Rainy Day Adventures Vol. 2

This morning I had one of those rare moments when you do something so embarrassing you can't help but not be embarrassed. Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about because you definitely do. In a move to trump stepping straight out of my shoe last week when it was rainy, I stepped directly on someone else's shoe--not someone else's foot--someone else's shoes. You see, after putting my coffee down on the counter, I tried explaining to the woman that I was also going to get a water, a sports bottle, a sport water, a water, she wasn't getting it. So I left my coffee on the counter and just went to get the water. When I came back, I placed my water on the counter (which was now crowded by two other people) and my foot on something squishy.
"That's my shoe," the man next to me said.
I looked down and sure enough, there was his flip-flop in all its lonesome glory and his naked foot hovering somewhere between 5 and 6 inches above it. With a look of wide-eyed alarm, I stared at him not knowing what to do or say. Why wasn't his shoe on? Did he see my foot inching closer and immediately slide out of his shoe to avoid my stomp? Did he slide out of his shoe because it was too wet to hold his foot like I had done only a week ago? Did he take his foot out of his flip-flop to scratch his other leg with his toes? The questions were just burning inside of me. And then my mouth opened and an overly apologetic, urgently pleading voice came out a tad too loud shouting, "I'm so sorry. SO, SO sorry!"
When I realized how exaggerated my reaction was and how calmly he just looked at me, we both started laughing and he told me it was fine.
I think I should rename the blog Rainy Day Adventures with Dina.

Ooh, Ooh, Can I Be Rainy Day Woman #35?

The rain was coming down hard but I didn't really mind because I had an umbrella. It would have been nice to be in rain boots, but I left those at home and had to make do with what I had at the apartment. Plus, we always used jellies for the pool so it wasn't that bad. And they could be washed off and dried, something I planned to do as soon as I'd get to the offive. Nearing the offive, I crossed the street. This was a careful one step at a time kind of day because the rain kept making the inside of my jellies slippery. I wasn't at risk of slipping on the sidewalk; I was at risk of slipping clear out of my shoes. Which I did when trying to get from the street onto the sidewalk. Putting one foot firmly on the sidewalk, I lifted the other and realized the ease with which it happened was too smooth. My shoe was still sitting in the puddle that gathered against the wall of the sidewalk. I turned around to get a better look at the situation and found myself making straight eye contact with a very attractive laughing 20-something guy. He was standing in the street about a foot behind my swimming shoe waiting for me to figure out what to do. I leaned down and slipped my foot into the shoe, still keeping eye-contact. (No really, he was very cute.)
"Well, at least your shoes are plastic!"
"That's why I've got them!" I said and walked down the rest of the block wondering why at 22 I still can't make myself seem cool.

Because I'm Very Visual?

There's an article in the Wall Street Journal today about faceblindness. The online journal links to a test you can take to determine how well you do with remembering faces (and names and objects).
My scores:
Face Recognition Memory
Overall, you got 72% correct! The average score on this test is 85% correct. Your percentile rank on this test was 9. (booo!)

Object Recognition Memory
Overall, you got 88% correct! The average score on this test is 86% correct. Your percentile rank on this test was 55. (yay!)

Verbal Recognition Memory
Overall, you got 33% correct! The average score on this test is 77% correct. Your percentile rank on this test was less than 1. (boooooooooo!)

How well can you do?

So It's Ice Cream Sandwiches for Lunch

I saw my husband/s today at the supermarket. After moving my stuff into the apartment I'm subletting for the summer, I went to buy some food. And there at the top of the aisle I walked down was heaven himself. I looked at him and blushed. He looked at me and I think he might have laughed or smiled or done something because then his friend, whose back was to me, turned around to see who was there. He was heaven number two. And heaven number three was the other friend. When I say they were heaven, what I mean is that they were tall, dark haired, and bearded. I was so thrown off I forgot to get peanut butter.

I Fainted

On Friday, I had a syncopal episode at Starbucks and made a clear 90* fall backwards from where I was standing onto the floor. They called 911 and first a policeman came and then an FDNY EMT came and then the paramedics came. It was the most dramatic experience of my life. When I came to, I told the barista who was hitting my cheeks that I was nauseated and she kept saying, "she's nauseous" so that someone would get a bag and I kept thinking, "I said nauseated." Anyway, the paramedics strapped me into a rolling chair thing and brought me out to the ambulance where I wasn't doing much better. In the ambulance, I couldn't stop shaking so they covered me with a blanket and because I was still nauseated and dizzy, they put an oxygen mask on. By the time we got to the hospital, I was wheeled in on a stretcher with an oxygen mask while shaking uncontrollably. Did I mention it was the most dramatic experience of my life? We went to Beth Israel and when the nurse in the emergency room asked if I had ever been a patient there, I said, "I think I was born here." He replied, "Oh, maybe you'll get a discount." It took four tries for the nurse to get a clear EKG because I couldn't stop shaking and she was trying not to get frustrated with me. It was nice. When she was done, I was starting to get better so I called my mother but she didn't pick up. I called my father and left a voicemail. Then I tried my mother again. She answered and said, "What's the emergency--I'm at the dentist?" I didn't know that while she was there she missed five calls and had a voicemail that kept beeping, so I said, "I'm at the hospital." She said, "you win." All the tests came back fine and I didn't have time before Shabbos for a CT Scan but I probably suffered a minor concussion and that's why I didn't come back from lunch break.

I Also Would Have Gone with any Green Phone

I told the Verizon man that I had been eyeing the shock-resistant, dust-resistant phone that could be submerged in water for 30 minutes before breaking. He told me it was really for construction men.
"Well, I'm really klutzy with my phone."
"Yeah, but I'm sure..."
I held up my bruised, beaten, and antenna-less phone. "This is my third in two years."
After discussing the construction man phone and realizing that with the car charger, earpiece, and etc. features it was an additional $50 over the already expensive price I was willing to pay for solidness, we took a walk over to the other phones.
"This phone's solid. I go on what people bring back and no one brings this phone back."
He held up one of the nerdiest looking phones in the store.
"Yeah, but it's...not so aesthetically pleasing..."
"But if you're as clumsy as you say you are, you might want to consider this."
So I went with the nerdy looking phone. I'm as embarrassed of being embarrassed of it as I am embarrassed of it.

"Oh, C'mon--Don't Be Such a Girl!"

I had a few extra minutes this morning, so I stopped at Starbucks to get a coffee (I stopped doing caffeine so I just had a tea, but I was very tired and needed a boost). I pulled into a spot, crossed Queens Blvd., and got a latte. The light was turning green when I was ready to cross, but I ran across the first part of the blvd. anyway because there was only one car waiting. As I ran in front of the car, the driver started honking to me. I turned to look at the car and saw him waving manically. I halfway turned away and then turned back and gave him an, "I don't think I know who you are look" so he rolled down his window to tell me, I guess, but the girl sitting next to him was either embarrassed or laughing--I couldn't tell--and she made him drive off because cars were coming up behind him. It was probably a case of mistaken identity, but it's killing me to figure out who he was.