BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: JERSEY GIRL EDITION - MAY 15, 2017

This week I accompanied Steve on one of his business trips! He has been traveling a lot for work, and if he goes someplace neato, I always ask if I can go. He was supposed to go to Hawaii and Italy this year, and he said I could go along on both of those! I was, understandably, quite excited!  Unfortunately he got moved to different contracts or some such thing, and he wouldn't be going on those trips after all.  However, he said I could go with him on his next travel wherever that would be and so here I am.

In New Jersey. 

Stop laughing.

Our day didn't exactly run 100% smoothly, although it wasn't anything terrible.  It was just one of those days where a series of little annoyances seemed to follow you around. Things began on a fun note when I had a sudden allergic reaction to a new kind of mouthwash. I didn't stop breathing or anything like that, but my lips swelled up quite a bit!  On the bright side, if I ever get the urge to get lip injections, I can save a ton of money and have fresh breath as a bonus by just using that stuff!

Then I had to go to the dentist, which isn't exactly an annoyance, but it is not a thing I enjoy. You know, I can brush and floss without incident, but let someone else do it and I get spit all over my face and toothpaste in my hair! Gross.

Once I got home, Steve and I packed the car and got ready to go. We would be driving to Atlanta to catch our flight to Newark. A little road trip to start the day off isn't so bad!  Heh...  We got in and started to back up when BAM! We hit something very hard.  In my head we had plowed to the truck, but no, that wasn't it.  We turned around and saw that Steve had backed smack into one of our trees. Earlier, Steve had moved the car so that we could park the truck in a different spot and unfortunately for him the tree was in his blind spot. It did a little damage to the bumper, but nothing terrible. It didn't even scratch the tree. I started laughing, which made Steve very mad! I know he bruised up the car, but I couldn't help it! I had to turn my head and hide my face until I got myself under control!  He did NOT appreciate my mirth.  Heehee!

We finally got out on the road and the drive to Atlanta was thankfully normal. Yay! After checking in we had to separate at the security checkpoint.  Steve has the TSA Pre Screen thing and I am just a lowly peasant, so I went to where I had to take off my shoes and show everyone my toiletries, while he did his thing.  Again, my ankle set off the X-Ray machine.  I wonder why it does that?  Was I in a war I don't remember and have shrapnel inside of me?  Is everyone afraid to tell me that I was a soldier?  Do you not think I can't handle the knowledge?  What is it?!  Anyway, we were in two totally separate places doing security, so when I finally got through, I had no idea where he was! We texted and waited in the wrong places for a bit until we finally found each other.  I really need to do that pre check thing soon. 

When we made it to our terminal, it turned out that we had been moved to a different one. We kept getting alerts on the Delta App that our flight was in one place, but it when we'd check, it wasn't there.  Finally we found where we were supposed to be and sat down.  We sat, and sat, and sat some more while our flight was delayed not once, not twice, but three times.  That was going to get us to Newark after 10:00 PM, which is much later than we wanted.  Oy.  While we're we're waiting, a woman came and sat across from us in the terminal. She looked like a well dressed business woman and so I didn't pay much attention to her since I was returning an email and minding my own business. She pulled out her phone and was talking quietly to someone and then all hell broke loose.  She started yelling into the phone. Yelling. Yelling private relationship business.  Apparently her boyfriend, Kevin, is an asshole and she didn't want to go to his birthday party anymore. He was an asshole and he was gaslighting her. She didn't feel safe with him and he was mentally abusive! He tried to kill himself...strangle himself in front of her! She wanted to break up. She had never wanted to move to California in the first place! She was going to come back to his house and get her stuff! 

Everyone around her was hearing this and trying to pretend that they weren't. We were all very uncomfortable.

Girlfriend then hung up the phone.  Whew, we thought, now that's over, but no...she pulls out the phone again.  Kevin is an asshole! A gaslighting asshole! He was mean to her and she wanted to break up. She was breaking up with him right now! She didn't even want to see him this weekend! It went on and on and on. FINALLY she gave her last word and hung up. She got up and walked off, and then the applause started. 

Kevin, I don't know who you are, I don't know what your thing is. If you love this woman, I hope it works out, but from one stranger to another...run, brother. Run for your life!

We were (finally) crammed in what looked like the oldest plane that I'd ever seen, and I do mean crammed, and after sitting on the flipping tarmac for a year and a half, we finally took off.

We made it in due time, and my first impression of New Jersey was that it smelled old.  Isn't that weird?  I'm sure it was just the airport, but even outside, it smelled old.  I can't describe it any better than that.  It was too dark to tell anything else. We got our rental car and made our way to our hotel.  The Short Hills Hilton is a lovely place, and probably the nicest chain hotel we've ever stayed in.  We had missed dinner, so we got snacks in the hotel store and went to our room.  I am currently sitting here in my pajamas eating chips while Steve is ironing his shirt, and pretty soon I'm going to crash because I am exhausted. 

Let the adventure begin!