Microbes, Unexpected Beauty, Travel Purse Kaput

 Mosaic Kleenex

Mosaic Subway Station Van Siclen Avenue  Brooklyn, NY

My throat started feeling scratchy Wednesday night. The next day came the onset of a full out cold. How is it I can go through an entire academic year of students coughing, sneezing, and spitting on me (in a good way)  and remain healthy, while every vacation lately includes an annoying cold???
Doing better now, but poor Michael caught the bug. I resisted his offer of Dayquil, but it does seem to help, and since I am flying to Paris tomorrow night, I will get some to go.

Despite the olfactory misery, I took myself to the Brooklyn Museum where I thoroughly enjoyed a  docent tour of a Georgia O'Keefe Exhibit.  This collection contained very few paintings, but highlighted Georgia O'Keefe, the woman behind the painter. She loved elegant  city clothes in black and white. Before she could afford to buy them, she made them herself. These were displayed as well as her Ferragamo  shoes,  her country clothes in creamy beige, and the one special broach she adored.
I learned that Georgia O'Keefe was a sculptress, a seamstress, and a vegetable grower.

While at the museum, my trusty old travel purse decided to unzip itself permanently. Not the best timing. Who can travel the world with a purse that refuses to zip? I know that AAA sells these kind of multiple pocketed  sturdy purses at home so I tracked down AAA in Brooklyn.  Unfortunately, it is located at the far end of Brooklyn and would take over an hour to reach by public transportation. My  runny nose and I balked at such a journey so I decided to treat myself to a Lyft. New to Lyft, I learned during the course of the ride never to check the car pool option because the driver received  a message to immediately back track significantly to pick up a second passenger. Our new addition entered the car without so much as a "hi" and proceeded to have a  screaming fight with her boyfriend via cell phone. Then she demanded to be let out of the car due to a change in plans. The driver politely did so, but turned to me, (his new best friend)  to complain about the waste of gas and time. Luckily, I was not in a hurry, just anxious to replace my purse. He protested "This really burns my fries." , an expression I never heard before, but am sure to use in the future.  Finally, we arrived at AAA. I walked in to find a very meager selection of Baggalini travel purses. Fortunately, there was one and only one that would work. I bought it and asked for subway directions to Bed-Stuy, The woman looked at me and said I would have to see a AAA travel counselor. Too hilarious!  I left and found my own way back to Michael's coffee shop, my NYC refuge. Another dilemma solved and with a funny twist!