I love summer. I love everything about it.
What I don’t love is walking through the streets of NYC…and getting dripped on from above.
I know it’s (hopefully) the condensation from the air conditioning unit that’s in the windows around town but there’s just something so gross about it.
While most of my friends concentrated on getting jobs right after school, somehow I convinced my parents, and got them to agree, that moving to London, sight unseen, was the best route for me. Turns out, six months and a work visa WAS the best route for me. I should point out, short of family vacations to Toronto and Niagara Falls, spring break in Cancun and a couple of trips to the Caribbean, I never even had a passport. Back then, a birth certificate was good enough.
As it turned out, my first passport stamp EVER was permission to enter AND work in a country I had never been to, and aside from Mary Poppins, funny accents and a famous bridge, it was a place I knew little about. But I knew I’d love it. Eleven years later I have never been more right about anything in my life.
While living abroad, I learned that what I did is what most of the world calls a gap year. I can’t really call the time I spent abroad, a ‘career break’ since I hadn’t even started my career yet. To most, it looked like career postponement!
As I found out earlier this week at the NYC Meet Plan Go event, extended travel, however you do it, is in the back, and front, of a lot of travelers minds! Check out this article from the New York Times.
This time last weekend the boyfriend and I were heading home from a weekend road trip to upstate New York. A few observations from our time on the road:
There’s nothing more daunting to a commuter heading into New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal than hearing “Due to a disabled vehicle, please expect delays.” There are also electronic message boards informing commuters of delays.
Without even hearing the announcement, a seasoned commuter, like myself, can figure it out by seeing the length of lines. Lines that normally move at a fast pace – the bus comes, loads up commuters and departs. The next bus comes and does the same thing. It’s a very efficient process. Usually.
If there is a standstill, you can try to figure out how long people have been waiting just by looking at the faces of the people in line. Joining the standstill is daunting because it is a bit of a crap shoot. Will the line start to move? Am I going to be one of those faces in thirty minutes?
I digress. This is what I don’t understand. The Lincoln Tunnel “carries almost 120,000 vehicles per day, making it one of the busiest vehicular tunnels in the world.” Thank you Wikipedia.
Did you get that? IN THE WORLD. That’s a pretty grand statement.
I am going to make an educated guess that most of those vehicles are buses, carrying thousands of travelers. Yet they can’t figure out how to quickly fetch the disabled vehicle to ensure smooth traffic flow in the middle of evening RUSH HOUR?
Granted, it’s a tough job to keep traffic moving and ensure seamless commutes. Which is most of the time. I’m not knocking anyone. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for getting a disabled vehicle out of the tunnel, or even be that disabled vehicle! I’m sure they have a system down but since I had time to think about solutions on my commute (that was three times as long as normal) earlier this week, here’s my proposed solution.
Caveat: I only know that there are three tunnels. I don’t know anything about traffic planning, routing or any of the other technical stuff that’s probably useful in making general statements like the one I am about to make.
But let’s pretend there is a disabled vehicle in the tunnel. Obviously all the traffic in front of said vehicle can move forward. Everything behind is totally screwed. Well, let’s get all the in front traffic out of the tunnel and have a tow truck planted at either end of the tunnel. Bring that puppy in and tow said disabled vehicle out. This should take mere minutes to clear up.
For further explanation, please see my diagram.
Thankfully, I only take the bus home at night. I wait for the day when the morning ferry is delayed because of too much traffic on the Hudson River.
Are the boyfriend and I the only ones who suffer from sushi sleep, as we call it?
Sushi at dinnertime causes the weirdest dreams.
I wish I could write them down because they would make for great stories.
Anyone want to share theirs? I’ve been in a car that doesn’t stop, I’ve been shot at, I’ve been flying…like Superman, I’ve been snorkeling, I’ve been on endless goose chases, I’ve met famous people…I can’t remember them all, but seriously…this is the stuff sci-fi movies are made of. Maybe?
As I watched part of the LA vs Dallas basketball playoff game yesterday, I was disgusted by the Los Angeles Lakers behavior.
The Lakers were down three games to zero in the best of seven series, and pretty far behind point-wise in the game. As one of the Dallas players was jumping to take a shot, a Laker came by and elbowed him. Not to be outdone, another Laker shoved the Dallas player while he was taking a shot in mid-air. Not by accident, not to block him, but to actually hurt him.
What a total and complete douche bag.
