Micah's side of the tale
Okay, get all comfortable. It's time for a ride.
Foreshadowing:
"Hello. American Airlines? Yes hi. yada yada yada. Change my ticket. yada yada yada. Yes one more day. yada some more. 100 dollars? Sure, sounds great. Yes. Boston. Same airport. Tuesday. Thanks"
Thursday:
I can't believe I'm finally heading out. Kirsten (one of Lori's and now my good friends. see below) shows up and we have a wonderful dinner of homemade manicotti. Lori is great at baked Italian dishes. Pack. double check. pack some more. Bye Kirsten. Lori walks me out until I flag an empty taxi. I'm on my way.
arrive at SFO airport. actually one of my favorites as far as things going right. checking in takes seconds. going through security is swift. There really aren't many people around. Must be that Valentines day isn't really a fly day. I have about an hour before boarding. I grab a seat and decide to read some of my autobiography of Johnny Cash.
I learn that he killed a 560 pound crocodile in 1976. It was named One-Eyed Jack and was terrorizing the area. Johnny hasn't killed anything since because he doesn't want to.I board and I get a window seat. The best for a red eye flight. I try to read some more, but I decide to try sleep. I usually never sleep on planes, but I do. I wake up when the pilot starts to go one about preparing for landing. easiest 5 hour flight ever.
Friday:
Technically, the day changes while I'm somewhere over Colorado, but we'll use the touch down time as the beginning of this day. Things go well in Logan. some genius decided to put a Starbucks right out side my gate. high-five to that guy. I have both my bags and I'm in a taxi on my way before I've even halfway finished my grande coffee.
he fun begins.
As stated in Micah's post, the same street name and number are in both Cambridge and Somerville. I go to Cambridge, Micah is in Somerville. only a tad over 2 miles away.
"Micah. Hey! I'm outside!"
"Really?! .... um.... no you're not. You're in Cambridge."
"drat"
"coming to get you"
Micah picks me up, still in his pajamas, and we get on our way. By the time We grab Scott, we have knocked out brunch, getting the rental car, dropping Micah's roommate off at the airport, exploring a tiny section of Boston which included that amazing show store, and a few high-fives.
While waiting for Scott at the top of the T, I buy a scarf.
One of the smartest buys ever number 1
The three of us carry Scott's gear and ourselves to a sandwich shop for lunch. I also get a giant cupcake that looks better then it tastes. I love cupcakes. I give it the ole Harvard try. I get through about 1/4 of it.
We make it back to Micah's. Pack the car. Go to the spot where we meet the rest of our crew.
Hello everyone!
Here is where there are different sides to the story.
In my car. I get Marianna and Kay. we are carrying the gear, so three is all that will fit in the Malibu. We have a great time in the car catching up on things and playing the name game. Kay loses the name game. She's also not competitive at all.
We are hungry and call Micah ahead of us to say so.
"well, Scott has to use the bathroom as always, so this stop."
We stop at a gas station and take advantage of the bathroom and the random snacks inside. there is also a subway. I decide to buy a 6 inch turkey with double the meat.
One of the smartest buys ever number 2
Micah is dying to get to Jay so we don't go anywhere else.
After some pretty sweet driving which includes a moment where Micah slows quickly, I almost hit him and I do this fun fish tail thing, we make it to the Jay lodge. Yep, no food for you.
We go to the condo and lay out all our edible things. we eat what we can (the sandwich is split 5 ways i believe) and drink beer while playing dominoes. almost 12... off to bed. An exciting first day for sure.
Saturday:
Holy crap. Can you believe how amazing it is? Blue skies and powder everywhere. We suit up and head to the lodge area. Scott and I got to the proshop. We both buy a face cover thing.
One of the smartest buys ever number 3
I also purchase wrist guards and a helmet. Not a bit of my skin is exposed. I look like a cold ninja.
next we all get tickets and such, and hit the slopes. We pretty much form two teams. Scott, Micah, Kay, and I on one team with Dave, Sara, and Marianna on the other. We divide and conquer. tearing up the mountain. This place is huge and the snow is perfect. The dry erase board at the bottom of the first left says this:
"what city still had not paid off it's Olympic debt of 12 years as of 1998?"
some fun fact/question about Uma Thurman.
"temp at the top of the mountain is 0 with a wind chill of -30"
The -30 becomes apparent on the way up the lift. You find yourself thinking "make it stop" and you start to sympathize with people who climb Everest. The trees up here look sad. They all look like they are made of thick styrofoam.
Off the lift and we we go to town. I don't take as many pictures as i would like. mainly because i don't want to take off my gloves. It's hard to put them back on with the wrist guards underneath.
Other than the bone chilling wind, good times are had for sure.
we stop at 12 something for lunch.
this place is over packed. somehow we manage to grab a table, and have lunch. I have a cheeseburger and mac n cheese. I eat too much. I know I'll be too full to be comfortable.
We get back out there. yep. I was right
After a few more runs, we call it a day. We get back to the house and decide to make a trip to the store in the next town. We buy things for spaghetti and also breakfast for the morning. The night is spent eating, laughing, playing dominoes and drinking beer and wine. Micah won. Sara did not.
