An Auditor, Nun, Teacher and PR Rep Rent a Car

Back in October I headed to PA for a Penn State game. It had been a rough week and I was really looking forward to the game. That week I had been in the Chicago area for work. (See a future blog entry to be entitled The Adventures of Jill and Ginger.) I got back late Thursday night, went to work Friday and then headed to the airport for a 8pm flight. All of the Chicago related air travel had gone so smoothly I should have been anticipating that a disaster was around the corner.

My flight left Raleigh on time. Upon reaching my layover in Philly I learned that the flight to Scranton was delayed. I was annoyed because I was getting in late enough as it was. About 20 mins after our original departure time we boarded the plane and headed for Scranton. It is a short flight. Take off to touch down is 20-25 mins.

As the pilot told the flight attendant to “please be seated for landing” all I could think of was going to bed. At this point it was just about midnight. Not long after the flight attendant was instructed to buckle up, the pilot came on. He said “If you look out the right side of the aircraft you will see a cloud. It actually isn’t a cloud. It is fog on the air field.” Apparently it was illegal to try to land the fog was so bad. The pilot assured us they’d done this before and said we’d fly around for 20 mins to see if the fog lifted. Here’s the thing. Scranton, and therefore the airport, is in a valley. If there is fog in the valley at midnight it isn’t going anywhere until the sun comes up to burn it off.

After 20 mins I felt the speed of the plane change and thought “Oh good, they are going to land anyway.” Much to my dismay, the pilot came back on and said that we couldn’t land so we were heading back to Philly. Are you kidding me?!?!?! The flight attendant told us that if we could get service on our cell phones we could make calls. (FYI…apparently everyone on a plane can have their cell phone on and nothing happens). My parents were waiting for me at the airport so I started trying to get a text through to them. The service kept going in and out. I wasn’t able to get a text through for 10 mins and we landed 5 mins later. As soon as the signal was stronger I brought up the internet and was trying to find a car rental place that was open. I finally found one that said it would be open at 2am which is the time I was requesting to pick up the car. I didn’t want to believe it because all the others I had looked up were closed. I reserved it anyway.

We all de-boarded the plane. At this point it was 1am. I was on the phone with my dad having him tell my mom which car rental place to call to double check that I had a reservation. My mom asked me if it would just be easier for me to go back to Raleigh. That was not an option because I had the tickets!! If I didn’t get to my parents’ house by 7:30am no one was going to the game.

My mom confirmed that I did indeed have a rental reservation. I was trying to keep the fact that I had a car on the down low. You see, my parents live 30 mins south of the airport so I wouldn’t actually be going to Scranton. Unfortunately an older woman heard me ask my dad if I could just get on the turnpike. When I was off the phone she said “Are you looking for the turnpike? Just take A to B to the turnpike north.” Crap! How can I not offer her a ride now. I would seem like a total jerk. So I said, “Can I give you a ride anywhere?” She said she didn’t want to intrude. I said it was fine and I could probably use the company to stay awake. I had been up since 5am. We had to wait in line to talk to the airline rep to tell her we needed our luggage and not to bother rebooking us on the 8:30am flight. As we waited, the woman overhead a couple in front of us who were trying, unsuccessfully, to get a car. She looked at me and said “They are trying to get a car too.” *Sigh* So I said “Excuse me. I have a rental car confirmed. I have no idea what size car it is because I just took the first available vehicle. I can’t promise it will be a comfortable ride but you’re welcome to come with me.” They gratefully accepted.

At 2am I was sitting behind the wheel of a rental car with three complete strangers. Scranton was 2 hours away. Once we got underway we all began introducing ourselves. The older woman was a nun. The man was a teacher and his wife was a PR rep. I, of course, was the auditor.

We had a very pleasant ride to Scranton getting to know each other and trying to laugh about our situation. As we pulled into the airport I announced “Welcome to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport where the local time is 4:00am.” After dropping them off I headed to my parents house.

I arrived at 4:30am. I carried my suitcase upstairs, took of my heels and proceeded to collapse into bed wearing my work clothes. I took a 2 hour nap until my mom woke me up at 6:30am to get ready for the game. At 7:30am I was in a car headed to State College which is 2 ½ hours away. The game was great. Every once in a while I caught myself phasing out though as exhaustion set in.

Penn State won! Which was good news for the team, because if they had lost after all I’d been through to get there, they were going to get a personal call from me J Next year, I am not going to be the one to buy the tickets!

Ah, there is always a story!

All dressed up and no court date

I do my grocery shopping every week on the weekend, on Sundays to be exact. This becomes problematic when I enjoy a weekend out of town. Such was the case in early July. I spent 4th of July weekend with my sister in Lakeport, MI. While I was away someone stayed in my house to dog sit for Nahla. Couple the fact that I was out of town, so no grocery shopping, with the fact that someone was staying my house, that someone had to eat of course, there was absolutely no food in the house. All week I went out to get lunch since I had nothing to pack at home.

One day that week I decided to head to a little bagel place to pick up lunch. As I waited for my turn to order I decided I wanted a rosemary olive oil bagel with cheddar cheese, lettuce and spicy mustard. Pretty simple, nothing complicated. I stepped up to the counter, place my order and the guy (who was a manger) looked at me like I was crazy. He said “With all the good stuff we have here that’s all you want.” I said “Yup, that’s it.” As he was making my bagel sandwich he kept asking to add things, “How about ham? Oh, I have turkey. How about turkey?” Each time I politely said no. In my head I was thinking “Dude, just make my sandwich so I can get out of here!” Eventually he completed my order, I paid and quickly left. Geez, who thought getting lunch would be such an event.

