com·mit·ted : Storm Clouds

Chapter 2: Storm Clouds

Where last we left our superhero, she was driving into the darkness towards the great state of Neuvo Jersey. The time line to follow brings up through the darkness into the morning and the storm ahead.

4:30 am - I want to get going, but since I should look half way presentable I should do my hair. Unfortunately with the commute (2+ hours according to GPS, mapquest, google maps... you know, reliable sources) I have ahead... drying and straightening isn't in the cards. Instead, I decide to curl it out. I put some lovely scrunching moose up in there and scrunch all my newly cut hair - clipping them up in hopes when I get to my final destination I can have the kind of waves that most can only dream of. Ah the simplicity of how I thought my day would be.

4:45 am - I stop for coffee & gas on my way out. D&D doesn't open until 5am. While I await for my delicious and life affirming ice coffee to be made I remember a to do line item that did not get completed the day before. I had let my AAA membership lapse. I have needed it before, and just in case - what can it hurt? I used the time wisely and god bless my phone - put it to good use. AAA Membership, check. By the time I get my coffee, gas up the car and fill out the membership form & pay for it - I'm back on the road at 5:20. I take a screenshot of my phone for safety sake. Oh safety sake.
6:20 am - I ask for some feet on the street, a friend in Neuvo Jersey has stepped forward and will be my weather girl in the area.

6:40 am - Despite my best efforts to get to Jerz before the snow starts, the snow starts at 6:40am and I am still in New York.

7:00 am - I stop to get gas, more coffee and possibly get rid of some of the poisonous pessimistic feelings I had inside. I wrote the following email. All the truth, all things told... I thought traffic was as bad I was going to see it.

I believe I'm screwed.
I believe I've been driving for 2+ hrs.
I believe every time reset my GPS the travel time is 2+ hrs.
I believe when I started my journey it said 2+ hrs.
I believe I have Barb giving weather updates.
I believe that I will never get there.

8:02 am - As I make my way towards the armpit of America I take a call from Nat, someone who understands at the heart of it all what it is like to have a black cloud hovering around you when you set out to take a simple trip. Just the other day I poked fun at her own travel karma to which I attribute the following hours of my trip. As I poke fun, the storm clouds align and ahead of me the storm awaits.

Nat:Why oh why must my friend send me the weather report for Friday when I'm supposed to be flying into the eye of a Nor'easter? oh well, sounds like i might have something to blog about at the end of this week...

February 23 at 6:31pm · Comments

Christine: at least your in the air!!! I'll be on the ground driving through it. February 23 at 6:53pm

me: Oh Christine, you think she'll be in the air?! Obviously I'll have to catch you up on Nat's travel 'luck.' ;) February 23 at 9:16pm

Dava: That is quite the story! Nat may be on the ground at Logan for the weekend. Pack snacks, Nat!!! February 23 at 9:20pm

Nat:you people are so mean! February 24 at 3:50pm

Note to self: what is mean is karma. She's a bitch and a cold hearted snake. She kicked ass and took mine, namely mine.

com·mit·ted : Before the Storm

Main Entry: com·mit·ment
Pronunciation: \kə-ˈmit-mənt\

Function: noun

1 an act of committing to a charge or trust: as (1) : a consignment to a penal or mental institution (2) : an act of referring a matter to a legislative committee 2 a : an agreement or pledge to do something in the future; especially : an engagement to assume a financial obligation at a future date b : something pledged c : the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled

If I didn't prove my commitment this week I don't know what else I can do. As all my travel-aster
stories go - just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does and where to begin? I think I'll be giving this story installments.

