Labor Day is for labor, therefore Labor Day weekend is also for hell and chaos...
This weekend is testament to Murphy's Law. No, seriously. I am definately, much like I believe that God loves irony, a firm believer that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. I don't believe in being ridiculously paranoid in order to avoid said minor catastrophe: one simply can not control all aspects of a given situation. Just have to play the averages. Well, as God loves his irony, let's set up a scenario. I've never been a big planner. In most cases I like to shoot from the hip, as I've found that fun times seem to be more fun if they're spontaneous. However, after coming back from the land of "don't be late or else...", I've planned stuff a little bit more than usual. Also, having a constant job and trying to schedule between three different sections of a company for said constant job has put scheduling in a stronger perspective. So, after learning the date and time of the arrival of the students from Seinan, I went and touched base with a lot of different people, making sure that things were scheduled out of the way, etc. D&D was changed to a different day, people were asked to help with luggage (as a Honda Accord is not the station wagon of Japanese motor vehicules), all that cool stuff. And, with the exception of the luggage assistance, most things were done anywhere between 5-7 days in advance. Again, not common for me.
Well, I didn't figure for the incredible speed of the U.S. Customs and Immigration service. I figured that with the time given for an international flight and changeovers, that Customs and Immigration would at least move with speed so that people can make their connecting flights. Yeah, well...no. As a result of the necessary governmental hoops that the exchange students had to hop through, they missed their connecting flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Providence on the day that I came to pick them up. After a call from the 'rents 35 minutes before their supposed arrival saying that "i don't understand all of their accents, but the Japanese people missed their flight and will arrive tomorrow at 1:30, I think", I was pretty freaked out. Also cursing Immigration and my lack of luck. Had to "touch base" (sounds silly and vaguely baseball-ish) for the better part of an hour to find out what the heck was going on, and then reschedule and pick them up on Sunday.
Hah! If only it were that easy. I left, again with plenty of time to spare so I could be there to make sure everything had gone smoothly and spiffily. Left Rob's house in Burriville so that I could be there for 12:45, with plenty of time to wait for 1:30. And, about halfway down Rt. 44, what should stare me in the face but some sort of accident so bad that two fire trucks were blocking all four lanes of Rt. 44. With assistance and directions from the Tower of Wayreth (also known as Rob), I had to backtrack to get to Rt. 7 to get to 295 just in time to get to the airport. I got there, literally, 5 minutes before they arrived. 'Course, I got there at 1:10, and apparently their plane had landed at 1:00. Just managed to get things set up and bring them to URI, then back to Burriville to play D&D. My brain was officially scrambled by that point.
And still found all the time to get back down here to URI to help all the exchange students for a rousing supply trip to the RI Mall. By RI Mall, I mean the Wal-Mart there. We could have gone to the one in North Kingstown, but apparently the added bonus of "other shops in the mall" was enough to pull the school bus and cargo to the mall. No one went in to the mall, to my knowledge. Happens when you only have 2 hours to shop, work with people who are still learning the fine points of American culture, have a bus be an hour late because "we messed up the dates, and thought it was the 10th of September", etc. I got to eat Subway to calm my nerves, as I didn't eat much today (my mistake). Also showed off my mad pack mule skillz when we got back. And introduced a good chunk of the students to the wonder that is the Frisbee. Ate Spikes for din-din, and here I am now. I'm not bitter. If I wasn't so tired, and had a 3/4 view of the happenings of the past weekend, I'd probably be laughing my ass off. Just figured I should probably update a little more often than once a month. Well, tomorrow is a brunch with the students and buying of books before I go to work. Yee-haw!
Sean
Well, I didn't figure for the incredible speed of the U.S. Customs and Immigration service. I figured that with the time given for an international flight and changeovers, that Customs and Immigration would at least move with speed so that people can make their connecting flights. Yeah, well...no. As a result of the necessary governmental hoops that the exchange students had to hop through, they missed their connecting flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Providence on the day that I came to pick them up. After a call from the 'rents 35 minutes before their supposed arrival saying that "i don't understand all of their accents, but the Japanese people missed their flight and will arrive tomorrow at 1:30, I think", I was pretty freaked out. Also cursing Immigration and my lack of luck. Had to "touch base" (sounds silly and vaguely baseball-ish) for the better part of an hour to find out what the heck was going on, and then reschedule and pick them up on Sunday.
Hah! If only it were that easy. I left, again with plenty of time to spare so I could be there to make sure everything had gone smoothly and spiffily. Left Rob's house in Burriville so that I could be there for 12:45, with plenty of time to wait for 1:30. And, about halfway down Rt. 44, what should stare me in the face but some sort of accident so bad that two fire trucks were blocking all four lanes of Rt. 44. With assistance and directions from the Tower of Wayreth (also known as Rob), I had to backtrack to get to Rt. 7 to get to 295 just in time to get to the airport. I got there, literally, 5 minutes before they arrived. 'Course, I got there at 1:10, and apparently their plane had landed at 1:00. Just managed to get things set up and bring them to URI, then back to Burriville to play D&D. My brain was officially scrambled by that point.
And still found all the time to get back down here to URI to help all the exchange students for a rousing supply trip to the RI Mall. By RI Mall, I mean the Wal-Mart there. We could have gone to the one in North Kingstown, but apparently the added bonus of "other shops in the mall" was enough to pull the school bus and cargo to the mall. No one went in to the mall, to my knowledge. Happens when you only have 2 hours to shop, work with people who are still learning the fine points of American culture, have a bus be an hour late because "we messed up the dates, and thought it was the 10th of September", etc. I got to eat Subway to calm my nerves, as I didn't eat much today (my mistake). Also showed off my mad pack mule skillz when we got back. And introduced a good chunk of the students to the wonder that is the Frisbee. Ate Spikes for din-din, and here I am now. I'm not bitter. If I wasn't so tired, and had a 3/4 view of the happenings of the past weekend, I'd probably be laughing my ass off. Just figured I should probably update a little more often than once a month. Well, tomorrow is a brunch with the students and buying of books before I go to work. Yee-haw!
Sean