I’m pretty certain there are technical terms for the play but as I watched, I was totally appalled by the behavior of his, and his other teammates (who were also ejected during the game). One guy even took off (read: ripped it off in anger) his jersey as he was being ejected. What poor, poor sportsmanship. Great way to set an example for impressionable children who may look up to you (note sarcasm).
I’m not an avid watcher, but the way it looks to me, the Lakers are pissed they are getting swept. Instead of playing like real men to finish off their season actually trying to score, they decide to physically hurt the opposing team, who will be moving forward to the next round. What a bunch of cry babies. You are overpaid men, who unfortunately have achieved celebrity status, playing a GAME. Get over yourselves and man up.
I’m not sure how the NBA decides suspensions, or punishments, but I think this guy, and his teammates should be suspended for the better part of next season, if they play at all. They are not mentors, they are not people to be looked up to or worshiped by the general public. They are examples of poor sportsmanship and petty actions because they are losing…waaah, waaah.
A simple Google search to find ‘Lakers player shoved Dallas player’ to find the guy’s name found that ‘shove’ must be the key trigger word because I found loads of Lakers shoving people…Dallas players, pregnant cashiers. Keep it classy LA Lakers. Playing on Mother’s Day, I’m sure you made your moms and Phil Jackson, likely coaching his last game, so proud.
Go Dallas.
In the spirit of Mother’s Day, here is a short list of reasons why I love my mom:
I awoke Friday morning at 4.45 EST with horrible heartburn. When I realized what time it was, I went straight into the living room to watch the fanfare of the Royal Wedding!
To my dismay, the DVR was not working (and in fact did not start taping until after 7.30 am) so it was a very good thing that I awoke when I did…because this thing wouldn’t be replayed over and over and over all day…
Obviously since I was viewing in my pajamas, I was all by my lonesome. I did take a look out at the apartments I face and saw two or three apartments with their lights on. Who knows who was up for the wedding action. I knew social media was going to explode, so I logged onto my Twitter account (where a day prior I decided to follow Clarence House) and knew there would be tons of action with the tag #rw2011, among others.
Just as soon as I logged on, I saw a friend Tweet so we started to text message in real time. Probably a half hour later my sister texted me to see if I was up, and we also texted throughout the wedding. She’s a little crazier than me, because she is another three hours behind me…so I was up at 4.45, she was up at 5.15, which was really 2.15 her time! We went back and forth on email the better part of the morning. When I finally deleted them all, I realized I had sent her 69 messages and she had sent me 53. I’m sure our parents are so proud.
Some observations throughout:
After work, I came home and watched a few recaps and finally went to bed after midnight (just about 5a GMT so I’m sure they were getting ready for breakfast post-party…)
What a fantastic show! I don’t know how I made it through the day, with so little sleep, but I loved every minute of it. I realize not everyone cares, but of all of those who watched the wedding…who didn’t want to be Kate, or even Pippa, today?
Here it is. Another installment of WHY Wednesday.
Dear MN,
We’ve FINALLY had absolutely gorgeous weather the past few days here in the northeast and now there’s an 80% chance of rain tomorrow?! Now, I like a good thunderstorm with lots of lightening as much as the next guy. But why the tease?!
All week I’ve been able to open the screen door along with all the windows when I got home from work to flood my home with the fresh spring air. Last night I even turned on the AC before bed.
What I’d love to do is bring out my sundresses and flip flops…hell, I’m even okay with a spring jacket. But a cold downpour? Just as we’re pulling out our spring wardrobes? Come on. Mother Nature, haven’t we had enough of this gross, horribly long winter?
Put it on your to do list and PLEASE bring on the sun! April showers bring May flowers…and with it should come the sun. Vitamin D lovers will thank you. And while you’re at it, enough with the floods in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and the Southeast. Collectively, we’ve had enough.
Yours,
So over winter weather
It never ends.
Like that childhood song, it goes on and on my friend.
I make lists, then I organize the list, and then I create more lists. And it becomes this never ending to do list.
Obviously the pressing items get done, but what about the unnecessary things that I just can’t cross off.
Like brown boots.
It will stay on the list until next season because I am hopeful I won’t have to wear boots until the Fall. Plus, looking for boots in the summer would make for a very difficult task!
But then there are real things on the list. Phone calls to make, banking and the rest of the boring stuff that just has to get done.
Then there are ongoing items that I enjoy like blog writing. I’m knocking today’s post off the to do list well before you’ll read this.
Some items on the list are more daunting than others and they get pushed and pushed until you’ve got to get it done.
But boy, does it feel good to cross things off the list!
How do you combat list fatigue?
simply three cents 