Sunday:
Another beautiful day. After packing, we decide to make our way to the tram that takes you to the top. The view is amazing and so is the wind that blows the powder in your face. We snap a few pictures and make our way down. After learning that Canada has a brand new holiday, we decide that is why it's so busy in comparison to the day before. Also, due to the wind blowing all the fresh powder from the base, windward slopes are very icy, so everyone sticks to one side of the mountain. The lift lines start to grow. After making a few snow beards, we decide to start wrapping for the day and begin the trek back to Beantown.
Micah and I make our way to the cars.
We make it to the parking lot and things become interesting.
"I can't find my car key"
We decide to retrace our steps. I can tell Micah doing some serious thinking. I'm not going to even try joking around to lighten the mood. instead, we formulate a plan that involves a tow truck and a bit more time in the car.
We break up and search our last steps. no key
after getting someone to break into Micah's car and then putting it on a tow truck. we break up again and start the journey back to MA. Kay, Scott, and I take the Malibu to get Micah's other key. Micah and the rest go with his inoperable car to a wal-mart in NH. It's a tad after 4 pm.
We have a pretty good time making it back to Boston. the roads are fine. The weather looks great. we are having a great talk. We decide to stop at McDonald's. we have shakes and things. My hat decides to go on it's on adventure. (no worries Kay. I'm sure he's happy wherever he is)
We make it back and drop off Scott for his trip to NY. From what we hear, he makes a 8pm bus. it took us less then 3 hours to get home.
we go to Micah's and get the key. Now to go back the other way. just 100 miles this time.
It starts raining. at some point we realize it's raining and it's 32 outside. not a great mix and we've slowed down a bit. We stop at the same McDonald's to make sure my hat is having a good time. We can't find him and wish him the best, back on the road.
It's getting terrible out now. I believe Kay and I are doing about 30 on the highway and I sort of feel like that's too fast. Some how we make it to the wal-mart and do the 180 back to boston.
The roads have gotten good and icy now and it takes a fair amount of concentration to make it back safely. luckily we all do get back safe and sound and after dropping everyone off, we're back at Micah's do make a 2 am pizza.
Sleep.
Monday:
We sleep in. Nice. The weather isn't up for a day of boarding, so we decide to walk the freedom trail. We grab Micah's tall buddy Kyle and then brunch. It was soooo good minus the coffee. Micah even said no to a refill. wow.
The freedom trail was really fun. I love history. I kept thinking about the term "forefathers" and how funny it sounds. I keep this to myself. Also, at some point I text Cliff about how I'm walking through his old neighborhood. We have a hilarious back and forth via text. That dude is hilarious at all times.
Next up, movie and dinner.
We go see There Will Be Blood which was great and then it's Mexican for dinner. I can't remember the name of the joint, but you should get the fish tacos.
We drop of Marianna and Micah, Kyle, and I head to Micah's for scotch and bed. The orange couch is way more comfortable then the gray one.
Tuesday:
up at five. We say goodbye and then kyle and I share a 5:30 cab to the airport. I supposedly have a 7:30 flight. I try the self check in for a bit before it tells me to go to customer service. The foreshadowing kicks in. Seems that somewhere along the line, my return trip is for March 19th and not Feb 19th. Well that's not going to work. Also what's really nice is it's going to cost me $1000 to get on the flight i was supposed to be on. American says it's Expedia's fault. Expedia says it's American's fault. I don't have the for a finger pointing battle. I just want to get home to Lori. this is where the iPhone saves the day.
for some reason, I am able to keep my cool after the lady has said for the 3rd time that my flight is scheduled for March and not Feb. I guess she deals with dumb all day. Dumb needs things repeated a lot. I get on Cheaptickets while she is saying things over and over and I find the cheapest flight I can that leaves soon. I bid the woman good day and I run over to US airways where I hold up my phone and ask the girl if I can get this flight at this price. Yes she says. amazing. I leave in an hour and a half. instead of a direct flight, I've got a lay over in Phoenix.
I use my new hour to have breakfast, coffee, and read some more of my book.
The idea for Elvis' Blue Suede Shoes came from an experience Johnny had in Germany. He told Carl Perkins, who first recorded the tune, the story and thought there was a tune in there somewhere. Unfortunately, Carl was injured in a car accident not long after recording the track and gaining a bit of acclaim for the song. Elvis records it at this time and builds on Carl's success. It becomes a huge "what if"
My flight to Phoenix was nice. I read more and watch a movie.
The Phoenix airport is not bad. I was hungry and the airport is filled with mexican food. I have a burrito.
my flight is supposed to leave at 2:49. Nope. it gets pushed back. I end up leaving at 5 something. I actually sit next to a really nice guy who happens to be a game developer. We talk the whole time. Nice guy.
I finally make it back to SF and back home sometime around 7. I was supposed to be back at 10am. Lori and I have dinner at Mission Beach (of course) and then bed. I'm exhausted.
Despite the hiccups along the way, I had a great time. I really miss my friends and Micah and Marianna are at the tip top of that list. I would do it again if it meant I got to hang out with everyone. Regardless of the things that happened, the only thing I would change is the plane thing because that didn't involve hanging out. just a lot of waiting. The rest just makes for a fun (and long) story.
If you've made it here, I congratulate you for reading my novel. sorry it's so long. I had the time and wanted to take advantage of it. This will for sure be my longest posting.
Have a great day everyone!
1 comment:
i made it! whew :)
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