Just when i thought i would get through the winter sans-sickness, just when i almost gloated about the sick-free winter i have been enjoying... i come down with something. So i'm home, padding around in my slippers. Spraying nasty echinacea spray in my throat. Digging through unpacked boxes looking for tea, here in my new apartment, in my new neighborhood.
And my cellphone service is a little shottier here. I sometimes have to wander over near the window to get better service. So yesterday, i'm trying to call for soup delivery, and as i wander to the window through which i can see the Empire State Building, over there in Manhattan, my cellphone started receiving someone else's phone conversation. Loud and clear. I hear a woman's voice talking with the tone of a family crisis. "Hello, Hello" i said. But she couldn't hear me. And I could only hear her, and not the other side of her conversation. So, before hanging up, i listened for just a few minutes, feeling voyeuristic, but fascinated. It went like this:

WOMAN: If I were a doctor, i would give them out. You know?

[person on other end of phone talking]

WOMAN: Well, mom says --she cracks me up you know -- she says "David, if you have a problem with your heart, we need to see proof. From a doctor." But, I'll bet you anything that on Sunday she'll say "I never said i didn't believe him about the heart problem, just like i believed him about the brain tumor."

[person on other end of phone talking]

WOMAN: Well, I'm pretty fed up with this whole thing, Dad. For him to show up at work and tell me all of this. About the heart problem. And the brain tumor... It's pretty nasty.

[person on other end of phone talking]

WOMAN: And you know what else David said? He said "Mom said i could drive the car." -- the Chrysler you know-- I said "David, i'll believe mom said you could drive the car when i hear it from her."

Then i hung up.

A tasty preview: