SS/NSS: My trip

ufcrusher · 08-19-2004, 02:43 PM

As some of you might have noticed (although hopefully none of you were celebrating) I havent really been around for a bit. I was back in Philly from the 4th - 13th for a wedding, to visit my grandmom, and just to have a good time and show my wife in more detail where I grew up.

Short version: S: I had a crappy flight, found out my friends schedule had changed so him and I wouldnt really get to see each other, discovered that I was to sleep on a couch that was 2ft too small for me, discovered that the place we were staying at had NO internet access nor a phone line, this prevented us from trading out some tickets we had and doing work, went to a really strange wedding, got stuck in a traffic jam for 2.5 hours on a 5 hour drive which made it into an 8 hour misery trip, was lied to and threatened by idiot cops in Hampton VA, and had another friend stand us up twice.

NSS: Saw lots of family, ate lots of great food, took my wife to different museums, and had a great time other than the S parts.

Long Version:
My flight there was absolutely horrid as the first half was delayed for 1.5 hours on account of the weather in Chicago. Of course, they put us on the airplane and then told us we were going to wait on the tarmac. I had this little kid who thought kicking my chair was fun and the woman with her wouldnt control her. When I finally gave the woman (not the kid) a look to make her stop the kid, she told the girl I was a mean man and she had to stop or else I was going to do something. That pissed me off an awful lot since I was being nice and not saying anything thinking the woman would control the brat without being forced to do so. Frankly, I was about two seconds away from threatening to put both of them in the overhead bins for the flight but the woman finally got the kid to almost stop by putting on a barbi video for her...which led to her arguing with her about the headphones, but I digress. Now I had a layover in Chicago that was only supposed to be about 1.75 hrs, which meant I would, if I was lucky have 15 minutes to get from one gate to another. I had been told that they were next to each other only to discover that in fact they now were 20+ gates apart. Fortunately, the airline put me on a people mover to get there and I made it there with plenty of time. I also discovered that the plane made up time so I actually had 45 minutes.

I turned on my cell to discover that my buddy who I was staying with and was picking me up wanted me to call. I called him at which point he asked me if I could find another way to get to his place because all hell had broken loose for him and he suddenly would be forced to work all week/weekend. I told him truthfully that I couldnt due to my ankle and what I was carrying, so he said he would get me, let me in, and leave me there. So after the second flight, being scrunched into a standard seat since they couldnt give me a bulkhead for some idiotic reason.

My friend did as he said and after showing me his new place, left me there without transportation until he got back at 11pm. My friends new place was pretty nice but it turned out he didnt have a broadband internet connection, only had one bedroom, and it was outside of walking distance for me with my bum leg. As he explained his schedule was totally screwed by a few cases that were suddenly trust into his lap and he warned me that the entire time I was there he would really be busy. I found out that I was sleeping on his couch, which I had done before....only it was new couch which was really just an enlarged contempary loveseat. I tried to lay down and discovered that I was over 2 feet too long for it with really high sides which meant that I was going to be a contortionous that night. Beggars cant be choosers so I made do, by first trying to sleep on the floor, which was way too uncomfortable and then finally on the couch enlisting a chair and an ottoman to create extra length.

My wife was flying in the next day so I originally had planned on my friend either driving us or alternatively lending me his car to get her. We were going to pick up our rental car that day and then go to stay at his girlfriends apartment while she stayed with him. (Which was super nice of her)

I think it was the second day after my wife got there we noticed that his girlfriends place didnt have a phone or any other internet access! We needed to get online for multiple reasons but soon learned that we had NO way of doing so. This completely screwed up my wifes ability to do work while we were there, which was necessary and also prevented us from conducting other business that we really wanted to do. This lead to our inability to trade tickets that we had to a show in VA for the one in Philly, which meant we would have to do a 5 hour drive to go.

The wedding we came in for turned out to be really odd. Everything was done out of order and with no real concern for their guest. (It was outdoors, midday in the sun, with no amplification system so we could hear what was going on.) My cousin seemed happy so thats all that matters but frankly there were a lot of family members bitching about it. To top it off, one of my other cousins had a date there who got so soused that she was actually painful to be around, swearing like a sailor and saying HIGHLY inapporopriate things.

