What a week

Ever have one of those weeks where it seems like too much happens? That’s what these last few days have felt like for me. For the last 2 years I’ve been a contractor at my company but converted to full time. The 20th was not only my first day as full time but also my first day back in an office since early 2020. Work was fine other than some expected first day shenanigans except I was greeted at home with a brick through my front window. Thankfully it didn’t look like any entry or theft happened but I still had to file a police report and got my landlord involved in replacing the window. I spent an hour or 2 cleaning up glass shards and finding a way to barricade the broken window without causing permanent damage to the house. I was thankful of my woodworking hobby because it meant I had a few pieces of wood that were already the right size to block out most of the window securely. I still went ahead and piled a bunch of things inside the house, to reinforce my bracing a bit more. I also added a metal cup full of tea spoons and placed some muffin sheets on the ground in order to make a ton of noise should anyone make it through all my bracings. The landlord sent over some window people who took measurements. The window is a custom size and needs a custom order so it could be a week or 2 before they get it in. To make matters worse I had plans of leaving on the 22nd, only 2 days after the vandalism, for a short trip to the east coast. Thankfully nothing happened while I was away and every signs are pointing towards this was a random act by someone with mental health, substance abuse issues, or who is just an asshole. As of posting this the window has been repaired so don’t you get any ideas about making my stuff yours.

I went to the east coast for 2 reasons. The thing that brought me out there was my friend’s wedding. He is one of my oldest friends but we had never met in person. We first met on WoW and instantly hit it off. I was 19ish and he was 14ish. Quit judging! We weren’t dating, just playing a ton of video games together. We must have played hundreds of hours over the years over a ton of different games. Life and old age may have reduced how much we play together it has never really slowed our friendship and support. He’s always lived in upstate NY, or the Tundra as he would say, so we never hung out in person given the travel this meeting would require. Then he decided to do something like get married and invite me so I had to go visit.

My flight there was fairly standard and only sucked because it was a red eye. I can’t sleep on planes and need my beauty sleep (even if it doesn’t help). I picked up my rental car in Syracuse and drove to Mexico. That’s Mexico NY, not the country down south. Didn’t know Mexico existed either? I mean, I did since that’s where he’s lived and yes, being a Texan, I have joked many a times regarding his city name. The city is so small it has 2 gas stations, one walgreens-like store, one library, and not much more. When I was booking my hotel for the wedding I saw only 1 in the town and it only had 5 rooms (one a wedding suite) so I was quick at booking my room. Turns out that without knowing I had booked at the same venue my friend was holding his wedding at! I check in that Friday afternoon and take a quick nap before the hangout dinner shindig for those around before the Saturday reception. I felt like a celebrity the entire evening. All of my friend’s family and friends knew who I was though they though I was imaginary up until then. Apparently my friend has mentioned me a few times over the years. We had an awesome night of good food and chats, ending in a spectacular Lake Ontario sunset and a homemade fireworks show. Then bugs came out and we all booked it. I am not entire sure how I stayed awake so long but I did it. I’ve never had a hotel bed ever feed as good as that one did that night after being awake for nearly 2 days.

The wedding itself was at 3ish on Saturday so I had the morning to kill. I drove over to Oswego to visit a few parks. The first park was a little thing by the lake with the highest number of benches I have ever seen. The second was an old colonial military fort that has been mostly restored to its original state. Time was successfully killed so I went back to my hotel room, changed, and walked the 5 meters to the venue. Don’t believe me? My room was that on the right and those chairs were for the wedding. Some people talked, rings were exchanged, a kiss happened, and off we were to the good part, food! It was a small buffet style with fancy choices but every single respectable adult like me ended up swinging by the kids corner and picked up some chicken tenders and fries. Drinks were consumed, shenanigans we had, and quickly the night came to an end. This night the hotel bed went back to being its usual subpar self.

The second reason I went to the east coast was to visit my sister. She recently bought a house in the middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire and I hadn’t seen her much thanks to covid. I originally wanted to fly between these 2 locations but there was only 1 flight out of Syracuse departing at 7am that Sunday. That would have meant leaving my hotel room as something like 4am which wasn’t going to happen the day after a wedding. All the other flights were expensive, had terrible long routes, or both, so I decided to just drive. I already had the rental car so it was only adding an extra day. I also used this opportunity to stay on smaller roads and take my time as I drove the 6ish hours. I made a quick stop by the Bennington Battle Monument, an old monument built in the late 1800s. I also stopped at a vista point with a really nice view. I originally was going to hike up the mountain but laziness called me back to driving. The nearest rental car return still open on Sundays was at the local airport so my sister still had to drive there to pick me up.

