The Thirty Something Snap

Chapter Eight - Brenda Jackson

By 8:35 a.m. Penny and I were sharing an elevator descending to street level. We would be going separate ways. She had called a town car to take her to her place in Yonkers where she would be picking up Sylvia. I would be taking my Nissan back to Merrick. From there I had about a one hour drive, round trip, to pick up Peter and Ellen at their home in Deer Park, in Suffolk County.

Tomoko Takahashi and her people from JEG agreed to meet us back at the Edelman offices at 4:00 p.m. for the photo shoot. The late afternoon plan gave us some breathing room after such a rushed and hectic morning and weekend.

Russell had volunteered to convert the large Facilitation Room into a makeshift photo studio and to post signage at all entrances informing other staff members of the nature of the photography session they would encounter if they entered the area.

As the elevator doors on the tenth floor closed, Penny and I had the first opportunity to congratulate each other for the successful presentation. We were like two kids as the elevator slowly descended to the first floor.

“Can you believe we pulled that off?” I said with a grin the size of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Penny responded with a similarly rhetorical question, “Can you believe Yoko Ono showed up?”

“You’re gonna have to thank Sylvia for all those prayers she’s been saying,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Penny replied. “I will.”

As the doors opened on the 1st floor I could already see Penny’s ride through the glass doors waiting for her at the curbside and I said, “Okay, I’ll meet you back here around three or three-thirty. Deal?”

“Deal,” Penny responded.

When I got back into my car I started driving against the grain of traffic as commuters were making their way into the city and I was heading out. The traffic was a nightmare but I wasn’t phased by it at all. I was on cloud nine because of our amazing meeting and I grabbed the steering wheel and shouted, “I am SO EXCITED.”

The Voice Command on my JVC car stereo was turned on and my ecstatic shout of joy triggered the Pandora app to instantly fill my car with the 1980s hit song, “I’m So Excited” by the Pointer Sisters. I let it play. It was, indeed, my anthem for the day. I must have commanded the player to repeat twenty times on my ride to Merrick.

As I pulled into the driveway of the small condominium building where I lived on Smith Street I saw Penny’s car parked off to the side. “These last three days have been some whirlwind,” I thought to myself.  I had totally forgotten that Penny and I decided to leave her car at my place.

I quickly got out of my car and ran up to my apartment. I took one of those six-minute showers I used to pride myself on back in my college days and then changed into some fresh clothing. The clothing I had been wearing all morning had been stored in my office closet and, although it was clean, I wanted to sport a more ‘professional casual’ look for our photo session. “I have become a metro-sexual,” I thought to myself as I slipped into my shoes and headed back out the door.

I checked my watch to determine how much time I had to get back into the city and my three-thousand dollar Tag Heuer read 8:35. “What the…?” I said as I realized that my clock had stopped running. “It should be at least 9:30 by now,” I said aloud as I tapped the face of my watch. “If it’s not one thing it’s another.”

I cranked up the Nissan and began my trek toward Suffolk County to pick up my old friend Peter and his wife Ellen. My car clock confirmed that it was 9:35 a.m. and I knew the drive to Peter’s would take about a half hour.