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.
