Today's thought

You know it's not a good week when you're looking forward to the dentist appointment.

Today's pet peeve

I work at a place called Stuyvesant Plaza. The main part of the plaza is a shopping center, mostly for rich people (fur shop, jewelry stores, gourmet foods, etc.) Though there is a Fridays. I guess rich people need fried mac and cheese too. Behind the shopping mall is an office park. This is where I work.

There are two ways to leave the office park. There is a road out to a side street or you can go through the shopping center directly on to the main road and a ramp for the highway. As I take the highway, I go this way. Even though most days I end up annoyed.

You see, the exit from the plaza is a bit peculiar. Let’s see if I can actually describe it. You can only turn right as it is a curving exit (not that this stops the public bus – I’ve seen multiple CDTA buses turn left across 4 lanes out of this exit. Awesome. Anyway, the main road has 2 lanes going in the west direction. The exit from the plaza curves and becomes a third lane which then turns into the on ramp for the highway. There is a solid line separating it for several feet and then a dotted line before turning back into a solid white line and separating from the road to curve onto the highway.

Here’s the thing – it is a separate lane. There is no stop sign. There is no yield sign. One would assume, and I do, that the correct thing to do is exit the plaza without stopping and then change lanes at the dotted lines if you need to do so.

This seemingly simple process is apparently far too difficult for some people. I spend far too much time sitting in a long line of cars because some dumbass has stopped and is waiting for there to be no traffic coming in any of the main lanes so he/she can cross the solid white line immediately. Or, even better, the person has stopped and is waiting for there to be no cars coming in any of the lanes so he can continue IN THE LANE HE IS ALREADY IN! I am in no mood for this at the end of my work day.

I hate the stupid.

I’d go out the other exit, but that would involve two traffic lights and likely take even longer since I’d be making a big circle back to where I want to go. Though I do sometimes go that way during the Christmas shopping season. That involves stupid drivers AND selfish, oblivious and stupid shoppers. I get tired of going 2 miles per hour because some idiot parent is more concerned with getting the shiny package to the car than making sure the 3-year-old doesn’t dun in front of cars.

Like I said, I hate the stupid.

Today's thought

These days, I often think this whole working thing is overrated. I think I will choose to be independently wealthy instead. Donations accepted.

Inauguration

I got behind on my blog. As usual. Like other things in my life, I make grand plans and then get lazy. Really need to work on that.

I meant to write an entry about the Inauguration within a week after it happened. Instead, it is now almost 2 months later and I am making a half-assed attempted since it’s not exactly of-the-moment news. Here’s my little contribution.

I decided to go to Inauguration this year for several reasons. First, it was to be a historic event and it would be a cool things to tell people years from now. Second, I went to Bush’s first Inauguration in 2001 since I still lived in DC at the time and thought it would be cool to go to another one, especially since I was actually happy about this president taking office. Third, I hadn’t been to DC in several years and missed the place and my friends, so I thought it would be a perfect time to go – see my friends and see something historic with 2 million of my fellow citizens.

I went down the Sunday before and stayed with my friend, we’ll call him Sweatshirt Puppeteer, or SP (again, I started a trend of no real names, so let’s keep it going) in Alexandria. We’ve been friends since freshman year of college and he is one of my favorite people, so I was really excited to hang out with him. (He lives with another college friend, so bonus!) I also got to stop in Maryland on the way and see my friend/former roommate. I hadn’t met her two kids yet and one was brand new, so that was cool too. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see all my college friends in the area, but now I am motivated to go again soon, so we’ll hope I don’t get lazy on that one (and/or that weekends don’t completely fill up with mundane things).

SP had no interest in going into DC for the festivities as there were going to be people and he did not care for that. So, I headed out on my own. I intended to take a blue train in the city and start out at GW and walk as close as I could and stop. Unfortunately, every blue train was packed by that time (I left at 9:30 I think), so I finally gave up and hopped on a yellow. I was intending to meet up with a law school friend and his wife, but hadn’t yet determined where they were.

Got off the train in Chinatown and determined they were at the Washington Monument This is a bit of a walk. This is even more of a walk on a day when there are road blocks until you get to 18th street. I essentially walked a large backwards J because of the roadblocks. I actually didn’t mind the walk because a. it kept me warm and b. I got to see all the crazy crowds. I took a lot of photos while walking.

