Tomorrow Is Another Day...

A Lovely Summer Home

After my successes navigating public transportation in Manhattan, I hauled myself and my suitcases down five flights of stairs and proceeded confidently out onto the streets of New York.  I proceeded to stand on a variety of street corners for the next THIRTY MINUTES in the pouring down rain and whipping wind, attempting to hail a cab.  This endeavour was complicated by a) the weather,  b) the fact that rush hour was in full force so cars were crawling by at a turtle's pace, and c) cab drivers are assholes.  I eventually made it to Penn Station where I caught the train to Newark and realized that the AMAZING deal I'd gotten on a rental car was at a company located 15 minutes away from the airport.  So, I sucked it up, accepted the $25 cancellation fee and got an AWFUL deal at a different company located at Newark.

 
Only two or so hours behind schedule, I got in my car, and with once again misplaced confidence, set off for the six hour drive from Newark to Stowe, Vermont.  When four hours later, I had barely made it past Hartford, I had the sneaking suspicion it was going to take me a bit longer than expected to arrive at my destination.  After ten hours in the car, eternally grateful for the fact that I'd stopped at Barnes & Noble for a book on cd, I finally arrived at the house a group of us had booked for the wedding weekend.  Fortunately, I made it just in time to drop off my things, and hitch a ride over to the post-rehearsal dinner dinner!  My lovely college pal, Melissa, had chosen the charmingly quaint Stowe for her destination wedding, and oh, Vermont, if it didn't get 12 inches of snow in October, I would move there in a heartbeat.

The morning of the wedding, we went out to hit the tourist spots and managed to feed ourselves on a multitude of samples consisting of chocolate, cheese, ice cream, cider donuts, maple fudge and wine.  Does that not sound like heaven on earth??  On top of the culinary delights, the leaves were in fact as beautiful as everyone has ever sad they would be.  Unfortunately, this dolt forgot to charge her one camera battery, so I wasn't able to capture the most vibrant examples of the Fall colors.

The wedding was positively beautiful, and though I started out not knowing a single other person there, by the end of my weekend I had met so many amazing people and had an incredible time both on and off the dance floor!  The morning after the wedding, I dragged my hungover butt out of bed at the crack of dawn and once more began the epic journey through New England.  Fortunately, it turned out that a huge reason the traffic was so miserable on my way up was that many roads had been closed and traffic diverted onto the interstate due to heavy rain and flooding.  So, my trip back down only took seven hours.  Only.

It was a long flipping day, starting out around 8 in the morning with my drive to Newark, a long wait at the airport, a connection in Charlotte, but I FINALLY made it back to Charleston at midnight.  And had a flat tire.

Fortunately a knight in shining armor, in the form of roadside assistance, showed up after my mini-breakdown, and I spent the entire next day trying to get my tire and oil changed.  Then I did a quick load of laundry, packed my bags one more time and hit the road the following day for the 13 hour drive home to Louisiana.  I made it in time for my momsie's birthday and her Pink Party celebrating five years since her breast cancer diagnosis and raising money for breast cancer research.  It was a wonderful week spent with family and friends, and I even managed to squeeze in some relaxation.  My sister drove back to Charleston with me, and we spent the next few days hitting the highpoints of the lowcountry from the vodka distillery to the haunted jail tour.

When she left on Saturday, I entered into a definite post-whirlwind slump.  After three weeks of near constant travel and entertainment, I wasn't entirely sure what to do myself.  And then I remembered my DVR queue.  And that's pretty much what I've been doing since.  Phew!  Now, onward!

Empire State of Mind

I honestly feel like my trip to New York and Vermont took place a lifetime ago.  But then going through my photos, I felt like I was looking through the lens just yesterday.  Time has become this funny, indefinable thing lately.  Life is going by so quickly, while at the same time, dragging endlessly.  I'm blaming the deployment and the fact that I've been so busy.  Things that seem like they should have been spread out over months, took place all within the same week.  And the four months that Colby has been gone have whizzed by, while it seems like an eternity since I've seen his face.

All of this to say... it's trip recap time!!! 


This was a very different visit to New York for me.  This was my 5th time to the city and my second this year, so the focus was much less on doing the touristy thing and more on spending time with my sister when she could fit me into her hectic schedule.  I also spent a good portion of time by myself, and was amazed at how friendly the New Yorkers were.  A man struck up a conversation with me while we were waiting for the walk signal to turn, I got random non-creepy compliments from passers-by, I made friends with an Israeli gentleman while navigating the public transportation from Newark to Manhattan.  I think I put out a different, more receptive aura when I travel by myself than when I'm travelling with others.  Plus, I got a tiny thrill from navigating the bustling avenues and subways on my own.

I took the train from Newark to Manhattan and met up with Brittany at Penn Station in the early afternoon.  We were able to squeeze in a fairly leisurely lunch before hustling back to her apartment where I dropped off my bags, and then she went off to make her big New York theater scene debut and I wandered around the perimeter of Times Square.  I got cheap tickets at the Million Dollar Quartet lottery and, wow, what an incredible show.  It's a fictionalized account of an evening in the recording studio with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins.  I'll be honest, I wasn't that thrilled by the synopsis beforehand, but two minutes into the show, I knew I was going to LOVE it.  After the spectacular finale, I met my sis for her opening night cast party and we helped New York get rid of a few bottles of Sweet Tea vodka.

The next morning, my lovely friend Carolyn came in from The Garden State, and we all headed down to Brooklyn for a walking tour.  Now, Manhattanites can say what they like, but Brooklyn is where it's at!  We met up with our tour guide in Park Slope, and he entertained us for the next three hours with stories about his wrong side of the tracks Italian family, real estate prices on 7th Avenue, and won our undying devotion with a delicious slice of pie at a tiny pizza joint.

My favorite part of Brooklyn was how if you just squinted your eyes and cocked your head a little to the left, you felt exactly like you were back in turn of the century New York.  The architecture is beautiful, everyone knows everyone, the accents are spot on New Yowkah, and the grittiness of the factory worker vibe meshes perfectly with the uptown chic of the million dollar mansions to give you the best of both worlds.  Next time I'm in New York, I'll definitely be devoting at least a full day to that incredible burrough.

Later that evening, I went to my sister's show, and following the show, we once more did our part to ensure that the bartenders of New York could feed their families.  The next day, exhausted from our extensive explorations of the city, we opted to stay in bed and watch tv all morning and into the early afternoon.  When, Brittany left for work, I mulled over the idea of possibly going out for a wander, but upon taking in the grey, blustery conditions of the outdoors instead tucked myself back into bed with The Event.  Finally, the time came for me to rouse myself from my stupor, and I met Brittany at the undisclosed delicious location of her employment, ate dinner, then we cabbed it up over to The 39 Steps, a farce, based on the Hitchcock film, in which 4 brilliant actors play over 140 parts.

The next morning, I packed up my suitcase, and headed out for a hellish day of navigating the Eastern seaboard as I journeyed from Newark to Vermont.  Google Maps would tell you it's an easy journey of mere moments.  I'm here to tell you otherwise.  But that's a story for another day.

(PS You may have noticed some changes to my blog over the past couple of days.  All of this loveliness is thanks to Ashley, who has been working hard not only at producing a tiny human, but also, building me the website of my dreams.)