grounded, but not

spring break 2006, day 1

so technically, this isn't my spring break. it's my students spring break. my grad school classes are actually still in session. i've decided that i'm just not gonna go. besides there is plenty of work for me to submit online. but that's neither here nor there. i decided to go to atlanta for a while to spend time with the lovely family.

i awoke to day one of my "spring break" to bright sun and a slight hangover from the night before. teachers can drink, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. we had gone to a pub at about 3pm and started tossing em back until around 8, when i left to go to my roomates birthday party. so, slowly, i took the morning of day one with caution. i played around on the internet, wrote a blog, watched some tv, talked to mom on the phone a while, and cleaned my room a little. then, around 2:30, i set off for a 4oclock flight to atlanta leaving LGA airport.

late.

i get to the airport at 4:10 and the lady behind the counter tells me that the remaining flights are full (a note that i was well aware of). i tell her "it's ok" because i was planning to stay in the airport all night and hope for something to open up (good ol' standby seating). this smart lady though, i think her name was claudia, told me that i should go through boston and connect to atlanta because those flights look better. "oh, ok".

fast forward 4 hours later. it's 8 oclock, everything in LGA airport has been grounded since 5pm. there are no more flights going out of boston to atlanta and the flights from new york to boston are all delayed until 9:30. at this point i'm hungry, tired, and somewhat horny. i dunno, i think it's something about airports. the only person i know in boston is foley. hm, how to describe foley? i dunno. let's call him my brother foley. so i call him up to let him know i may be in his town for a night, and he tells me that he's throwing a party in cambridge.

so now i'm on a guestlist.

fast forward 2 hours later. it's about 11pm and i'm walking around boston airport (which is a really nice airport). i can't get my checked back because the airport has to hold it for the next atlanta flight, which is at 5:45am. then i realize i don't have any cash. then i remember that i don't have any cash because i don't have any money - at this point, i'm not to get my direct deposit until day 2 of my spring break. so i go outside and don't see any taxi's. and foley's not picking up his phone. but he did leave a text message of the address of the party. so all i have to figure out now is how to get there.

so i hop on a shuttle bus for a rent-a-car company. take the shuttle bus about a mile away from the airport to Heritage Car Rental. Finicially, the only think i can do is make credit card purchases and hope that it's caught by morning. The car rental comes to about 60 bucks, so fuck that, i start walking. lucky for me though, taxi's, for some strange reason are flying around the rent-a-car spots. so i hop one and ask him to take me to the address on the phone, with a quick stop at CVS.

CVS lets you take out up to $35 cashback from debit card purchases.

30 min and $40 bucks later i get to the address in cambridge, mass. and as i step out the taxi, i swear it's the wrong place. the entire block was deserted and the restaurant inside the supposed address was empty. like chairs up - lights off empty. but at this point, it's midnight. so technically, the rest falls under "spring break 2006, day 2".

have a nice day.