Dorothy in the parking lot.  I smiled and nodded to Andrea, I looked at the woman on the sofa who said "hi."  I said "hi" back, because that's what Meg should do, right?  Internally, I noticed that she had a deepish voice, like mine, and maybe my voice is OK after all.  But I kept walking.

I didn't see Dorothy's car in front of the hotel, just the airport shuttle.  I went out to my car to grab something (I can't remember what now) and looked around.  Then I had a flash of insight and I called Dorothy.  She said "hello?"  and I said "did I just walk past you sitting in the lobby?"

Yup.

I didn't pick her.  She picked me, but thought I was trying to lose the guy who was close behind me!

I went back in, we said hellos, and went on our way.

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