Shaggin' on the Brain

(entrance to the Free Public Library)

Hello!

So today will include a MUCH happier post than the day of breakdowns... but it did start off a little rocky:

Basically, I woke up at 9:30, checked out @ 10am with the intention of grabbing a Cheesesteak (Cheeses Teak, for some*!) on my way out of town. I didn't want to leave Philly without trying one & I don't think my sister would have spoken to me for a while if I had. Friends from the wedding mentioned a place that I checked out 1st - closed on Sunday. Day's off to a great start!

The security guard in the building mentioned a "Gino's Cheesesteak" within driving - but not walking distance - and gave me some crossroads. On my way back to the car, I ran into Tina, Scott & their families returning to their hotel from a walk, and they also suggested "Gino's", so decision made. Got in the car, couldn't find "Gino's Cheesesteak" in my GPS. Or in a phone book. Or on the crossroads. 2hrs later, after trying 4 locations around the city, I end up back where I started.

Stopped to ask a bellhop at a hotel for directions - turns out "GENO'S CHEESESTEAK" is about 12blocks away. HAH.

Got the hoagie - it pretty much rocked. My day isn't filled (I mean, I would like to get some work done, but whatever), so I am not stressing out about the delay.

Hit the highway. GPS predicts a 430 arrival in New Haven, Connecticut - my next destination. I'll be staying here tonight before driving to Providence, Rhode Island to pick up a friend from the airport & continue this little adventure.

BUT.

I had to pass by NYC to get to New Haven. HAHAHAHAHA. For details, feel free to check with Lyn, but the overview includes 13 lanes one way of standstill traffic (plus another 4 lanes in the other direction) where 4 highways merged into a toll booth**, another ghetto detour - this time in the BRONX, nearly running over a skateboarder -- in the BRONX, 2hrs wandering NY boroughs because the GPS kept telling me to turn when I didn't need to... again... all of which was witnessed verbally by my abovementioned patient friend, who bore with me through every encounter with mean NY drivers, pedestrians with no concept of crosswalks... through every yell, near-swear, and squeal... the girl's a saint. :)

Finally, I get past NYC, hang up with Lyn, and I make it to New Haven at 720! My day was finally looking up, whew!

Checked into a hotel - same price as in Philly, but much nicer... on a canal... 5min drive from Yale...

so I took a drive to see what an Ivy-League school looks like in real life - and I must say:

I've rarely had anything to say to my "younger self" - you know, those "things you wish you knew then so your life would be better" moments, but tonight was one of those times.

I try to live my life with as few regrets as possible & I can honestly count on 2 fingers the regrets I truly have. #1: should've gotten those braces when I had the chance (I knew I'd regret it the moment I made the decision...) and #2: should've been more ambitious in school...

(I've referenced uncountable publications printed here)

School always came so easy for me that I never had to study and usually set the curves. And I felt badly about that, so I tended to be as slack as I could get away with in order to keep my friends.

To be fair, I still have many of those friends today. and also, it is important to note that changing anything in my past would probably have resulted in my not moving to Canada... or Ireland... or now France... so I am not "complaining"... BUT...

when I saw that university, I FELL IN LOVE. Not only is it extremely prestigious, but it is also incredibly charming - great architecture, a blend of cultural, academic and lifestyle venues organized in a very user-friendly fashion, nearby parks... and this incredible sense of peace enveloped the entire area! When I arrived on campus, I heard music outside - and noticed that there was a festival going on in one of those nearby parks.

("International Festival of Arts & Ideas")

So I parked my car and wandered around a few blocks looking at buildings, and people-watching at the festival. What a fantastic way to end my day!!! And there were still so many students around and they were all so... well... they looked like people I would like to know... approachable! That's the word!

If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be that one day I will regret not having at least TRIED to get into an Ivy-League school. But it's not realistic, because if I had maintained the academic track I was on in secondary school, I'd be in maths & sciences and that's just depressing! :)

So I will be happy with my few hours of peace in an idyllic New England town...

(steeple on one of the residence halls)

and maybe one day I'll teach here or something, woot! -- I mean, if USask falls through, OF COURSE.

So yeah. More drama, but so worth it to spend 2 hrs quoting the film "SHAG***" in my head... a TRUE Southern movie! for my FB friends - sorry for the repeat, but to set the scene a little:

set in the 60s, there are 4 girlfriends about to graduate high school - Pudge & Luanne are going to college, Carson is getting married, and Melaina is a preacher's daughter who plans to run away to Hollywood... the 3 girls kidnap Carson for her "last weekend of freedom" and take her to the beach, where she meets and falls in love with Buzz - who's going to Yale in the Fall.

So in a scene where Carson is trying to decide how to leave her fiance & date Buzz, the conversation goes as follows - with a THICK Southern accent:

Carson: What d'ya want to go to New Haven for?
Buzz: That's where Yale is.
Carson: "Oh, well, then I'll come with you!"
Buzz: "Silly! Girls don't go to Yale!"

then she pushes him off the bed.

I've been quoting those lines for hours & it fills me with so many happy memories of times I watched that movie with friends over the years... and now I know I'd want to be going to New Haven too! Plus, it helps that I saw an enormous amount of attractive men - of all ages - here... bonus points, haha :)

now I'm off to read and sleep - no major cities to get lost in tomorrow****, PRAISE THE LORD!!!

*FYI, the gps navigation system in my car also says "cheeses teak" :)
**approx 10,000 vehicles, no exaggeration.
***for those Brits (or likeminded) reading this, the Shag is a Carolina Beach dance (state dance of South Carolina - the ONE good thing the state has going for it that I can find), originally made popular in the 1950s and still danced today... it knows no generational or gender bonds... I like!
**** of course, that also means less opportunities for blogging topics...

this one's a doozy.

