London and Boston
as luck would have it, 7/7 happened the day before i was supposed to take a train to boston. i went anyway, and am honestly not sure if i'm glad i did. the audition itself was okay, i didn't make it, but it was actually pretty fun and informative. a member of the "clue crew," or the people who run around and record the video clues that come up from time to time, was on hand to do Q&A & whatnot, and everyone was honestly quite funny. so that's alright then.
but oh. dear. god. the drive. the final plan (after much changing and two ticket cancellations later) was to drive to philly, take train to boston, meet uncle there and take commuter rail to aunt & uncle's place. this entailed waking up at 2:30 friday morning so as not to miss the train. after london i was anticipating uber security, and allowed for delays.
i needn't have bothered. i drove down the PA turnpike half tired in the pouring rain, only to get to the station and not be able to find the parking garage. anyone having made use of the 30th street station in philly might know what i'm talking about: the entrance is hidden among a bunch of loops and confusing one-way alleys next to the valet parking drop off (which i didn't want/couldn't afford). after circling the place a couple times i figure how to get into the garage...and am again foiled by the horrid signing and poor layout of the garage itself. i circled a couple of times down there trying to figure out how to get to the long term parking spaces (i could see them but couldn't for the life of me figure how to get to them w/o going the wrong way down any lanes). now, i am tired, frustrated, and starving, when i in my frazzled state scuffed the right front of my new neon's bumper on a steel roof support.
i lost it. it was just the culmination of two horrid stress filled weeks and 3 hours' horrid drive. after punching the steering wheel a couple times i managed to get my car safely stowed and went upstairs to brave security/wait.
security which was barely there. i wasn't sure whether to be pleased that i wouldn't be subjected to time consuming and possibly invasive security measures, or perturbed that things were being handled in such a lax manner. later i saw that they had a few extra cops on hand and a bomb sniffing dog, which made me feel a bit better. (if anyone's ever seen a police dog in action, it's psycho how well they pick things up. i'd feel better with one of those then uber amounts of airport style security.) boston didn't even have the bomb dog, but south station isn't anywhere near as heavily traveled as 30th street.
weekend in boston was lovely, i'll elaborate on that later if i have time, but again the traveling itself was taboo for me. as i got back to my car, first thing i did was turn on the dome light so i could see to get my stuff in order before setting out.
i clicked the switch, nothing. oh crap. bloody good thing mom got everyone in the family AAA about two weeks ago. they gave me a quick jump, off i went. a couple hours later i'm motoring back up the turnpike when my right rear tire blows out. at this point it's about 10:30 at night and i would kill for a nice cup of tea and my bed. but i have to wait another 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive and another 20 or so for him to fix it and process my triple AAA card. man, was i getting my money's worth for that thing that night.
anyway, by the time i got to millerburg at half past midnight i was so beat from the accumulated sleep deprivation that i just couldn't see straight. i staggered into bed and decided that, screw it, my first day of class tomorrow can bloody well wait. i'm sleeping in.
but oh. dear. god. the drive. the final plan (after much changing and two ticket cancellations later) was to drive to philly, take train to boston, meet uncle there and take commuter rail to aunt & uncle's place. this entailed waking up at 2:30 friday morning so as not to miss the train. after london i was anticipating uber security, and allowed for delays.
i needn't have bothered. i drove down the PA turnpike half tired in the pouring rain, only to get to the station and not be able to find the parking garage. anyone having made use of the 30th street station in philly might know what i'm talking about: the entrance is hidden among a bunch of loops and confusing one-way alleys next to the valet parking drop off (which i didn't want/couldn't afford). after circling the place a couple times i figure how to get into the garage...and am again foiled by the horrid signing and poor layout of the garage itself. i circled a couple of times down there trying to figure out how to get to the long term parking spaces (i could see them but couldn't for the life of me figure how to get to them w/o going the wrong way down any lanes). now, i am tired, frustrated, and starving, when i in my frazzled state scuffed the right front of my new neon's bumper on a steel roof support.
i lost it. it was just the culmination of two horrid stress filled weeks and 3 hours' horrid drive. after punching the steering wheel a couple times i managed to get my car safely stowed and went upstairs to brave security/wait.
security which was barely there. i wasn't sure whether to be pleased that i wouldn't be subjected to time consuming and possibly invasive security measures, or perturbed that things were being handled in such a lax manner. later i saw that they had a few extra cops on hand and a bomb sniffing dog, which made me feel a bit better. (if anyone's ever seen a police dog in action, it's psycho how well they pick things up. i'd feel better with one of those then uber amounts of airport style security.) boston didn't even have the bomb dog, but south station isn't anywhere near as heavily traveled as 30th street.
weekend in boston was lovely, i'll elaborate on that later if i have time, but again the traveling itself was taboo for me. as i got back to my car, first thing i did was turn on the dome light so i could see to get my stuff in order before setting out.
i clicked the switch, nothing. oh crap. bloody good thing mom got everyone in the family AAA about two weeks ago. they gave me a quick jump, off i went. a couple hours later i'm motoring back up the turnpike when my right rear tire blows out. at this point it's about 10:30 at night and i would kill for a nice cup of tea and my bed. but i have to wait another 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive and another 20 or so for him to fix it and process my triple AAA card. man, was i getting my money's worth for that thing that night.
anyway, by the time i got to millerburg at half past midnight i was so beat from the accumulated sleep deprivation that i just couldn't see straight. i staggered into bed and decided that, screw it, my first day of class tomorrow can bloody well wait. i'm sleeping in.