I finally got to the monument, but couldn’t find my friend. I’m guessing he was within 30-50 feet of me, but it was packed and I’m only 5’5”, so it wasn’t happening. But, I made it there with half an hour to spare and could hear fine and could see one of the screens if I stood on my toes and craned my neck, so I decided to stay put. I figured at least I was looking at the Capitol, even if it was a mile away, so I was good.

The amazing thing to me was that people were happy and nice. No one pushed, no one complained. And everyone shut up completely when Obama took his oath and gave his speech. Almost 2 million people, silent. (And 90% of those people all booing in unison when Dick Cheney came out. That was loud.) The only rude person I ran into was on the metro on the way home – he decided he wanted more space so he kept sticking out his elbow so others couldn’t get on the train. I backed into his elbow and got on anyway. Screw that. I rode the B line T in Boston for 4 years, a little elbow isn’t going to keep me off the train.

I missed a little of the speech to a weird echo in the speakers, but that’s why Flarf taped 4 hours of coverage on CNN for me (thanks Flarf!), but it was really cool to be in the crowd. I am so happy that I went.

And can I say how happy I am that it didn’t rain? It was cold, but the sun was shining and I had a hat, so I was pleased. (If you’ll recall, in 2001, it rained for most of the day. Mother Nature did not care for W, I think.)

The place cleared out pretty fast during the poet (yeah, I can’t remember her name now). My friends ended up being pushed north, so we ended up meeting up for lunch in Dupont Circle (I walked a lot that day) at a restaurant near my old senior year apartment building, so I enjoyed the nostalgia. And while waiting for the phones to work to figure out where they were, I went to see the WWII memorial because I moved away before it was built and had never seen it.

A cool trip. Very glad that I went.

Aruba Part 3: Our engagement (or "One more story")

After dinner on Sunday, we went to the beach for one more walk. We walked up to the Marriott. We walked down to the Westin. And then up again. Flarf asked if I thought the vacation was cursed since so many things went wrong. I said that I didn’t think it was cursed. I thought we had some interesting stories – and how fun is it to tell a story about getting on the plane and getting to your destination on time? Where’s the humor in that? Plus, once we got there, we had a lot of fun.

We walked some more. And then back to the hotel. And then one more walk toward the Westin. Bad karaoke from a party boat in the background. We walked down the beach and stopped in front of the Raddison.

Flarf asked me if I wanted to add one more story to the list (see how he tied that all in – well done, huh?) Of course, I said yes.

He had picked out a pretty ring based on some ideasI gave him. But, in true Flarf form, he immediately told me that we could go back to the jewelry store and I could try stuff on if I wanted to pick out something else I like better. (And yes, in true Wraar form, I did go to the store, BUT I ended up keeping the one Flarf picked out. So there.)

I put on my pretty new ring and we headed back to our room to have a celebratory bottle of water. (In part because we both had colds by this point).

The next morning we took a taxi to the cruise ship port area of Oranjestaad and shopped. Most of the regular shops were closed, but we can’t afford anything at Louis Viutton anyway, so we didn’t care. The trinket stalls were open and that was fine. We got a few gifties for those who took us to the airport and fed our cat (again, we’re very sorry she tried to eat your leg 12 times) and something for ourselves before heading back to the hotel. We had checked out so no more included food for us – we went a couple of hotels down and had sandwiches. One of the better things we ate all trip actually.

We managed to get one more walk on the beach and one more toe in the water (as well as several more photos of lizards – they’re EVERYWHERE and there were really cool ones at our hotel).

Then we hopped on our shuttled and headed out. Flights on the way home were on time. (see, that is very boring to write about) Good thing though, since we both got sicker as the day wore on. We both ended up staying home sick the next day.

So, all in all a pretty great vacation, once we got there.

And now, a few things we learned/confirmed in Aruba:
1. Food at all-inclusives is not very good
2. There are a lot of lizards in Aruba
3. At least at our hotel, unless your drink name contains the ingredients (i.e. rum and coke, gin and tonic), you will be presented with rum and fruit punch, rum and pina colada mix or a combination of both.
4. It is very humid and very windy in Aruba
5. Topless bathing is apparently permitted on Palm Beach.
6. Bikini’s apparently come in every size.
7. Flarf and I can spend hours walking on a beach.
8. Jeeps are cool.
9. Donkeys are also cool. But we all knew that.
10. Aruba is a fun place.

