Saturday, December 15, 2007

Midtown mitten mystery near midnight

Oh, my goodness!

So, if you figured out the location of my poetic mitten drop, as Manda and I did, it may have occurred to you, as it did to me, that Penn Station, where trains from Boston arrive at 10 pm, is a mere two blocks from my mitten drop.

So I got off the train, and went straight to said mitten drop. I was on the phone with B, as he was very intrigued by the mitten game and wanted a play-by-play. We wondered along the way what the "four treats" were. I mean, the Empire State building sure is lovely, and large, but I would only count it as one treat. And there were way more than four street-side food carts along the way.

I get to Tractor Feed's "college of grad school learning" and there is a woman at the desk. Something is up, for this is not the "mitts with man [Nina] know[s]". B reads me the script from the haiku, so I tell the woman, precisely:

"Nina made gray mittens
They are for glorious me
hand them over, please"

...
She stared blankly at me for a few seconds and then said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

She looked around the lost-and-found, found nothing, and then we left a bright green post-it note for tomorrow's shift that said:
"Hello!
Maggie was here to pick up the mittens which Nina left for her. I will return and try again Saturday.
Thank you!"

Then I went to Manda's house, and was going to write Nina an e-mail, but first I saw this post.

Then I saw her Twitter that she's sending me an e-mail with new directions. But honestly, I have so many defunct e-mails associated with this blog, who knows where she's sending it. I just discovered a two-month-old e-mail from Bostonist, kindly resetting my commenting password as I requested, but then I'd never checked that account again for a reply.... Goodness.

I take full responsibility for this situation, as I decided my travel plans so late in the game. Or we could blame the multiple storms for spooking me to the weather.

PS, this really is the coolest game. Even better now for the added adventure!

4 comments:

Nina said...

I am soooo going to get better at this mitten hiding business. If I had picked a mitten guardian who got off work LATE, none of this would ever have happened. And this crime was perpetrated against a person who rode on a train for several hours, only to have NO mittens to show for it. Maggie, if you don't find them today, I will blow my cover and bring them to Boston and put them directly onto your hands at the location of your choosing. Pinky swear.

Maggie said...

I'm heading back to the library, as soon as they open at 1:00 tomorrow, to try again. But if that doesn't work, you betcha I'll see you in Boston, it's where the snow is, babe!

Jodi said...

Update on the Mitten Maddness '07:

Mittens have been recovered!

The weather held out long enough for Maggie to return to the 'mitten drop', make the pick-up and (after a silent prayer to the train goddess) arrive at Penn Station with an actual five minutes to spare before her train departed for Beantown.

All is well.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming...

Anonymous said...

What a relief...