My sandwich was excellent. So the next day I decided to be brave and go back to the bagel place. I braced myself for the same guy who waited on me the day before. I was very relieved, upon walking in, to see he wasn't there. I stepped up to the counter and placed the same order. The guy who helped me this time was also a manager. As he made my sandwich he was joking around. He wasn't funny but at least he wasn’t trying to get me to change my order. He and I walked over the register where he proceeded to ring me up. It came to $1.92. Since he thinks he is a funny guy he said "One hundred ninety-two dollars." I just smiled and gave him the money. Then as he was finishing ringing me up he said "You are all dressed up today." Today? As opposed to yesterday? Um, this guy has never seen me before. How does he know what I typically wear? Again, I just smiled. "Looks like you're going to court." What? Court? What the heck is this guy talking about?!?! There are office buildings in the vicinity of the bagel place, how has he never seen someone in a suit. I just responded with "It's a work day." I didn’t know what else to say. Then he said "You're the nicest dressed person who’s come in here today." On the outside I smile and said “Thanks.” On the inside I said “What is wrong with the people who work here? Seriously buddy, you’re flirting skills are as rusty as you are. Just give me the sandwich and let me leave.” He was so busy commenting on what I was wearing that he forgot to give me my change. So he opened the draw up again and said "Three hundred and eight dollars is your change."

All I wanted was lunch. What I got was lunch and a story.

Moving, what a pain in the...EVERYWHERE!

I am currently in the process of moving from my apartment into my first home. Exciting stuff!! My mom came down to help with the packing and moving. The following story is about an actual Sherrie Moment experienced by my mom, Sherrie herself.

While I was at work yesterday she was in my apartment packing. When I walked in the door last night I was overwhelmed, she had done alot! She had a good day...up until about 6:40pm at which point things started falling apart.

I came home and she was in a great mood. Encouraged by what she had accomplished during the day and excited about the pita pizzas that were in the oven. I went into the bedroom to change out of my work clothes and heard quite the commotion. I went to check things out and saw pizza sauce and cheese everywhere!! When my mom was taking the pizzas out of the oven, they slipped off the tray. In an attempt to control the situation my mom grabbed for the pizzas. Problem is, she grabbed the cheese, not the crust and burned the tips of her fingers. In addition her elbow hit some part of the oven and also got burned.

After we ate what was left of the pizzas we loaded up the car with boxes and made the first trip of the night. Much of this first load was breakable stuff. We got to the house, I opened the back of my car and a box crashed to the floor. I heard glass breaking. The good news is that the box contained things like vases instead of dishes. So not a huge loss. We unpacked the remainder of the first load with no additional incidents.

We brought the second load to the house. We unloaded the car without incident. Things were looking up. Before we went to get load number three, my mom was shutting all the blinds. The last blinds to be shut where on the back doors. Upon shutting the blinds, my mom turned around and with incredible force walked right into the light fixture hanging from the ceiling. I swear I about peed my pants! Luckily she didn't get cut but a large lump appeared immediately.

We brought the third (and last) load to the house, unloaded it, unpacked boxes and made it back to the apartment without incident. I proceeded to get ready for bed. As I was in the bathroom I heard my mom yell "Ouch!". Oh geez, now what?!?! I was hoping she had just bumped her burnt fingers on something. I came out and asked if she was ok. Remember that box with the broken glass? Well, in an effort to save the box to use again she decided to put all the glass in a doubled up plastic garbage bag. When she went to pick the bag up, a piece of the glass sliced through the bag and cut her palm just below her thumb. Thankfully, it wasn't deep enough to require stitches.

After the 3 1/2 hours my mom had last night, I'm done complaining about my bruised up arms and knees and my oh so sore legs. There are still 2 more days of moving. Is it to much for hope for that we got all the bad luck out of the way last night????

Flying Saucers

So, I had a moment last night. It was 9:30pm and I was finally sitting down to relax. I treated myself to an ice cream treat that as I kid I think were called flying saucers although I could totally be making that up. The ones I bought this week are called Big Wheels. Anyway, it is round chocolote cookies with cookies and cream ice cream in between. Yum!

I was sitting on the love seat with the ice cream in my right hand and my dog came over to be petted. As I reached out to pet her with my left hand the ice cream went flying out of my right hand onto the floor. Don't ask me how it happened because I have no idea! I don't remember bumping anything with my hand. One minute the ice cream is in my hand, the next it is flying through the air. I quickly snatched it up before my dog could eat it...although she was too surprised to go for it. I picked it up, looked at it and, quitely honestly, considered eating it anyway. However, my dog enjoys licking the carpet so I thought better of that idea and threw it away.

Perhaps that should have been clue enough to let me know I should not eat one last night. But instead, I went into the kitchen, opened up the freezer and took out the long plastic container they are in. There were three left in the container. Now it is one of those containers like you find in the bakery at the grocery store. The ones with the plastic tabs and interlock and are a royal pain to open without cracking the whole thing.

I put the container on the counter to open it. Upon opening it, two of the remaining three treats flew out of the container and onto the floor. I looked at the floor, threw my hands in the air and yelled "What the crap?!?!" I picked them up, looked at them and decided to keep them. In the spirit of my friend Heather, I ate one and put the other back in the container. I'll have that one tonight. I really hope my dog doesn't lick the kitchen floor :-/