Aruba Part 2: We enjoy our vacation (or “Yay Jeep!”)

So, we last left off with us finally getting to Aruba and checking into the Raddisson because they overbooked our hotel, the Occidental. We headed to the Occidental beach party.

At this point, we were very happy to be on the beach and in clean clothes. We were seated at a table and ordered some drinks and got some food. The food was Aruban (one of the hotel’s restaurants is a Caribbean fusion theme, so I assume this is what they serve there – we didn’t actually go to that restaurant). There was some interesting stuff. Particularly one dish (I am blanking on the name now) that is a cheese rind stuffed with chicken and cashews. It is yummy.

A little while later, another couple was seated at our table. Since I never use my own name on this blog or Flarf’s, we’ll just call them J and K. They are from NJ and are awesome. We hung out with them during the whole beach party and then went upstairs to this cool outside lounge bar (lots of beds and couches) and hung out for another few hours. During dinner, Flarf won a drawing for a free massage. If you’ll remember from part 1, we already got a certificate for a couples massage from the hotel, so we figured we wouldn’t use it and gave it to K. She seemed really excited about it, so it was cool. They had rented a jeep for the day on Saturday and invited us to go along. We had wanted to do that anyway and decided to go along.

The next day, Friday, we got up and went to breakfast and then the beach. Then we checked out of the Raddison. On the way out, we stopped to visit all the cool birds. The Raddisson has a bunch of exotic birds (macaws, etc.) and at that point, they were all out and wandering around the back lobby area outside. I stopped to take some photos and while I was following one bird with the camera, the bird guy collected 3 of them and put them on my arms. Then Flarf got to wear the birds. One tried to steal his hat. Completely random and completely cool experience. Those are always the best, aren't they?

After saying goodbye to the cool birdies, we checked out and headed back to the Occidental – we toughed it out and walked the 500 feet. We left our bags with the front desk and went for a walk down hotel row and the hopes of finding a few articles of clothing for cheap, just in case our bags too a long time. And to see what existed on the strip. (Lots of tourist stores and places to eat like Hooters, Fridays and Brueggers – how exotic).

We got back to the hotel around 2:30 to discover that our room was ready and…that we had luggage!!! Our room turned out to be great. The view was amazing – we were on the north side of the north building and towards the ocean end of it, so we got a decent amount of ocean and beach in the view. It was really nice to just sit on the balcony and enjoy the wind. And Aruba has wind. A lot of it. Do not expect your hair to look good there. Ever.

That night we had dinner at the Royal Club, the special restaurant we weren’t supposed to be able to go to (being non-fancy top floor folk) but that they gave us a pass to for our room debacle. It was okay. Some of the food was yummy. Some less so. We were the only people there for a while which I hate since we had to go at 6. The manager lady said they would take care of making our dinner reservations for us since we were being sent to the other hotel and asked us what time we wanted. We said 7 and then chanced our minds and said 8 to make sure we had plenty of time for day activities. So, of course, they made them all for 9. We got the Royal Club chanced and the Italian for the last night changed, but ended up eating sushi at 9 the next night. Whatever, no big deal and fits in with the theme of Part 1, no? We went for a walk on the beach and spent the evening at the outside lounge again and then checked out their nightclub. 10 people in there and a medley of Michael Jackson songs. We did not stay long.

On Saturday, we met up with J and K and went out with the jeep. We went snorkeling at Baby Beach. Flarf was the most successful at that. Snorkels and I do not get along, but I was happy just to be in the ocean, though my contacts and the salt water had a little disagreement. J and K got bored and went to a bar on the beach. After the snorkeling attempt, we decided to just drive. We headed up the east coast into the national park. We saw lots of cacti and lots of goats. Lots of goats. We have many pictures of goats. But, in all fairness, they WERE jumping around on cliffs, not just chewing stuff. We also saw a donkey. I do love donkeys.

We also visited a cave, which was pretty cool. And the Natural Bridge. Or what remains of it after the collapse in 2005. And we saw some gold mill ruins. And lots of cool cliffs and pretty water. And we thought we were going to die several times thanks to J and the jeep. The phrase of the day: “yay jeep!” coined by Flarf the first time we thought we were going to roll over but didn’t. It was said many many times. We drove into a military test zone that said “enter at your own risk” because J didn’t see any black flags up. We lived.

