2004-03-14 - 10:38 p.m.

Fun with Car Travel

No one has updated in the last ten minutes. What is it, my turn or something?

I did have an eventful weekend; well, Friday and Saturday. Today was as event-free as I could possibly make it. I really need rest.

Thursday night I told my husband I was going to another show. I apologized for the short notice, but said I hadn't decided until the last minute whether I was actually going. Which, that chart notwithstanding, was true. That chart is something I've been told is accurate and I kinda know somewhere in the back of my head is accurate, but I keep pretending that what I say is actually what I mean. So even though this show was an "I really want to" for weeks, I'm still being honest when I say I wasn't sure I was going. It's true, believe it or not. The inside of my head is a complicated place.

So I told him I'd be going to a show Friday night. "Where?" "Jersey." Eye rolling and face making, but good-natured. So he says, "Well fine, then I'm going to Hooters." Which is fine with me as long as he doesn't come home with any of the waitresses - I never come home from the shows with any of the rock stars. Only fair. He asked me, "How's your car?" I said it's great - got an oil change after the last trip, everything's good. "Got a good spare tire?" Yep, haven't checked it lately but I will before I go (and I did). Okay, have fun, see ya Saturday.

So Friday I left work a little early and headed for Jersey. My car just about knows the way now. In fact, I did drive back Saturday without ever looking at my directions (except for the one little detour) just to see if I could - and no problem. I even seem to have the whole east-west directional problem worked out for these particular highways along this route.

After going through tons of traffic, I'm almost there (about 40 miles away) and there's a service area coming up. So I decided that as slow as the traffic was, it would be better to make a quick stop to hit the rest room and put gas in the car, rather than trying to wait until I got to my hotel. Now I wonder... but we'll never know.

As soon as I pulled back out onto the highway, immediately horns are honking at me and other drivers are trying to get my attention. I look over at one guy, and he mouths, "FLAT TIRE." Crap. So I had to take the very next exit and stop at a gas station, and sure enough - rear passenger tire, dead flat. Since it was on that side, I didn't see it when I was at the service area, but I couldn't have been driving on it that way for long, so now I wonder if I ran over something on the way in or out of that stop. Oh well.

So I had to pretend to be a grown-up and take care of things. I called AAA. Oh stop. That is too taking care of things myself. So they put on my spare, which is one of those little donut things, and I made it the rest of the way. Called my husband when I got to the hotel and told him my adventure. He was like - wow - what a coincidence. I said yeah, how funny that the tire was the thing you happened to ask me about out of the blue. And he said no - that's not it. Friday morning, on the way to work, he had a flat. Weird tire karma day, huh?

The part that goes in here chronologically about how great the show was will come later. It was great and I am sooooooooooo addicted to hanging out with the performers.

Saw a couple of people I know at the show - one I'm civil to but who I don't really like because I don't like how she acts toward me or other people. That's a fair reason, isn't it? I hate the politics of fandom. She keeps telling me things she's done in an attempt to impress me, and I keep not being impressed because either I've done the same things or I have no interest in doing them. Yet she keeps telling me. Whatever. I'll keep not being impressed. She also told me several things she heard I'd done and places she heard I'd gone. It's unnerving. I'm not even a public figure. Too many people are too interested in the things I do. Well, in her case she was just looking for a platform from which to tell her own stories or fishing for more information. At least her motives are pretty clear and she doesn't hate my guts - that I know of. A couple of times she said something that I had conflicting information about, and I told her. I wasn't arguing. I wasn't saying she was wrong. It was like, I heard it was going to rain tomorrow, and I'd say, oh, I saw the weather before I left and they said partly cloudy. Just - I heard something different than you did. BOY does she NOT like that. She just stared at me. That killed the conversation both times. I sure wasn't interested in arguing the accuracy of my information over hers, and I have no response to blank stares in general. She finally wore out my etiquette filter and I ended up telling her to go away. I didn't really mean to say it, but having said it, I didn't take it back, either.

The other person there was CWOMM. Which I must say, she owes me less and less. She did make her payment beginning of this month and she's now paid me back about 2/3 of what she owes me. And we've made up, for most intents. I have no interest in holding a grudge and as people go, she's fine. I just now have different personal parameters with her. The amount of information I'll trust her with is a bit less than it was before, and I sure won't lend her any more money. The three of us shared a table for dinner before the show and we had one check, and I paid not a penny of anyone else's bill. I did give her a ride home afterward and we talked and had a nice conversation. I don't think that's caving. I still don't like how she treated me, and she keeps trying to apologize and totally missing the point, but she's just never going to see her behavior in any other way. So I've made my own personal adjustments - and we're fine.

I stayed at a Red Roof Inn. They had the coolest thing. If they have these (plus have free local phone calls) I may never stay any place else. Check out this lamp:

So many hotels I go to, I end up crawling under the desk looking for an outlet, or dragging the phone across the room because it's nowhere near wherever I finally do find an extra outlet... this lamp has a three-prong electrical outlet AND a phone jack. I see them now and then that have the electrical outlet, but never the phone jack built in too... this was just SO cool. I even told the front desk person when I checked out how much I loved it. Who's computer addicted? Take that back.

So the next morning, me pretending to be a grownup again, had to find a place nearby where I could get a new tire, because driving all the way home on the donut would not have been a good idea. That was the little detour I mentioned earlier. Only put a couple extra miles on the trip, but it did add an extra 2 hours. Oh well. It was a pretty day and I spent the time outside instead of in their little waiting room. From now on when I'm on a road trip, I will throw my book in the car even if I don't think I'm going to have time to do any reading. Turns out you never know.

Other than that, the drive home was great - nice and sunny and warm to the point it made me really want to go lay out on a beach. Which I don't do. Check with me after next weekend though. I may at least try to go walk on one.

Oh, now you want to know about the show? Okay... hang on...

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -