A Day in the Life

This Weekend: The Bad and the Ugly

I attended my good friend Jason's wedding in NY this weekend. Here's a run-down of some of things that went wrong: (this is going to be long ...)

- I booked the flight for the wrong week. Fortunately, because of a nice provision of Expedia.com, changing the flight only cost the $5 booking fee and the increased cost of the new ticket ($55 bucks more). Not too bad in the end, but stressful.
- Freak weather (hail and downpours) convinced me that I needed new wiper blades for the 4.5 hour drive to Seattle, since my old ones were trashed. Stopping at Wal-Mart took much longer than I anticipated due to the super slow people in front of me.
- While gassing up, I put on the new blades. This was harder than I thought. I was in such a hurried state that I drove away from the gas pump with the nozzle still in the car. This is the first time I've done this. They were nice about it but it still took 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork. Now I was really running late.
- I pushed my poor car much harder than it deserved. I was cutting it close when I got to the airport, so I just parked my car in the general parking, figuring that a 1.5 day trip couldn't cost me more than $25-30. It cost $40.
- My flight was delayed 2.5 hours, and they had to switch me to a different transer in Detroit. While I was sitting there waiting, it never occurred to me to move my car.
- I got to Laguardia airport around 11AM Saturday morning. I hadn't slept a whole lot. The rental car I had reserved was gone, so I had to eat the cost of going to an upgrade. I didn't feel like fighting it, and in NY, you usually don't win anyhow. Plus, since I wasn't paying with a credit card, I had to swallow the extra $19 bucks for insurance. Great.
- I had directions to the kingdom hall where the wedding was originally scheduled, but due to a remodelling project, they moved it somewhere else. There was another brother there waiting for someone to bring him his car, so I was able to follow him. Enroute, we got stuck in the middle of a firemen's parade in some rinky-dink village, costing additional time.
- When I arrived at the hall at 1:55PM, I was still dressed down and hadn't showered, shaved, or brushed (teeth or hair). Turns out the wedding started at 1:30, but was 20 minutes late. After changing in the car I caught most of the ceremony, which was good.
- I left my camera at the reception. I hope I get it back.
- I drove that night to the home of some friends in the Bronx. They were sleeping when I got there at 11PM, and I left at 4:30 AM without ever seeing them. How sad.
- A tiny baby screamed his/her heart out for the first 15-20 minutes of my flight home. I think it had a hard time with the pressure change.
- Upon arriving in Seattle and being socked for parking, I stopped at a gas station, fueled up, checked my fluids, and then forgot to latch my hood. Ever since my encounter with the tree back in January, my hood takes special maneuvering to latch tight, and since it never really closes all the way anyhow, I have no visual indication that it's not really shut. As soon as I hit about 40-50mph on the highway, the hood flew up and took out my windshield. Thank goodness for saftey glass.
- After finally arriving home, I was feeling pretty good, and decided I would worry about how to handle all my unexpected expenses in the morning. I had spent a good deal of time on the drive planning some stuff for work, and I was looking forward to showing the boss. At 3:30 I woke up to what is either food poisoning or a hard-hitting flu. I spent the next several hours in extreme discomfort. I'll skip the details.
- Work was super hard today. I have no energy and have to hit the restroom every 20-30 mins. What a fitting conclusion to the weekend.