THe day after the wedding we had to drive down to Hampton Va for the Phish show. Everything was fine until we hit Va and got stuck in traffic. In a little over 2.5 hours we went 30 miles...and then discovered that it was a rear end collision that caused the stop and go traffic. Because of this, we ended up getting to the show about 3 hours later than we planned, which still would have been fine since we had 40 minutes until curtain. Since this post is already so long, I will just say that two idiotic cops proceeded to lie to us, make a threat to us, and tell us to go down the street. We did as they said only to get the run around from another idiot with the IQ of a dead dog who sent us to a remote lot 3 miles away. When I got to that lot, I asked about handicapped parking only to be told that there was none....which I found wasnt true since there was a spot 10 feet away from the hayseed who made that claim. We got on the bus, which took 25 minutes to go 3 miles to be let off at the venue in front of 5 empty handicap spots! This was in the lot I originally asked about to the idiot cops. When we finally got into the venue they were already into the second song!

More fun ensued inside with more legal violations but once we got situated it was a good show. We decided to drive back that night and ended up getting into Philly at 6 am dead tired!

Other than those things and the fact that my one friend was unavailable and another one apparently decided to just blow me off, it was a good trip. We reveled in the great food, went to the museums, saw tons of my family and family friends, and definitely werent ready to come back when we had to.

Jenny · 08-19-2004, 03:22 PM

As suckage as the SS part may have been, if you weren't ready to come back, all in all, the NSS outweighed the SS.

That's great! Glad it turned out all ok.

Yossarian · 08-19-2004, 03:58 PM

driving in VA=the worst. esp around DC

ufcrusher · 08-19-2004, 05:02 PM

As usual, I planned around the different rush hours so Washington DC area was not an issue. We were well south of there when we suddenly stopped dead in our tracks.