We ended the day with a drive to the California Lighthouse at the north end of the island and then watched the sun set. Much pretty. It was a good day. We got back to the hotel, said goodbye to our friends and slowly got ready for our 9PM dinner reservation. We then had mediocre sushi and did more wandering around the beach and headed to the lounge bar again. We hung out with J and K and another couple they had met I think on their plane. Then we got rained on. A lot. Whatever, my hair was already a mess from the wind and humidity, so who cares. Rather than stay in the rain we all went to the hotel’s casino and played for a bit and then J and K joined us in the nightclub where we heard stories of celebrity bad behavior on J’s plane and Flarf got the hiccups for an hour.

On Sunday, we spent most of the day at the beach and pool, with lots of walking up and down the beach. We are good at that. We ate mediocre Italian for dinner. We said our goodbyes to J and K and set out for one more walk on the beach. And thus, ends Part 2.

Aruba Part I: Getting There (or "Now What??!?")

Flarf and I decided to go to Aruba for vacation this year. We settled on Aruba because it seemed like a place where there was a decent amount of stuff to do and see – we both get very bored very easily with “relaxation,” so we needed a place that had options. We also couldn’t take too much time off of work, so we settled on the Caribbean and settled on Aruba. We scheduled the trip from January 7, 2009 to January 12, 2009. We packed and were ready to go.

On January 7, an ice storm came in during the morning. It wasn’t supposed to get bad until late morning and our flight was at 8:20, so were hopeful. Our schedule was 8:20 flight from Albany to Charlotte, NC with an hour layover and then an 11:30 flight from Charlotte to Aruba, getting in late afternoon (all on US Airways – I know, mistake number one). We crossed our fingers, headed to the airport and hoped for the best.

Our flight in Albany was scheduled to leave on time. We boarded on time. Then we pushed back from the gate about 15 minutes late. Okay. No biggie. Then the pilot says we need to de-ice which will take about 10 minutes. It takes 40. So, we leave an hour late. We then land in Charlotte at 11:30. Remember what time our Aruba flight was supposed to leave? Right, 11:30. And we appear to be the only Albany passengers on that, so the plane is not held. Argh.

We get sent a few places and deal with an unpleasant woman and then are finally sent back through security to the line to be re-booked. Which we stand in for 2 and a half hours. We finally get to the counter and a very nice lady tells us that she can still get us in that day through Miami (but tells us to shhh because most other people in the line are being forced to stay overnight). Our new flight is to leave Charlotte at 4:15 and arrive in Miami at 6:15. Then we would have a hours layover, switch to American Airlines and leave for Aruba at 8:15.

We boarded our 4:15 Charlotte flight on time, sitting several rows away from each other (beggars can’t be choosers and we have iPods, so okay). And then. The pilot comes on and says there is a wind delay in Charlotte and there is only one runway open now, so we have to wait our turn. And we wait. And wait. And take off at 6:15. Yes, we take off when we were supposed to land. Go on, do the math. Yes, we land when our next flight is supposed to leave. Sooooo…surprise! We missed it.

Out to the US Airways counter to figure something out. Of course, there are no more flights tonight, so we are on the first American flight the next morning – at 11:10. This took forever at the counter. And because the delay is weather related, they won’t pay for a hotel. We get a voucher for a discount and end up going to the Wyndam Hotel near the airport. No luggage because we’ve been rerouted so they can’t get it for us. We did meet a lovely couple from Syracuse who also missed the Aruba flight and had a similar day to us. They joined us on the hotel shuttle. Turns out their kid went to RPI and they’ve met my mom. Small world.

We eat some late dinner in the hotel bar and have a couple of much needed drinks and then head to the room. We try to call the hotel to make sure they don’t cancel our reservation. We keep getting put on hold with no one picking up. We finally get on the phone with Orbitz and then conference the hotel. We still have reservation, but we will be charged for the missed night. At this point we do not care.

Our carry-ons have some clothes, but no jammies. So, I sleep in a towel. We also did not think to put the toothpaste or hair products of any sort in the carry-on, so joy. We go to bed. And then spend the entire night waking up every 20 minutes or so because we have realized we are staying at the noisiest hotel ever. There are buses. There are trucks. There is even a train. And then as soon as dawn approaches, there is construction across the street at the airport. The beeping of the trucks is enough to make you stab someone.