Prologue

I travel for work, a lot. It doesn't seem like that much, until I am in the eye of the storm (ironic foreshadowing) and realize how often I am in the process of going away, execution or coming home. And since I can not travel with out incident, the issue is compounded. Each winter we have meetings through out the country that are focused on a particular theme or subject that are a mandatory requirement. Sometimes, depending on the role I am in or region I am working with or set up of the meetings I can be required to attend 1 or 6 of the meetings. This year I needed to attend 2 out of 5 of the meetings. This weekend in New Jersey and next week in New Hampshire. This is a true story, true story, where one girl stops being reasonable and starts to go batty.

Chapter 1: Before the Storm

The plan was to leave at my usual departure time of o'dark thirty on Thursday to be able to meet in lovely Dirty Jerz at 10 am. On Wednesday due to the pending snowmageddon, flights were canceled out of Boston and while I wasn't flying I did need to make sure I got to the Jerz before the storm hit. Thus O dark thirty, the sequel. The crew who were set to fly decided to take matters into their own hands and jump into vans and rode into the sunset or eye of the storm like cowboys to make sure they would arrive pre-storm and get ready for the big meeting. As they were arriving I was getting up ready to make my voyage.

Ok snow hurricane. Let's do this dance. Thu at 5:04am via Facebook for iPhone

Customer Service Grudge

Once upon a time in a horribly difficult place to find an apartment with a dog, I had a horrible experience with a Real Estate agency. I remember it not fondly and keep the email. Not so much for the first email, but because after my experience I emailed a short email to the manager of the company and have never heard back.

Having worked in customer service, it kind of made me throw up in my mouth. Anyway, here's the story - which ... though annoyed me at the time is also slightly hilarious that there are people out there that have the balls.

Set the stage: an apartment we signed for fell through because our last agent f'd up (another idiot Real Estate Agency - that I can't remember right now) didn't process the paperwork until the afternoon so we missed out on it.

I googled companies all over Boston and each website asked for basic information. Name, rent maximum, amenities requested, dog/cat, parking etc. Instead of spending a lot of time I made templates and mass emailed and/or cut and paste to the websites the information. I offered 1st, last, security paid immediately - as time was clicking and we needed a place to live, stat! Now to be fair - the email itself was quirky and infused some of my 'humor' - but I thought it would make the person laugh and pick up the phone. I was wrong.

If you are moving to Boston, I wouldn't use Metropolitan : Boston Real Estate. They are kind of a group of aHoles. That's not on their "About Us" page unfortunately. It should be.

I was moving from NY and had no where to put my stuff. A response to my email simply read....

From: rentals [mailto:rentals@metropolitanbre.com]
Subject: RE: Apartment in Boston

I do not have anything for you but I do know of a good psychiatrist you may want to talk things over with.

That's it. And yeah, I totally am holding on to this... I guess I should talk to someone about that.

Breathing

When I was knocked up, one of my favorite shows was Grey's Anatomy. I bought the soundtrack during one of my rando evenings with nothing to do but download away.

One of the songs, Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson is probably more so known for some kind of Meredith dramarama. For me it invokes something else, now.



L was still in the hospital. Music calmed me and I needed that. And there were a few songs that I needed to play when we would rock. This song came on and it took new meaning.

All that I know is I'm breathing.
All I can do is keep breathing.
All we can do is keep breathing.

Sometimes it comes up on my iPod and it brings me there.

Rocking in the chair. Telling my baby. Telling me, to breathe.

Snowsapades

Here in the Northeast it's been wild with snow, mostly. In our neck of the woods, not so much. In response to a friend's message out about calling in 'snow' I'm calling BS.

When I looked outside today, I seriously considered calling everyone a liar.

But then I watched the morning news and saw that every school, church, synagogue, University, and most business was closed (darn it - down side of going to daycare attached to a synagogue).

So, while on a usual day of no daycare I’d have to go with Plan B – my mother (aka Nana Lu or Lucy to you) is an avid watcher of the weather channel… and decided to make her weekend trip to spend time with L MUCH earlier this week, and came last night.

The upside? Most every business was closed (still no snow on the ground, FYI) EXCEPT a fabulous new place I found to get my hair cut!