A few months ago, someone I know mentioned that he had had "a good Mercury in retrograde." He went on to explain that when the planet Mercury is in retrograde (meaning it appears to be moving backwards through the zodiac for a period of time), all kinds of problems can arise for us mortals, mostly around communication. He told me that often miscommunication will be rampant, computers, phones, and the web will have all kinds of problems, and it's generally a bad time to make any big decisions. But that this time, he managed fine.
[In related news, sorry if you tried to post a comment about my bat story; it was apparently posted in "draft" status. If you still want to leave a bat comment, it's now open.]
I happened to be relating the story of my weekend to this same gentleman, who just nodded along until he revealed that that pesky Mercury is again in retrograde. I did a little reading on the subject, and learned that "this period brings travel snafus and missed appointments of all kinds." This explains a lot.
This past weekend, in the midst of a heatwave I might add, Scott & I went to New Haven to help my friend Sara move to Boston. Sara is having a very rough time right now, and is moving to be closer to her family while they deal with a serious illness. Pretty much nothing about this move went as planned. The packing was behind schedule, and instead of packing up the truck and driving to Boston on Sunday morning, the timing kept getting pushed back and back, until we finally left New Haven at 2:00am. Scott drove the truck to our house, and I drove our packed car after dropping off Sara at her parents, finally arriving at 5:00am. (I'm too old for this sh*t.) Scott had beat me home by close to an hour, only to discover that his house keys were in a bag with me in the car.
We had figured out before leaving New Haven that since Scott was unavailable until late Monday, I would drive the truck into Boston on Monday afternoon.
I don't know if you've ever driven in Boston, but it is not for the faint of heart. Or people who don't know where they're going. Or people driving 10' trucks who don't know what they're doing. I'm quite proud of myself; I neither got lost nor lost control and crashed the truck. (It was actually really easy!)
Sara hired some shady movers to help us unload the heavy things from the truck, and they got the job done. Then we went to park the truck and her car. We found a semi-legal spot for the truck, and were driving around looking for a spot for the car when, heading down a small one-way side street, we encountered an emergency. A woman had just fallen out of a window and was lying semi-conscious on the street. This was the point when we realized we had stepped into some weird alternate universe. We ended up stuck in between a police car and a fire truck, waiting for the EMTs to get the woman into an ambulance. It was just so bizarre.
We finally got some dinner, waited for Scott to arrive with our car (still full of more boxes of Sara's stuff), unloaded those, and headed homeward to return the truck. It took a long time to find the place, it was hidden behind another building, and it took another long time to find the key drop-off box in the dark. We got home at 1:30am. I'll say it again, I'm too old for this sh*t.
That said, as frustrating and exhausting as this was, I'm glad we could be there for Sara in her time of need.
I just wish the astrological omens had been better.
Good lord! What a weekend. Did you have some tequilla when you got home? Was the tumbling-from-window woman OK? Are you OK?
Get thee to the pointy sticks, quick.
Posted by: The Feminist Mafia | July 21, 2006 at 03:59 PM
Bless you. You are a great friend.
Posted by: Alison | July 21, 2006 at 10:02 PM
Yipes. That explains so much at my end of the block this week. Sympatico, chicca.
Posted by: julia fc | July 22, 2006 at 10:42 AM
Alison, did you send that retrograde mercury my way?! why.. not fair.. i seemed to have had a similary story to Sara's today and still haven't finished packing.. but the truck has come and gone.. hired some maybe not shady but questionable movers.. i must say they were amazing you kno wmy 4th floor walk up.. eeek and it was a very nasty hot day.. muggy.. thundershowers a few times.. grrr.. anyway then we needed them for an additional 2-3 hours.. so they hood winked me for another 180$ ugh.. grrr.. anyway i still have my desk, wall unit and kitchen rack to dismantle and pack my 4 drawers of files.. and pack up the computer.. ugh.. anyway i'm wiped out but can't fall asleep ie why i'm inhere.. lots of hugs to you Sara and Will.. and i hope some day you can visit me in arizona.. yup 4 bedrooms and one of them is just for yarn and ladybugs.. of course.. hugs karola
Posted by: Karola | July 22, 2006 at 10:49 PM