>> He says he’ll be ready in five minutes and to meet him downstairs.

This morning, but still quite a bit after the rosy-fingered dawn had managed to claw her way up, I got up and filled myself with coffee, I called the bank and got my balance, I collected my print outs for a sale on the Nikon D70, and I struggled over what to wear. On my way out, to meet Mark, my Fetcher, downstairs, Murphy followed me to the door and looked confused when I left without her.

That was harder than I thought, leaving without her. Her confusion made me sad. I hadn’t really thought too much about how terribly I’ve been spoiling her.

“Today’s the day,” Mark said as we walked. I felt myself walking beyond my boundaries. I didn’t mention the feeling to Mark. Walking beyond, moving beyond, was a beautiful feeling.

We went to the subway station. The price has gone up since the last time I was on it. I had forgotten. I tried to be kind to the ticket collector who wanted another quarter but he didn’t care. My quarter was more important than my kindness. The train was not terribly busy. The restaurant was much busier, however. In fact there was a line to be seated. I was surrounded by color and by people. I was assaulted by too many smells and too many sounds but, mostly, I was not uncomfortable. I was hungry. And thrilled.

I had the Blackstone Eggs with a side of bacon. It was beautiful. My Fetcher had Eggs Benedict. The waitress had a middle-Eastern accent and beautiful shiny eyes and she was wonderfully attentive, even though she must have been terrifically busy. My coffee cup was rarely empty. The bacon was just the way I like it. Crispy. Just shy of carbonized. It wasn’t until we were finished, it wasn’t until we were nearly ready to leave that it occurred to me that the last time I had been here was with my sweet jellybean and I was happy that I hadn’t even thought of that.

I was so happy with brunch I left a $12 dollar tip for a $28 breakfast.

And after the most gorgeous brunch, we went to a shop and a fellow named Eddy sold me my camera. I am inexpressibly happy. And satisfied. I have never waited a year for a thing I wanted. And I have never felt like I deserved a thing so much as I deserve this. It has so many buttons. I like the heft of it in my hands. Solid. I like the noise it makes when you take a picture.

SS