So, uber-well-rested, we get ready for the airport. I try to do my hair with lotion. It does not work. We chew a lot of gum since we have no toothpaste.

We get to the airport at 9. We look for the correct AA counter for a while – there are about 50 at the Miami Airport. We finally find a line where the bouncer lady permits us to enter. We’re not sure it’s correct, but we’re happy to be somewhere. After only about 20 minutes behind people with more luggage than I thought existed in the world, we get to the counter. Where we promptly learn that the US Airways woman last night was a moron. There are 3 reservations under Flarf’s name and none under mine. Never mind that we have printed E-ticket things. We are told they mean nothing.

I then proceed to have a mini-meltdown. No scene. Just some quiet tears as I realize there is a serious possibility that I am not getting on this plane. The AA lady seems very cranky and mean, but she turns out to just hate US Air, not us. She gets us both on the plane, even sitting next to each other and gives us priority boarding – we think just to be nice.

We head to the international gates, grab some sandwiches and wait. We board and fly to Aruba on time and uneventfully (yay!). When we arrive, there is then a mess in immigration. The place is packed with people and the lines make no sense. Then they open a new line, so we get in that one. Then the lady there decides to move 5 lanes away and tells the line to go with her. Which is chaos. Utter chaos. It ends up with no less than 3 lines feeding into one. Then, the person at the front of the line has not filled out the form we were given an hour ago on the plane. And the immigration person LET’S THE IDIOT STAND THERE AND FILL IT OUT!!!! So, we all get to wait with out already filled out forms while Captain Dumbass looks for a pen because he was too busy licking the barf bag on the plane to be bothered to fill out the form as he was told. On the up side, we meet a nice older couple in line who are frequent Aruba visitors and the man looks like Caribbean Santa.

We finally get through immigration and go to baggage claim. Guess what? No bags. Of course. We then meet the Syracuse couple again who also have no bags. We all stand in line and fill out the lost bag forms. The AA lady is very nice, but gripes about US Air in a way that makes us think this is a very common thing. She tells us AA will bring our bags to our hotel when they get there, but can’t guess as to when that will be.

We then go get on our bus and head to the hotel It’s a long bus ride because it stops at every major hotel, but we’re actually happy to see the other places. And happy to be off an airplane and on our way to our lovely room.

We get to our hotel, the Occidental, and head into the lobby. Since we have no luggage to get off the bus, we are second in line. They bring us champagne and we are happy. Then we get to the counter and rather than give us room keys, they tell us the manager needs to speak with us and we need to wait over here. Now we are paranoid. We called last night about the missed day, dammit! Now what?

After over 30 minutes (but happily, an additional glass of champagne), the manager lady takes us to a creepy back office clearly not meant for the eyes of tourists. We wonder why we are being treated like shoplifters. We are told the hotel is overbooked and they need to move us to the hotel next door for the night. Seriously.

This is when the lady got super nice and apologetic. I believe that’s because we both looked like someone punched us in the stomach – what the hell else is gonna happen? Huh?

That is the end of the messy part of vacation. We got in a day late and had no room and no luggage. We did get our little all-inclusive bracelets so we could come to the hotel and drink our annoyances away. They promised to make our dinner reservations for us (the hotel had restaurants that required fancy clothes and reservations and you only get a certain number per stay) at 8 P.M. like we asked (turns out they misunderstood and they were all for 9, but we managed to change 2 of the 3 later). We also got free massages and dinner at the restaurant for fancy rich people on the top floors where we weren’t supposed to be allowed to go. And we have a certificate for a free night if we go back within a year. So, fine.

The manager herself drove us next door to the Radisson (which we found funny, especially once we realized it was a 5 minutes walk). We were given the contents of our mini-bar because the Radisson is not all-inclusive. We checked in with a really amusing guy who was super nice to us and found our travel story hilarious in a glad-it’s-not-me kind of way. We got a free tote bag which came in handy for the rest of vacation. We went to our room which was actually kind of nice. The grounds of the Radisson are really nice too. Flarf called the trip insurance people while I went to the hotel gift shop and bought a t-shirt (I packed really weird crap in my carry-on that did not go together), toothpaste, a toothbrush, Q-tips, hair gel and sunscreen. For $63. We headed back to the Occidental for the Thursday night beach party for dinner and relaxing. As that begins the fun part of our vacation, I will leave that for the next installment.

Today's thought

I really don't care for celery.