Escape from New York!
May. 22nd, 2003 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pandonkeyI'm back! It was quite an interesting trip, to say the least. Had a fairly uneventful trip up, and was greeted warmly when I got to the office, which was quite nice. Lots of hugs make the hassles of travel more worthwhile.
Had a very, very busy week in the office, but got to do a few fun things after work hours. Bought a couple of DVDs at Kinokuniya Books, a great Japanese bookstore near Rockefeller Plaza, and bought some books at the Strand and Forbidden Planet, which were both right 'round the corner from the apartment I was staying in. Tried Indian and Vietnamese food for the first time, and liked both, especially the Vietnamese. Worked Saturday and Sunday (though I overslept Sunday and got into the office late, which I /hate/), and felt like I managed to help make a dent in the big rush project everyone's working on. And then, on Wednesday, I came home -- and that's kind of a long story.
The trip back was a story all its own... Mary, one of my bosses (for lack of a better word...) flies to the city every week from Arizona. She recommended a car service to me, so I called 'em up and made an appointment for 11:15 am the day I was leaving (yesterday). They were there right on time, and we started off for the airport, but after about 10 minutes driving, we were pulled over by the NYPD. D'oh... seems the driver had gone straight in a left-turn-only lane. Hardly unusual in NYC (actually, I don't think I've /ever/ seen someone pulled over in the city before -- it seems accepted that traffic laws there are made to be broken). So, we sit in the car, and the driver talks a lot on his radio, and makes a few cell phone calls, all in Spanish. I asked him if he was getting a new car for me, and he said, "You want a new car?" I said I just wanted to get to the airport on time. He told me how long it would probably take for a new car to get there, so... I decided to wait on the cops, who were taking their sweet time writing out the ticket. Finally, they drove up beside us and gave the driver his ticket... and told him that his license had been suspended last week. "Normally we'd take you to the judge, but -- just get this taken care of, okay?" I guess they didn't take him in since I would've been stranded. Of course, I was still stuck in a car with a driver with a suspended license, but as there were no cabs around to be seen, I didn't know what options I had. By then it was about 11:45, and my flight was at 1:00. Arrrrgh. So we just went on to the airport. Didn't take too long, luckily, I got there about 12:10, and in spite of the increeeedibly long AirTran check-in line, I made it to my gate in plenty of time for boarding.
So as you might imagine, I'm very happy to be at home in my own comfy apartment. Doug and Chase seem to have missed me. :)
Had a very, very busy week in the office, but got to do a few fun things after work hours. Bought a couple of DVDs at Kinokuniya Books, a great Japanese bookstore near Rockefeller Plaza, and bought some books at the Strand and Forbidden Planet, which were both right 'round the corner from the apartment I was staying in. Tried Indian and Vietnamese food for the first time, and liked both, especially the Vietnamese. Worked Saturday and Sunday (though I overslept Sunday and got into the office late, which I /hate/), and felt like I managed to help make a dent in the big rush project everyone's working on. And then, on Wednesday, I came home -- and that's kind of a long story.
The trip back was a story all its own... Mary, one of my bosses (for lack of a better word...) flies to the city every week from Arizona. She recommended a car service to me, so I called 'em up and made an appointment for 11:15 am the day I was leaving (yesterday). They were there right on time, and we started off for the airport, but after about 10 minutes driving, we were pulled over by the NYPD. D'oh... seems the driver had gone straight in a left-turn-only lane. Hardly unusual in NYC (actually, I don't think I've /ever/ seen someone pulled over in the city before -- it seems accepted that traffic laws there are made to be broken). So, we sit in the car, and the driver talks a lot on his radio, and makes a few cell phone calls, all in Spanish. I asked him if he was getting a new car for me, and he said, "You want a new car?" I said I just wanted to get to the airport on time. He told me how long it would probably take for a new car to get there, so... I decided to wait on the cops, who were taking their sweet time writing out the ticket. Finally, they drove up beside us and gave the driver his ticket... and told him that his license had been suspended last week. "Normally we'd take you to the judge, but -- just get this taken care of, okay?" I guess they didn't take him in since I would've been stranded. Of course, I was still stuck in a car with a driver with a suspended license, but as there were no cabs around to be seen, I didn't know what options I had. By then it was about 11:45, and my flight was at 1:00. Arrrrgh. So we just went on to the airport. Didn't take too long, luckily, I got there about 12:10, and in spite of the increeeedibly long AirTran check-in line, I made it to my gate in plenty of time for boarding.
So as you might imagine, I'm very happy to be at home in my own comfy apartment. Doug and Chase seem to have missed me. :)