You know, for a while there, I had found a way to be genuinely happy - stress & all... and then yesterday hit. Okay, I had a full-blown meltdown at the end of spring term, but that was self-induced stress & fatigue. Today is a combination of stress, fatigue, people and circumstances. Those last two are SO not my fault.

Anyway. Yesterday pretty much sucked - it included 3 hrs of sleep, completing a 10pp paper, 6mos of planning a car rental thrown out the window, the car rental fee more than doubling (once I'd arrived at the airport and after I paid taxi fare to get there), being stranded at the airport with no rental car, a return taxi home with no cash (wasn't planning on double cab fare!), being yelled at and reprimanded by the taxi driver TWICE (1st b/c he didn't like the fact that I was asking what the penalty would be if I just told my fave rental car agency that I was only driving in the Carolinas but actually took it to Philadelphia - the agent said the only way they'd know is if I got pulled over and I flippantly said "dude, I go 4 miles over the speed limit, I'm not getting pulled over - to which the taxi driver responded* "YOU DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE GONNA GET PULLED OVER! DON'T LIE TO THOSE PEOPLE - YOU NEED TO STOP TALKING TO THAT PERSON RIGHT NOW" to which I replied "umm... this (indicated "this" by sliding my hand around in a circle in front of me, like I was spinning discs or DJing or whatever they do)... is not your conversation?" & 2nd b/c when I realized I had no cash & phoned my roommate to see if she had $15 for the fare and she said she didn't think so and I said "are you sure?" and he (once again got in my business) and yelled "SHE SAID SHE DOESN'T HAVE THE MONEY. STOP BOTHERING HER") REALLY????**

So we get to my apartment, my roomie (who DID have the $15) gave me the money, and the rest of the story included a VERY redneck scene with me half-in/half-out of the vehicle yelling "RYANN*** CALL 911!!!" and subsequent police response... while he held my luggage hostage in the trunk over a scam fee of a $2 trunk charge.

The day ended with a new rental car reservation - with the good company - 2hrs from where I live, a Father's Day dinner (which was great, but we all got a little food poisoning, yay?), and not finishing that aforementioned 10pp paper until 2am.

so that was yesterday.

Today, my road trip began! Keep in mind, after the redneck scene, I was ready to cancel the entire trip. But then I got excited about it again after talking with family, and thought "maybe I just wasn't supposed to rent from that company... hah.

Did I mention my trip? No? okay. I mean it's only been a thousand years since I posted on here... sorry tonight's so whiny.

So here's the trip: Charlotte to Philadelphia for TINA'S WEDDING (WOOT!), 2 nights in Philly, one night somewhere between Philly & Providence, Rhode Island, pick a friend (Nicole, from my time in Ireland) up from the Providence airport, one night staying with another friend (Brian, from Ireland) on the Rhode Island coast, a couple days drive back down the East coast with Nicole (who's only ever seen DC - she's from Los Angeles), travel around the Carolinas/Georgia & host Nicole's visit until the 29th (with reading and writing mixed into that last part)...

and here's how it's going so far. I wasn't intending to inundate people with yesterday's drama, but oh well. When I signed in, I was planning to give you a list - my day in numbers (Ev-style), so here goes:

3: hours of sleep for 3 nights in a row
1: rock star tour bus (Brett Michaels, haha)
15: bare feet in windshields or hanging out windows
4: stalled vehicles that jammed traffic directly affecting me (which is pretty minor considering the sheer number of vehicles I encountered)... probably about
2,000,000: I think that is a fair assessment - not an exaggeration. seriously.
8: other vehicles stalled on roadsides - still not bad!
1: crazy-cool bridge
1: horrible stench of factory and dump
3: toll booths
11: dollars paid to continue driving beyond tool booths
5: hrs of energy from a 5-hr energy drink
2: bathroom breaks
1: fill-up
6+1: state & district lines crossed
2: memorial photo opportunities
5: unexpected detours
20: minutes lost in the projects/slums of Washington, DC
5: plane landing as I sat in DC traffic
9: lanes of standstill traffic in DC
2.5: hrs spent trying to traverse DC
1 +1: meal + blizzard (banana split = my new fave!)
2: decent-looking guys - the whole trip
1 +2+3+4: diesel, hemi pickup truck with the entire rear window covered with a GIANT American Flag/Eagle decal +# of time I saw it + # of hours that separated sightings + # of States we spanned between sightings = hilarious, and a little sad!

hmmm... what else?

oh. right. the BEST part.

1: hacked bank account mid-trip****
1: canceled bank card mid-trip
1: night without a place to sleep mid-trip

on the upside (for me, at least):
12: hrs spent listening to Jason Mraz in one sitting (not counting the 4 times I got out of the car) - AND STILL LOVE HIM
69: # of songs in my Mraz playlist (some repeats, but in different acoustic venues - stalker much? WOW)

and finally (since I began this list, actually), reminders to be happy:

1: lifelong friend marrying the love of her life
1.5: years it's been since I saw the friends I've visiting in Rhode Island
infinite: guardian angels in my life - 1 of whom just spotted me the funds to pay for a place to stay the night I was going to be stranded

there. that's a better way to leave this email!

DRAMA. welcome to my world. well, Drama and Jason, apparently. :)



* not verbatim
** me yelling in my head, but probably showing my outrage on my face
***my roommate's name
**** I originally thought it was a porn site based on the name - not publicizing it because it makes me seem like I have a dirtier mind that I really do - but turns out it's a fake health product company. hmmm...