Ok. So I started my trip to Brooklyn. My Mom was excited to meet Chris. However I wasn't sure she'd get to see him. If traffic was really bad, I was just going to stay at Wengert's for the night. Then Friday night we'd be in Manahawkin with Andrew, then Saturday we were both headed home. Thankfully, it only took two hours to get to Chris's apartment (traffic wasn't bad at all). I actually beat him there because he was in Queens. We unloaded Tiff's drumset into his apartment (he's borrowing it for a few months while tiff is student teaching and he's looking for gigs), then since it was still pretty early, we got back in the car and headed back to my Mom's house.
I stopped on the way and got Chris his first cheese steak. It was this little pizza place near my mom's house. They're generally pretty good but they'd been sitting under the heat lamp for a while. Boo. We got to my Mom's a little after 9. It was weird having Chris in my Mom's house. Not in a bad way, it's just, I'm generally so lonely when I'm there. And there he was. Sitting at the dining room table eating a cheese steak and being pestered by Oscar.
Andrew forgot that he had to head to Punxy to visit the inlaws so we decided in place of going to see the Wrights, we'd head down to Dover so Chris could meet my Dad. I told my Mom about that while we were eating... then explain he's a giants fan. She was like "Oh..." haha. I told her he packed his Burress jersey and she asked, "Is there a bullet hole in it? Oh wait, no, that's the sweat pants." She wished me luck introducing my new york sports fan to my Dad, then Chris and I jumped in the hot tub for a while. It was such a clear night, so pretty. But freaking COLD getting in and out of there. Man.
Alright. So because of this massive storm that was going through western PA, Andrew and Alyssa's trip to Punxy had to be bagged. Sucks for Alyssa because I'm sure she gets homesick, but great for me and Chris because it meant we got to keep out original plan and go down there to hang out. Andrew called and told us when we were on South Street getting cheese steaks from Jims. I've got a picture of wengert not posing on my actual camera but I can't find the cord at the moment. I'll dig that out later. So once Andrew called, we headed out. Unfortunately this was around 3pm. Going from Philadelphia to anywhere around that time is like chinese water torture. Slow, cruel, and mind numbing. We had to go around Philly then west on 422. We were planning on having dinner with my Mom at home that night but if we'd stayed any longer, we wouldn't have gotten to Andrews until around 9 (two hour drive). I felt so bad but I knew she'd understand. We only had a little bit of time and we were spread pretty thin. At least we got to hang out the night before.
Oh lord. This trip to Jersey. I love my GPS, and I love that it knows the shortest distance from buttville, PA to Mahanawanawakawoo, NJ. What my wonderful piece of technology doesn't know, however, is philadelphia traffic. I tried to get around it only to wind up right back where we started 15 minutes later. Andrew called and suggested we take a different route about 45 seconds after we missed the shorter route exit. At the time, the plan was still to hang out with my Dad Saturday afternoon then head home that night. Driving 3 hours to see Andrew for maybe 5 hours of hanging out was stressing me out. I already felt like I'd spent all day in the car, most of which was 4 mph traffic doubling back over a route I'd already taken. We couldn't just go straight from Philly to Andrew's because all our stuff was still at my Mom's house.
Around 7:30 Chris started talking some reason, saying we should just try to see my Dad another time. I knew he was right but I was so upset. I was looking forward to seeing him and having him meet Chris, but I knew we had to bag it. We were just didn't have enough time. The combination of having to cancel on my Dad, being stuck in traffic forEVER, and ps my computer was dead and had to be taken to the apple store (back in KOP)... man, at one point it was all I could do not to cry all over myself. I mean, none of it was seriously a big deal at all, but I was so damn stressed.
Let me go off on a side note about my computer stress. I have a mac. I had no clue what was wrong with it. I downloaded an update then it went into panic mode. My warranty has expired so I called my computer expert brother in law for help. I felt bad because I know everyone always calls him for that, and I can't imagine its any fun being on his side of things, but I was desperate. He had me test each of the ram cards, which is a pain in the butt. You need those little mini screw drivers and the process is time consuming. Turns out, I didn't push hard enough putting the ram cards back in, so then my computer wouldn't even turn on. My only option was to take it to the store and have them look at it. The closest apple store to IUP is in Pittsburgh about two hours away. There's one in King of Prussia, which I'd pass driving back to IUP, but I had to take Wengert home to Brooklyn, which would not put me near king of prussia. I just couldn't think of anything that would NOT be a huge pain in the ass, and every possible solution had me going pretty far out of my way and being computerless for days. This lurking in the back of my mind did not make me feel any better.
Wengert knew I was getting upset but also knew I was mere moments from losing it so he just asked if I was going to be ok then let me chill out. We were about an hour from Andrew's and he took over driving for me. Thank god. He'd offered before we started driving but some of the roads around philly are confusing if you haven't driven there before so I didn't want to make him do that. But once I didn't have to drive anymore, knowing cold beer was waiting for me, and knowing that once we'd arrived at Andrews, our world tour would be done for a while, I finally relaxed.
SO. That's the first picture. The old team. Playing Madden again. Watching people play video games is about as fun as it sounds, but at least with these two it's entertaining. It didn't help that we were less than two days away from the Eagles Giants game.
I tried to get a picture of Andrew's massive tv but nothing did it justice. This thing is 67 inches. I am 65 inches. Freaking massive. Their house is adorable. It's weird and scary and comforting all at the same time to see such a close friend living such a grown up life.
Wengert decided to take the bus home early Sunday morning. I was able to get an appointment at the KOP apple store late Saturday night so I had to leave around dinner time. Total bummer. I wanted to stay and hang out... not drive home in the snow, then wait an hour for the apple employee (I refuse to call them geniuses) to tell me they were closing and couldn't help me. Grr. But Chris was sweet when I left which made it harder to leave but gave me something nice to hang on to while I was not making left turns the whole way home.
I was pretty bummed when I got back to my Mom's house. Having Chris there made me miss him in a new way. Now I missed him at my house, too. It was odd and sweet when he said almost the same thing to me about walking into Andrew's guest room without me there.
Sunday morning I spent most of the am waiting for the apple store to call, which they said they would when my computer was ready. I called them after two hours and they said they didn't find anything wrong, it was working fine, and I could go get it right then. So I stopped at wawa one last time then hit the road. I found this insanity while I was in there. Egg nog pie? Seriously, tastykake? wtf.
This is my GPS right after I got on the turnpike. Yes, it says "turn in 165 miles." Boo. After 165 miles, I continued another 20ish miles, then got off the turnpike. By the time I got home, I'd driven 1115 miles (since Wednesday night). I was planning on taking a picture of my speedometer as soon as I pulled in, but some a-hole was blocking my driveway. It took a great deal of restraint not to get out of my car and punch out their windshield. I pulled around the block and parked, the promptly called to have them towed. Egon told me when I got in that they'd been there for about three hours. Ugh. The worst part is I'm pretty sure they got out of there right before the tow truck showed up. I know its bad karma to wish towing on other people, but damn it don't block our driveway! That's so inconsiderate. They got theirs though, because later that night I saw they had gotten parallel trapped between two parked cars. They had to go ask our neighbors to back up and let them out.
So now I'm about up to date. Today was the first day of classes. My Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be pretty rough. But Tuesdays and Thursdays all I have is english and perc ensemble then I'm done for the day. So that's good. I'm trying to go to the gym in the mornings. It just makes more sense and fits my schedule better. But I've never been a morning person so we'll see how well this waking up at 6:45 thing goes. Speaking of, I should have gone to bed a half hour ago...
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