Working From Home, Part 2

Today I had to go to Rochester, NY to visit the corporate headquarters of one of my accounts (Wegmans). We were supposed to fly into Buffalo and then drive the hour to Rochester. Here is how my morning progressed:

8:15 am: Leave apartment.

8:22 am: Hail cab.

8:24 am: Tell cabbie I have to pay with a credit card. Bonus Point #1: he didn't complain!

8:30 am: Arrive at Terminal B. Bonus Point #2: Cabbie was a fast driver. Ask cabbie to wait while I checked my terminal (we were flying into one and out of another, and I couldn't remember which was which).

8:32 am: Return to cab having printed boarding pass and found out I'm leaving leaving out of Terminal F. Bonus Point #3: Cabbie graciously and cheerfully waited and took me over to Terminal F. Very nice.

8:51 am: Get through security line.

8:58 am: After waiting at gate F4 with manager for a few minutes, hear announcement of gate change to F20.

9:05 am: Still waiting to board our 9:15 flight.

9:110 am: Still haven't boarded.

9:15 am: Start to wonder if we're going to make it in time for our 1pm meeting.

9:20 am: Still waiting.

9:25 am: Hear announcement that they cannot board everyone due to weight restrictions. The airline asks for volunteers to be bumped to the next flight and offer a free flight in return.

9:27 am: Discuss with manager. Decide we're going to be late, anyway, so we might as well get the free flight.

9:28 am: Volunteer and are accepted.

9:35 am: Call our rep to tell him we won't make it. He agrees to handle it by himself.

9:40 am: They finally start boarding. They still have to cut some people off because of the weight restrictions, and stop boarding before our zone. So we would've been bumped, anyway.

9:45 am: Chat with a nice woman with a baby who's been trying to get to Buffalo since Friday.

9:52 am: The plane finally leaves.

10:10 am: Get our vouchers from the US Airways guy and ask him to make sure the baby lady gets out today.

10:35 am: Get back to my apartment and get ready to work from home!

I would think planes would be equipped to take off without weight issues assuming that all their seats are filled and everyone has the maximum weight in baggage, because there were still many empty seats on the plane. But I guess I'm not complaining - I got to leave later for work, get a free ticket, not get home late, have a free evening, get to work from home and sit in my sweats...this is a good day.

La Neige

Philadelphia doesn'treally believe in plowing the roads when it snows, and the roads I take to work are pretty windy. Which means that if it does snow, we get to work from home! I was starting to get worried that the season would pass by without such a treasure, but right now, a glorious 4" of the white stuff is lying outside my door.

Plus, the snow just makes it feel all warm and cozy and inviting inside.

I'm kinda glad Philly hasn't taken a page from Salt Lake's book and actually figured out how to make the city still work during bad weather.

I love the snow.

Laredo

On Monday morning, I was driving to work and a woman came a couple of feet into my lane, causing our side view mirrors to collide as I drove past. I was not a happy camper, particularly because my car has only been in my possession for a little under 3 months. But it was very nice and warm outside so I was pretty chipper despite the unhappy start to a day on which most of the rest of the world is on vacation.

Unfortunately, my entire side view mirror was ripped off, so I had to drop it off at the body shop and was given a rental. Let me preface this by saying that my current Ford Fusion (Colbie) is the largest car I've ever driven - before her came Polly (Grand Am), MIA II (Civic), and MIA (Mazda 626). Other than that, I've, on occasion, driven my parents' Civic and Accord.

Right, so I'm not exactly a large-car afficionado. I was picked up from the body shop by Charlie of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. A little bit about Charlie: he went to open the car door for me, but finding that it was locked, went to the driver's side to unlock it. He was about to come back around, but I told him it was fine. He was very kind and told me how he always opens doors for his wife of 56 years like his mom taught him. He then told me how they had met in high school and were together for seven years before their marriage since she was in nursing school and he served in Germany. (We had a little bond since Dan and I also met in high school and are getting married seven years later.) He started telling me about his 4 daughters, all of whom are in their 40s and 50s.

It then dawned on me to ask if he minded telling me how old he is. He jovially told me that he didn't mind at all, and that his daughters had just thrown him a surprise 80th birthday party!

Wow! Eighty years old and he's still driving cars for Enterprise! What a guy!

He picked me up in a minivan, so I initially thought I might get that car, but then we walked by my current ride: a black Jeep Laredo Grand Cherokee.

This car is MAMMOTH.

So here I am, having never driven any sort of vehicle that would qualify as "large," and wearing my little pink shirt. Ha.

It handles surprisingly well, and it's kind of fun intimidating the small cars.

February 13th

Neither Dan nor I is particularly into Valentine's Day. I mean, we're not strewing about black hearts with daggers through them or anything, but we're not really into the whole flowers/chocolate/pink/puppies kind of thing. Which is unusual considering how into flowers/chocolate/pink/puppies I typically am.

It dawned on me several days before that February 13th would be our 100 day mark before the wedding, so I decided I would celebrate that instead. Benefits abound:

a) He wouldn't suspect anything.
b) Wedding countdowns are infinitely cooler than Valentine's Day. Well, maybe more infinitesimally rather than infinitely, but still.
c) I wouldn't be succumbing to the MAN.

Having just done the whole candlelit homemade dinner thing the week before in celebration of our 7-year anniversary, I was brainstorming something else to do. First, let's backtrack 3.5 months. In October, we visited one of our dear friends slash one of my old roommates in Miami. At that time, she held an obsession with the song "The King of Wishful Thinking." Parenthetical: I love my friends. Close parenthetical. I randomly heard this song on the radio for probably the first time in my 23+ years of radio-listening and, logically, my shoulders began to move in time. Then lightning struck:

DANCE PARTY!

Thus was born the First Annual Anti-Valentine's Day 100 Day Mark Dance Party.

Leggings and oversize t-shirt were donned. Confetti and streamers were cascaded. Junk food was set to be consumed. Surprise, enlightenment, and ecstasy followed.

Harbucks and Soon-To-Be Harbucks Entering the Blogosphere

That's right - we've decided to take a leap onto the proverbial bandwagon and start a blog. This site will chronicle our lives from engagement to marriage, from bliss to greater bliss. Requests for themes and specific posts welcomed.