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 run 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.