Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Odd

So I flew into Madison, WI yesterday afternoon.
Traveling while nauseous and pregnant just isnt pretty. (Ill spare the details). After a 3 hour bus ride at 2 am and catching a flight at 6:30 am, I found myself in the Dallas airport rummaging for food. McDonalds breakfast menu sounded terrible so I went to Starbucks to buy a Naked juice for $5. I was robbed.
Then I headed to wait at my gate. The flight wasn't scheduled to take off for another hour so I got comfy in my chair and started one of my favorite airport past times, people watching. The funny thing was that all the most interesting people would come stop at my gate. This has happened several times in the past as well; you find the most interesting people on your flights to Madison, WI.
I don't mean to down WI and in fact I absolutely love the down-to-earth personalities, but I can't help but admit that sometimes I find odd people on these flights.
The first woman that caught my eye and by far the most entertaining subject was a girl, early to mid twenties. She came waltzing up in a fascinating gettup. It went as follows... top to bottom... a black buret atop a lovely crimped har/straightened bang hair-do, a pearl, imitation vintage choker necklace, a black evening dress, a single black glove on one hand and shiny black go go boots. Huh.
After seeing such an interesting gettup that ended up sitting across from me, I decided to stop looking beyond my gate. The next lady I noticed sitting nearby was a woman with a back packers back pack on. Nothing that out of the ordinary right? But, then she turned around wearing an old black knit sweater with cats stiched on the front. Back pack, fine. Sweater, not my cup of tea, but to each their own. BUT, what is the likely hood of finding both pieces in the same ensemble?!
Another lady came up with a McDonalds sandwhich in hand. I watched her as she opened the carton and examined her purchase. She proceeded disecting the thing, first taking off the lettuce, the tomato, and then the bun. She ended with peeling off the bacon and dropping the slice in her mouth, licked her mayonnaise fingers and then tackled the patty. That's all she ate, oh and some more mayo. For one getting so easily nauseous, had to look away.
I mean, I think my husband likes those parts the best too, but it was just too much that early in the morning.
I realy don't have anything against any of these individuals, just am interested and quite surprised in their individuality.
Heres to another interesting morning in an airport!
U rah rah Wisconsin!

Friday, September 3, 2010

I Shouldn't Have Gotten Out Of Bed!

I am actually writing about that fateful Wednesday, two days ago. (It's a bit of a long story)

The morning actually started off okay. I woke up early and headed to the UVM clinic where I shadow/volunteer in physician consultations from 8-11. I actually volunteered for one of my favorite doctors, Dr. Tinoco, who is a general practitioner. The morning was great except that I was exhausted and I kept propping my head up with my hand. I think she noticed I was tired, cause at 11 am on the dot I announced it was time for me to go (which is unusual on it's own, since I enjoy staying an hour or two longer out of interest) and her response was "get some rest".

Well, I got in the car and to my great dismay, the stinking car started acting up. The ride home was quite unnerving as our car randomly jolted and threatened to turn itself off. A problem we had had a month ago and a week at the mechanics only seemed to give a temp fix. So after holding my breath almost the entire car ride home I miraculously pulled into my driveway.

Then I got home and fixed a snack. Strangely, when I opened the fridge, the light was out. I wondered if it just burnt out and thought nothing of it (though how often do fridge lights burn out!?). I ate my snack and went about my business. Then I noticed that the microwave clock was out, the lights wouldn't turn on.... hmm, coincidence, I think not. Well, obviously the power went out. Well, I figured the electricity was out in the city. Since this happened in Nicaragua all the time in my childhood, I didn't worry about it.

Of course my phone was just about out of battery and with it's last juice I quickly called Ryan to tell him that I would pick him up at the bus station at 3pm (he took a bus to Mexico City that morning for meetings). So, I patiently read a book (as there is not much else to do around my house without electricity) until 3. I got back into the breaking down car and gassed the sucker as best I could to get it to go. After several minutes of potential whiplash, I picked up Ryan and told him about the issues the car was giving. I don't think he realized how bad the car was cause he still wanted to run errands. Haha, that didn't last. Two blocks later and after stopping on the way to pay the electric bill, we again miraculously pulled into the driveway.

As soon as I pulled up to the house I realized that I forgot to ask surveillance why the power was out. After mentioning this Ryan said that it might be off because we were three days late on the bill. Three days, come on, that's ridiculous. He called up the electric company and sure enough, they turn it off after one late day! It gets better, it takes three days to process the payment (which we had just made minutes ago), and then it would be another 24 hours until they came to turn it on! What about the fridge!? So much for that Costco run with all the frozen food we made just two days ago! Thankfully, they told us that we could repay it at their office and then it would be just a 24 hour wait.

Well the crappy part, is now we don't have a car to go to this special office. Ryan called the mechanic and told us to bring it by in an hour (ps, the mechanic lives across town!). So we decided to stop by the special office on the way to the mechanics (which wasn't really on the way anyways). So Ryan and I piled in the car and the entire time to the office I kept having panic attacks that the car would break down mid traffic. Well we made it, but guess what? Ryan forgot the bill and the workers wouldn't look up our account number unless we had a special number found on the front of our house! So, we could no longer pay the bill at the special office. At this point I just started giving up on the day.

So then we trekked our way across town (on highways, where you go fast) as the car gave out every other five seconds, and I am not exaggerating in the least! It was a very quiet ride, you know those moments when everybody is completely stressed out and doesn't dare make conversation. It wasn't until we pulled up to the mechanics that my heart rate lowered and I could unclench my hands from the seat. The mechanic was flabbergasted and after an hour suggested we take it to the dealership. Oh no, I was not about to get back into that thing, so I opted for a taxi and we could worry about it in the morning.

So we went home, and of course Mutual is Wednesday nights, so we walked to church (just a couple miles away) after we got back. Sweet Ryan "dropped" me off and then walked the extra several miles there and back to the special offices where he was finally able to pay the electric bill.

In the morning Ryan somehow got the car to the dealership and by the afternoon we had the car back, with a very minimal bill (in the end, all it was, was a cable that needed to be replaced).

Back at home the electricity was still out and after packing ice in the fridge tried waiting patiently. When we called the company after our 24 hours were up, some idiot claimed to have come by and reconnected the electricity. Lies. So then we had to wait another 24 hours for the techs to come by again. Joy.

Well, at 12 pm today, they reconnected the electricity. Just 48 hours, lots of melted ice cream, and 2 camp-like nights with candles and flashlights later!

Vive Mexico!