Driving Back to Syracuse

At this point, I’ve made the drive between Long Island and Syracuse close to a dozen times. Ever since I could bring my car on campus, I’ve been driving home for long breaks and summer vacation. The drive itself isn’t hard, it’s just really boring. You basically go on three main roads and stay on them for 100 mile clips. It’s awful. As I was driving up, I realized I go through some serious driving mood swings. 

4:00AM - Okay, let’s do this. 

5:00AM - This actually isn’t that bad, I can do this. 

6:00AM - I’m tired. My back is starting to hurt. Maybe I’ll pull over soon. 

7:00AM - This is actually never going to end. I’m going to be driving FOREVER. 

8:00AM - I’ll stop at the next rest stop. (Next rest stop - 80 miles.)

9:00AM - So close! I’ll just power through. 

Quotes from the Train

One of my favorite things to do when I take the train to the city is to listen to all the tourists and idiots that have never been. Sure we were all new once, but some of the stuff they say is absolutely ridiculous. I’ll pop in my headphones, leave the music off and judge - silently of course.

Here’s some recent highlights from my trip to the city today:

  • “Wait, won’t we be facing backwards? The city is East right? I don’t like it backwards”.
  • “Eww, someone peed”.
  • OMG, Is that the Empire State Building (said when we were a good 40 miles from NYC)(It was a water tower).
  • “Did you know that Grand Central Station is all gold and shit. Like the train tracks and shit are like some kind of gold enforced gold”.

The Adventure

I plan ahead. It’s just who I am. There are rarely any surprises when it comes to stuff I get ready for, especially traveling. This trip home was interesting to say the least. First, I fought for a good hour with the wonderful, amazing Lauren about how unnecessary it was to bring a million pairs of Ugg boots home for a four-week trip home. Losing battle.

We schedule a cab ride for 4:15AM for a 6AM flight. At 4:25 the cab still wasn’t there and we hadn’t received a “Hey, I’m here” phone call so Lauren called the company. The lady was a bitch and basically told us she’s never heard of a cab calling, even though they have every time. The best part - “Oh, well, we might be able to get a cab there by like 5AM”.

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$31 Flight To Anywhere

jetBlue has some of the coolest offers I’ve ever heard of in terms of air travel. This newest one seems pretty awesome. If you book a plane ticket for any flight after 12 Noon on October 31st (Halloween), the ticket is only $31.

I thought there was a catch, but apparently there isn’t. Seats left on flights between any city are only $31. I almost want to fly somewhere exotic just to say I did.

You’re Double Parked

So, I’m back in Syracuse and already had my first aggravting experience to complain about. So, my friend Erin came to pick us up from the airport and she had parked next to a car, but her car was on and she was in it. I quickly tried to throw the bags in the back, but one got stuck so we were fixing it so we could close the trunk. 

All of a sudden this Syracuse Police truck comes up behind us with his lights on and starts blaring his siren. Now this went on and he kept blaring his sired and kept it going and then opened his window and screamed our “You’re double parked. Move it along” so Erin got back in the car but he kept his siren on and kept flashing his headlights and the police lights. 

Then as I went to the side of the car he drove by and was clapping at us saying “took you long enough” and “get out of the way” and “good job, congratulations” to us. I was SO angry. I really wanted to find his badge number and get him fired or at least in trouble. 

Syracuse Police Department, Aviation Enforcement Division will be receiving a letter from me in the coming days. 

Leaving Tomorrow

So now, after an early morning flight changing frenzy, I’m booked on the 5:00 PM flight to Syracuse tomorrow instead of tonight. It is supposed to snow a lot here so it was a good idea to do it now before everyone else is freaking out and needs to rebook.

Up Early & Headed Home

So today I’m headed back to Long Island for winter break. I’ll be home for something like five weeks which is pretty awesome. My flight is a little later but I’m up really early to do some ambulance driver training - yeah, I drive one of those now. Pretty interesting. 

jetBlue Was Pretty Dumb

Tomorrow after class in the morning I’m going back down to Long Island for the weekend. I want to see my family for my birthday, since I won’t be able to come down the actual weekend of my birthday *cough* getting fucked up *cough*, so I decided to come down this weekend. Also, on Sunday there is that ShowBiz expo I was debating about. 

Anyway, I went online to print my boarding pass for the flight and check in from now. Somehow it miscalculated the number of bags I’m checking and now I still have to go and wait online and deal with it. It’s not a big deal because I’m getting there early enough. 

This is so crazy. It’s the first time that I’m traveling by myself. Should be fun, I LOVE flying and I LOVE jetBlue so it’s a good deal. I’ll be back up here on Sunday night on the really late flight. I probably won’t get to the dorm until around 1AM which should be tons of fun. 

Showbiz Expo

I really want to go to the ShowBix Expo at the Hilton in NYC. It looks like a really cool exhibit and it’s one of the only ones I’ve seen that highlights and specifically invites stage managers to come. Here’s my dilemma:

It’s on September 21st (Sunday). I could get down two ways, either by train or by air. If I take the train, I have to take the 6 hour train ride down on Friday or something and it’s around $90. Then I have to go home, and the next day take the train back to the city go to the expo and then leave well before 2PM to make my train back, another $90 and another 6 hours. Total cost: around $180 & 14 hours of time. 

If I take jetBlue, the tickets are a little more expensive at around $109 each way, but the flight is only 45 minutes. Plus, for some reason, jetBlue added a late-night flight at 10PM, so I’ll be able to stay for the entire expo and still get back in time for classes on Monday. Total cost: around $220 & 2 hours.

Hmm, dilemma.