Do you remember your first event with Women About?
Trusting a memory is always a leap of faith. However, I do fondly remember my first adventure with Women About. I remember it well because that's when I met my life partner.
A Women About member was "sharing" an urban hike down the newly opened Hudson River Esplanade. Members were meeting on 96th street and Broadway. From there they would hike down to the Lower West Side. It was a beautiful summer day in 2002, and I wanted to do something brave and adventurous. You see, I'd been single for some time and had decided it was time to get out there. To begin meeting other lesbians, making new friends and broadening my horizons.
I was living in New Jersey at the time and, making the trek to "the City" was going to be it's own adventure. The New Jersey Path train was not the most efficient mode of transportation and by the time I reached Manhattan, I was already late for the rendezvous uptown. I didn't know if the group would wait for me or not? I still had to get uptown to 96th Street and I was becoming filled with more and more anxiety! It was 2002, yes, people had cell phones, but it wasn't the smart and sophisticated, familiar device we see attached to everyone's hand like we see today. I couldn't just text the event leader that I was late, panicking and still rushing to get to the number one train.
When, finally, safe on the uptown one train I heard it. I heard the announcement –– something New Yorker's likely hear everyday, that the train wasn't going to make all stops. The train was skipping my stop at 96th street. What the hell! Why?
Due to some kind of construction, the train –– MY TRAIN, was averting off it's regular course. And in fact, the train, MY TRAIN, was not going to stop at the very place I needed to be 10 minutes ago. Now, understand for seasoned subway riders this kind of "snafu" is a piece-of-cake. They'd simply take the 2 or 3 or F or whatever hellish, alternate collection of routes were necessary to make it to their destination and be done with it. For me –– well, it was a fate that I couldn't physically withstand. I was already late, there was construction, and I was in a strange unmoving vehicle that was not my car. I had to completely re-adjust my perception of the world order and my place in it!
After taking the downtown train, circle back from 125th Street, I'd finally arrived at the corner of 96th Street and Broadway. There I spotted a group of women gathered in front of a corner store. Perspiring, undaunted and feeling a little self-satisfied after accomplishing the unthinkable, I crossed the street to be greeted by the welcoming smile that would be my future. There was the event leader, and though we had only communicated through emails about the event details, I had no idea what she looked like (or how she would react to my lateness). She said that somehow she'd known that I was going to get there and so they had all decided to wait.
The rest of the day was filled with food, (which is synonymous with Women About) great humor, conversation and a wonderful walk down the Hudson River Esplanade.
