1630 Finish work for the day
1645 Arrive at home. Change, finish packing.
1700 Subway (A train) toward 59th Street
1720 Subway (D train) toward 50th Street/7th Avenue
1723 Subway (E train) toward Jamaica Center, Queens
1810 Air Train toward JFK. Going counter-clockwise within airport. 1st stop Terminal 1
1824 Intraairport Air Train going counter clockwise.
1830 Arrive at Terminal 9.
2030 Fly to California
2335 (0130 Eastern Time) Arrive at LAX
2355 Arrive at rental car agency. Wait in line. Painful.
2359 Wonder if Enterprise and Avis have such long lines and slow staff. Maybe it's just Budget.
3-24-2007
0020 Sink into despair as person in front of me in line waits for fax from mother to give permission to use mother's credit card. Next person in line returns shortly after being assigned a car: "There's no key." He waits several minutes before being helped. Next person in line returns after being assigned a car: "There's damage on the car that's not on the rental paperwork." Painful. Painful. Painful.
0030 Front of line.
0032 Melissa arrives at rental car agency.
0045 On the road to Arroyo Grande
0430 (0730 ET) Arrive in Arroyo Grande
I arose to the sound of talking and laughing from the kitchen of Nicolle's parents' little house that looks out over a beautiful green valley in central California. We all sat around the island on barstools and sipped coffee and talked. Nicolle's mom made the equivalent of biscuits and gravy. Very warm and hospitable family; not an ounce of pretension.
After a leisurely morning, Nicolle, Melissa, and I set out. First stop: Trader Joe's. There we picked up supplies for our picnic on Nicolle's nonwedding day.
We stopped first at the rather touristy Pismo Beach with a big pier, seagulls, and a cold wind blowing off the water. Even spotted a sea otter! (After a kid nearby on the pier yelled, "Mom, look, a sea otter!" I probably would have seen it anyway.) Then we moved on to the more secluded and less touristy Avila Beach. Being sheltered a bit more, it was warmer. There, we enjoyed our organic, whole-grain lunch of hummus, soy & flax seed chips, pico, grapes, trail mix, and sushi
Back to Nicolle's house, where I met some of her family in town for the nonwedding. Aware I was with the womenfolk, I ventured out to where Nicolle's dad and brother were working on designing a pump made out of simple PVC for Nicolle to take back to Mozambique. I felt like I gained some credibility after making a couple suggestions; one of which was to fashion a ball-and-cage valve. I got the idea from studying artificial heart valves.
1810 Leave Nicolle's. Stop by Trader Joe's for a host gift for LA hosts.
1825 Heading south on the 101
2000 Emergency Starbucks stop.
2215 Arrive at John & Kathryn's in Whittier--a suburb of Los Angeles. We visited for a couple hours before retiring.
2-25-2007
Church with John and Kathryn in the morning. Kathryn gives a ride every week to Betty, and elderly woman with one leg. Betty has very precise times to be picked up and dropped off.
We went straight from church to LAX, where I managed to get an earlier flight to JFK rather than Newark as scheduled. The lady at the counter informed me, politely yet firmly, that I was responsible for my own transportation. I stared at her, trying to make sense of her comment, since the airline has yet to deliver me to my door. I think she was assuming I had a connection, or that I was actually trying to get to Newark. (Shudder!)
1330 Leave LAX
2145 Land JFK
1000 Walk through airport. Air Train to Howard Beach Station.
1015 Arrive at Howard Beach Station.
1020 Wait
1030 Wait
1040 Wait
1045 Manhattan bound A Train.
3-26-2007
0008 Arrive at my stop in Washington Heights. My times may be slightly off, but I'm pretty sure it was about an hour and a half on the subway to go from Queens, through Brooklyn, and then up the length of Manhattan.
10 comments:
Why the shift from military time after you landed at JFK?
Wow that was fast...you left off the stop at the shady rest stop at 3 something in the morning. Good thing your mom's new dog didn't grab one of the Hilton's chickens. =0))
Do all your dear readers know what the nonwedding was?
gfh
I for one have no idea, what is a nonwedding??
curious in shreveport
...when the groom can not get into the US in time (due to visa issues) for the set wedding day
I'm curious what the equivalent of biscuits and gravy is. Does sushi go well with hummus or trail mix? Did you spread them all on your flax seed chips, cover with pico and create some kind of horrendous nacho? Or did you just enter Trader Joes without a game plan and everybody started tossing crap into the basket. My verification word on the blog site today is "uhmdqrv" whatever that is.
-daveo
Daveo -- I also thought that was a random mix of food for lunch!
Usually Johnny makes his food sound like a tantalizing treat. His picnic lunch came across as more repulsive.
-cfa
Instead of thinking of it as one big meal (or horrendous nacho)...it was more like little meals...eating chips with either hummus or pico...having trail mix for dessert.
Man, I had no idea Southerners were so picky! =0))
Granted, I guess we did enter Trader Joe's sans game plan, but I still liked the lunch. And I bet deep down DavidO thought it sounded pretty good too. Part of our aim was finger foods.
Granted, I was in Trader Joes withdrawal and knew I couldn't take it home. So, I wanted to taste the various items I missed.
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