The Fabuleous Fifties

New York State Of Mix-Up

My Great Big American Trip part 5.

Today disaster struck.

I had planned to go into town early, to do some research before goint to the Daily Show Studios to do a behind the scenes tour and interview with one of the writing producers. Craig had to get into town even earlier, so when Michael Vassallo offered to pick me up to go to the train station, I jumped at the chance of an extra hours sleep. I dowloaded an alarm app to my Ipad and set it to 7 o'clock, more than enough to meet Michel outside of Craig's house at 7.45.

At five o'clock I woke up with a slight headache and realized that I hadn't drunk any coffee the night before. I am such an addict that I get a headache if I go more than 12 hours without caffeïne. I once saw a BBC documentary where they showed that the coffee headache is a real thing and that it is a real addiction, but that it is also over within a week. That is information that is no help whatsoever in the middle of the first night, though. So I took a ibiprofen, my painnumbing pill of choice.

At six I was awoken by Craig and Clizia leaving. I didn't mind, in fact I was glad that I wasn't so drugged out that I slept through that. So I turned over and pulled the covers over me for one more hour of blissfull sleep - I had the alarm, right? Unfortunately I had forgotten to check f the battery of my Ipad was full - so at 7.48 I was woken by Clizia's mom (who is also staying over, from Italy) that there 'was a car outside'. Cursing myself , my Ipad and the electricity company I quickly put on some clothes, packed my toiletries, empied out some of the junk in my bag and added the Ipad and the computer so I could check the interview information that was still in my online mailbox at some free WIFI point.

Michael told me to go to Starbucks and get the cheapest cup and and enjoy free internet acces. Or as his wife said: "Don't take the Frappalazzo for twenty bucks!" The Vassallo's are pretty funny. I sat down with my coffe and went online. After some hassle with loading the 'I accept this without reading it all because I am too much in a hurry' page, I tried to go to my mailbox, but it wouldn't load. I tried other sites and they did. What was wrong here? An how would I get my information from my email?! This interview pays fr the trip and now I can't even do it, because I was stupid enough to trust Steve Jobs to wake me!

Then it hit me. Facebook worked. I typed a message to my friend Sytse Algera in Holland. He is a policeman and a Applefile and he checks his facebook every hour. He might see my message and maybe he could try and contact the Dutch Comedy Channel and get the information to me. At that point it was about 9 o'clock in New York and 3 o'clock in Holland, so he wouldn't be out to lunch> It shouldn't take more than an hour.

Witin five minutes Sytse had reacted, I told him who to contact at The Comedy Channel and soon after I as abe to copy down the information in a new file. Not online, easily accessible on my labtop. Long live the internet and good friends.

Actually, I don't even think he did this because we are such good friends. He just did it because he is such a good and decent guy. He's the type that give cops a good name (and we need more of those). Of course, when I later went to the Apple store in Grand Central Station where they have free WIFI as well, the mailbox did load and they told me because the Starbucks one is notoriously slow. But that's not the point. The point is, evrything went wrong and then it didn't. I guess that's something you learn with old age - that al small problems can be solved with a little bit of common sense and maybe some creativity. And never be afraid to ask for help.

I'll tell you all about my visit to the New York Library and the Daily Show in the next post. But, just in case I can get this online before eleven... you will be able to see and certainly hear me in the audience, so watch! An also, there was a guy of a girl in the audince with a black blouse with white dots, short dark hair and earring and I just couldn't see if it was a man or a woman.

Maybe one of you guys can help me out?