I am the first of my family to have been to my sister’s house. Its a great little house out in the middle of nowhere. I made them 2 little frames as a house warming gift, and filled them up with some art made by a college friend of mine. There is a huge flower bed right out front that was buzzing non stop with local bees and other insects. I definitively spent some time there trying to get some sweet bee action shots. There is also a little lake at the edge of their property which was the subject of a few short hikes.

My sister’s partner has a dog, Georgia. Like many of us, she’s occasionally a bit of a nervous wreck but overall super sweet and always looking for love. They joke they bought the house mostly for Georgia, but I am not sure if they are joking. She is generally not a fan of new strangers but she quickly understood I am friend. She joined us on most of our hikes and enjoyed every moment. The only hike she stayed home for was the super easy one my sister and I did on our way to the Boston airport to drop me off. A boy scout made his eagle project on this trail, setting up signs showing the distance between planets to scale. Pluto was so far away that I forgot about this project while on our walk to it.

While there technically is an airport closer to my sister’s house none of those flights home made sense. Instead I flew out of Boston and my sister dropped me off. Things were off to a bad start when I got a notification on the drive there that my flight in Boston was delayed and this could cause me to miss my connection in Salt Lake City that night. Instead of my last leg leaving Salt Lake at 11pm it would leave at 8am the next morning. It didn’t look like there were any alternative flights that would get me home on time so I decided to keep going to Boston and see what happens. When I checked my bag in I was told I could request a hotel for the overnight stay and that I would have to pick up my checked bag before going to the hotel. After TSA I headed to my gate only for it to get changed soon after I arrived. This was only the beginning of my troubles.

When I got to the new gate I noticed the sign said we were headed to Denver, not Salt Lake. At some point the lady at the counter went over the PA to let us know that we would have to land in Denver to refuel before going on to Salt Lake. We wouldn’t need to debark the plane and if we didn’t do this 50 people would be able to get on the flight. Over the hour I sat there I got a few messages saying my flight out of Boston was getting rescheduled, then canceled, then rescheduled. At some point the lady got on the PA again to let us know their system was breaking but they were able to reset it so we go to Salt Lake directly. Sadly this meant all those with digital boarding passes had their passes wiped and they needed to go talk to her to get a printed pass. It’s times like these I feel justified to choose a physical medium when possible because I already had my printed pass and didn’t need a new one. We started boarding a few minutes late and the process was very slow. Turns out the check in system was down and they had to enter us in manually. Each passenger would present their ticket and the ladies at the counter would write down our seat numbers. Once on the plane we just sat there at the gate for a really long time. The Pilot let us know the weight balancing management system was down and they needed to calculate the weight balance before we could head out. I am pretty sure it took us an hour and a half before we pushed away from the gate.

The flight itself was nothing special. I was super tired and couldn’t sleep on planes, so nothing out of the ordinary. We landed in Salt Lake City around 1am and I headed straight to the Delta customer service desk. I was not the first one there and the line definitively got longer after I arrived. The lady there was super nice and knew exactly why I was there. She offered a hotel voucher right away and made sure I was properly rescheduled for that morning flight out of Salt Lake. She gave me directions to the hotel bus pickup location and let me know I did not need to pick up my bag. I walked over to the bus stop and waited for 15 minutes. I saw a few different hotel busses but none for the one I was assigned to. I ended up calling them and I am happy I did! The dude on the phone told me it was too late for their shuttle service but I would take a cab over and their would voucher it. Delta has given me a Lyft ride voucher along with the hotel one so I used that first. I made it to the hotel just in time for the line behind me to once again grow after I got there. I made it to my room around 2am and set an alarm for just before 6am. This is easily the least amount of time I have spent in a hotel room. I had scheduled a taxi ride to the airport when checking into the hotel and made it to the airport soon after 6. When I checked in I made sure that my bag still indeed still following me home and the 8am flight was still on. They said yes to both.

Next to this check in area was a little TSA checkpoint. I was apparently the first one there that morning so all the agents were just staring at me. You know that feeling from school where your teacher stands over your shoulder? Yeah, imagine that but instead its 5 TSA agents. I made it through with no problems. On my way to my gate I saw the main TSA checkpoint and it was already busy. I am glad I got my exclusive entrance. From there on the rest of the trip went as expected and I made it to my house by 9:30am. I am thankful for being able to work from home as I just signed in and still made it for a 10am meeting. I may or may not have also taken a nice nap during my lunch time.

And of course none of this even covers the supreme court idiocy. I do not agree with the removal of Roe V Wade and think nothing good can come out of this. If you or your loved one is in need of help do not hesitate to reach out. I am not sure how much I could help but I will do everything in my power to help including getting you get in touch with some organizations that could better help you out.