08-19-2004, 02:43 PM	#1
ufcrusher Admiral Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boca Raton, FL: By way of: Poway, CA; Gainesville, Fl; Penn Valley, Pa. Posts: 5,680	SS/NSS: My trip As some of you might have noticed (although hopefully none of you were celebrating) I havent really been around for a bit. I was back in Philly from the 4th - 13th for a wedding, to visit my grandmom, and just to have a good time and show my wife in more detail where I grew up. Short version: S: I had a crappy flight, found out my friends schedule had changed so him and I wouldnt really get to see each other, discovered that I was to sleep on a couch that was 2ft too small for me, discovered that the place we were staying at had NO internet access nor a phone line, this prevented us from trading out some tickets we had and doing work, went to a really strange wedding, got stuck in a traffic jam for 2.5 hours on a 5 hour drive which made it into an 8 hour misery trip, was lied to and threatened by idiot cops in Hampton VA, and had another friend stand us up twice. NSS: Saw lots of family, ate lots of great food, took my wife to different museums, and had a great time other than the S parts. Long Version: My flight there was absolutely horrid as the first half was delayed for 1.5 hours on account of the weather in Chicago. Of course, they put us on the airplane and then told us we were going to wait on the tarmac. I had this little kid who thought kicking my chair was fun and the woman with her wouldnt control her. When I finally gave the woman (not the kid) a look to make her stop the kid, she told the girl I was a mean man and she had to stop or else I was going to do something. That pissed me off an awful lot since I was being nice and not saying anything thinking the woman would control the brat without being forced to do so. Frankly, I was about two seconds away from threatening to put both of them in the overhead bins for the flight but the woman finally got the kid to almost stop by putting on a barbi video for her...which led to her arguing with her about the headphones, but I digress. Now I had a layover in Chicago that was only supposed to be about 1.75 hrs, which meant I would, if I was lucky have 15 minutes to get from one gate to another. I had been told that they were next to each other only to discover that in fact they now were 20+ gates apart. Fortunately, the airline put me on a people mover to get there and I made it there with plenty of time. I also discovered that the plane made up time so I actually had 45 minutes. I turned on my cell to discover that my buddy who I was staying with and was picking me up wanted me to call. I called him at which point he asked me if I could find another way to get to his place because all hell had broken loose for him and he suddenly would be forced to work all week/weekend. I told him truthfully that I couldnt due to my ankle and what I was carrying, so he said he would get me, let me in, and leave me there. So after the second flight, being scrunched into a standard seat since they couldnt give me a bulkhead for some idiotic reason. My friend did as he said and after showing me his new place, left me there without transportation until he got back at 11pm. My friends new place was pretty nice but it turned out he didnt have a broadband internet connection, only had one bedroom, and it was outside of walking distance for me with my bum leg. As he explained his schedule was totally screwed by a few cases that were suddenly trust into his lap and he warned me that the entire time I was there he would really be busy. I found out that I was sleeping on his couch, which I had done before....only it was new couch which was really just an enlarged contempary loveseat. I tried to lay down and discovered that I was over 2 feet too long for it with really high sides which meant that I was going to be a contortionous that night. Beggars cant be choosers so I made do, by first trying to sleep on the floor, which was way too uncomfortable and then finally on the couch enlisting a chair and an ottoman to create extra length. My wife was flying in the next day so I originally had planned on my friend either driving us or alternatively lending me his car to get her. We were going to pick up our rental car that day and then go to stay at his girlfriends apartment while she stayed with him. (Which was super nice of her) I think it was the second day after my wife got there we noticed that his girlfriends place didnt have a phone or any other internet access! We needed to get online for multiple reasons but soon learned that we had NO way of doing so. This completely screwed up my wifes ability to do work while we were there, which was necessary and also prevented us from conducting other business that we really wanted to do. This lead to our inability to trade tickets that we had to a show in VA for the one in Philly, which meant we would have to do a 5 hour drive to go. The wedding we came in for turned out to be really odd. Everything was done out of order and with no real concern for their guest. (It was outdoors, midday in the sun, with no amplification system so we could hear what was going on.) My cousin seemed happy so thats all that matters but frankly there were a lot of family members bitching about it. To top it off, one of my other cousins had a date there who got so soused that she was actually painful to be around, swearing like a sailor and saying HIGHLY inapporopriate things. THe day after the wedding we had to drive down to Hampton Va for the Phish show. Everything was fine until we hit Va and got stuck in traffic. In a little over 2.5 hours we went 30 miles...and then discovered that it was a rear end collision that caused the stop and go traffic. Because of this, we ended up getting to the show about 3 hours later than we planned, which still would have been fine since we had 40 minutes until curtain. Since this post is already so long, I will just say that two idiotic cops proceeded to lie to us, make a threat to us, and tell us to go down the street. We did as they said only to get the run around from another idiot with the IQ of a dead dog who sent us to a remote lot 3 miles away. When I got to that lot, I asked about handicapped parking only to be told that there was none....which I found wasnt true since there was a spot 10 feet away from the hayseed who made that claim. We got on the bus, which took 25 minutes to go 3 miles to be let off at the venue in front of 5 empty handicap spots! This was in the lot I originally asked about to the idiot cops. When we finally got into the venue they were already into the second song! More fun ensued inside with more legal violations but once we got situated it was a good show. We decided to drive back that night and ended up getting into Philly at 6 am dead tired! Other than those things and the fact that my one friend was unavailable and another one apparently decided to just blow me off, it was a good trip. We reveled in the great food, went to the museums, saw tons of my family and family friends, and definitely werent ready to come back when we had to. __________________ Welcome my son, welcome to the machine...Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been....

08-19-2004, 03:22 PM	#2
Jenny Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Kansas City area Posts: 10,947	As suckage as the SS part may have been, if you weren't ready to come back, all in all, the NSS outweighed the SS. That's great! Glad it turned out all ok. __________________ Check out my spoilers for over 20 shows @ SpoilerFix.com Check out my TV blog, where I post weekly & daily TV schedules, TV news, interviews with TV stars & more! All new TV forums as well @ TV Is My Pacifier

08-19-2004, 03:58 PM	#3
Yossarian Chief of Navel Inspections Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 12,187	driving in VA=the worst. esp around DC __________________ "So cheers all and remember, don't mistake my old age for maturity. Just because I grow old does not mean I grow up. " -Merlin "Now that your limelight has been sufficently trashed I will leave"- Nija Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. The Christians say 'you are a sinner', and you better just zip up your trousers and give the money to the pope and we'll give you a room up in the hotel in the sky. ~Timothy Leary

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

08-19-2004, 05:02 PM	#4
ufcrusher Admiral Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boca Raton, FL: By way of: Poway, CA; Gainesville, Fl; Penn Valley, Pa. Posts: 5,680	As usual, I planned around the different rush hours so Washington DC area was not an issue. We were well south of there when we suddenly stopped dead in our tracks.

User Name
Password
Remember Me?