The 160 to New London, Please...

I missed my 7am train Saturday morning for my Connecticut adventure. Sleep was far too much of a draw for me to crawl my way out from under the cozy warm duvet at 5:30 a.m. Had I known what was going to befall me for missing this train, I would have hopped out of bed without a second thought.

Fate seemed to toss me a lifepreserver when I got outside and managed to catch a cab right outside my building. The driver actually got out and put my bag in the back of the SUV instead of just popping the back open for me, the interior was nice and warm, and the radio was tuned to some soothing classical. The guy was chatty, a little overly so, but it didn't bother me very much. We hit traffic by the time we got to Lex though and that should have been a sign of things to come. He finally pulled up to the Amtrak side of Penn at 8:50. The 160 to Boston was leaving at 9 and I still needed to get my tickets from the electronic kiosk. I wave good-bye to Muhammed who I will likely never see again and tell him to have a great weekend.

I walked briskly to the packed interior of the Amtrak waiting area to announcements that the national grid was down, tickets were not accessible and you could purchase on-board with no penalty. Great. But I had a reservation already. Working my way through the mass of people, I get on the train and find an empty two-seater. Perfect. Nope, not so much. The 9am is late enough that everyone wants to get on and seats fill quickly. Isn't this why I usually take the 3am? I end up with a young mom and her 1 y.o. (I'm guessing here) sitting next to me and I'm praying to the crying baby gods that this kid stays quiet for the duration. I spent the next hour or so trying to get the Amtrak people on the phone to cancel my reservation, and manage 2 dropped calls later to get just that. But Enterprise tells me that they're closing at noon, and if I miss them, that's just too damn bad.

I'm cursing that extra two hours of sleep that I took, but Mom and baby get off in New Haven and I've got both seats to myself now. Perhaps things will improve? I even manage to nap a bit before the train pulls into New London, and after three failed calls, and at 11:52, I get Enterprise to say they'll pick me up. Damn straight.

Things go better at the rental place. I get a choice between several cars and pick the brand new black Chrysler Pacifica (a car, by the way, I would definitely buy if I was in the market). The next several hours are a blur of people, and kids, and cake, and stores, and smiling to meet new people, and entertaining, mingling, and lots and lots of driving, and a karaoke bar filled with jeebs. Megan's* (we'll protect the names for the innocent here- and that one's for you Jason- you know who you are) son had a great 3rd birthday, loved his cake shaped like a McDonald's french fry box with fries hanging out, I finally met my friend Sara's* new boyfriend and I got to visit with family. It was a crazy, long day and I was exhausted before it was half over.

Sunday became much like Saturday (these weekends are always a whirlwind) Megan, Julie*, and I drove up to my stepmom's new shared house with her girlfriend and her kids and we swam in the arctic pool and lounged in the hot tub. It was relaxing, but after a while, my port site couldn't take any more submersion. We soon departed for the mall, wandering around as a group, and getting my nephew's hair cut (he looks SO adorable now- away from the hoodrat style his mom loves to put him in). After dinner it was time to race back to the station and get on another train. This one I had to wait until Stamford to have both seats to myself, but that's better than the whole trip. I bunkered down with my fleece and my pillow and iPod and managed to catch a few Zzzz's before landing back at Penn, 38 some hours after I had last seen it. The cab driver didn't utter a word to me the entire trip, aside from "left or right" when we returned to Tudor City, but that was a-ok with me.

I think I'll stay home next weekend...and the weekend after that....