sudden crazy trip to NY and TuffNuff

I had some things to do in New York, and I wanted to visit my cousin, who is very pregnant, so last week, I took an abrupt trip. I didn’t let on until now, because I have lots of friends and other family there, so I hated to have to tell everybody “Sorry, I can’t see you, I have no time in my schedule.” :/

The whole trip was ridiculous. I’ll try and write about it in a nutshell.

It all started on Sunday night when I told my mom that I decided to stay with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in New Jersey and drive into the city.
“WHAT?! You’re going to DRIVE?” she exclaimed. “I don’t want you driving in New York traffic ! They are maniacs! It’s so dangerous! I don’t want you going!” I was like, “Mom, I’m not going to NOT go to New York just because you’re afraid of me driving.”

But no, it was a big deal for her. Sunday night at 9 PM I was packing and she burst into my room, almost shouting, “Now I’m so upset I can’t sleep, and I have to get up at 4 AM tomorrow to take you to the air port!”

;_; Dude, this is about ME. Not YOU. I have to be the one doing this. She was stressing me out. I tried not to get upset.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA SHE WAS TOTALLY RIGHT. But I that didn’t change the fact that I had to do it.

I flew to New York, read a lot of “Miracle of Light’ (WOT) and took a shuttle to the rental car company, which was …..somewhere away from the airport. (this will become a problem later -_-)

The attendant said there was gonna be a snow storm on Tuesday, so he asked if I wanted to upgrade from economy size car to standard. It would cost me extra money, so I declined, but he did it anyway for free. So I got this Ford, and it was heavier. :{ I’m not used to it…I didn’t like it. And a window frame was in my way when I looked over my left shoulder to check my blind spot. I kept freaking out driving because I couldn’t see well, and it was dark. I had to drive using GPs to my Aunt’s house, but I did it.

Tuesday I left for New York City at 9 AM and a drive that should have taken one hour, took THREE hours because THE BLIZZARD OF THE SEASON decided to rain it’s fury and wrath upon the New Englander who escaped her grasp by moving to Las Vegas!

I was crawling at 20 miles and hour for much of the ride. (I took pics when we were at a stand still.)

You’re supposed to be able to see the city and the bridge looming above! NOTHING!

My car was slipping and sliding and I thought I was going to crash literally 5 or more times. And I had to pee, and ended up going at random gas stations and even a toll stop employee’s bathroom. Going there, and then coming back (which took me FOUR HOURS) was literally the worst drive of my entire life. The previous record was held by me 8 years ago when I drove to the NAGA tournament and got into a traffic stand still around the same area, on the George Washington Bridge, for like 2 out of 5 hours. And my old car started over heating and shaking.

The whole time I was in traffic this time (aside from text messaging Brittany and Heather ‘omfg look at these weather pics, I’m gonna die), I tried to be thankful. I’m thankful I get to see my cousins. That I’m safe, not in a bad part of town. I’m warm!!! I’m protected from ice and show. I have PLENTY OF GAS (although my car had no windshield wiper fluid, wth), I wasn’t lost. :}

But I did what I had to do and had a good day, other than transportation.

That was good, so it was worth it.

Wednesday I spent the whole day with my family. I went shopping with my cousin Adele, who is due in March!

It looks like we’re in an igloo, but it’s the car. lol

I learned a lot about being pregnant and having babies, which is not in my immediate future, but that information might be useful in someway some day. Haha I love my family. But I was hearing Aunt Connie’s voice in my mind as I was trying to sleep. Fellow kids teacher, a music teacher! Strong, commanding voice! :} I need a more commanding voice… I’m too nice.

Thursday I went back into the city, but BY TRAIN! Boo yeah. It was much less stressful. Was successful in my day. And then got picked up by my cousins Adele and Alison in a car. We ate together and it was nice.

Friday….HAHA CHAOS! My flight left at 6:45 AM. I thought it would take me 30 mins to get to the aiport by car. So I woke up at 2:45 AM, and tried to get out of the house at 3:45, but actually left at 4 AM. Plugged in the address I had for the car rental office, 99 Bessemer street, checked GPS and it said 45 mins. CRAP, fine. So I sped a little on the high way (I mean going 70 mph in a 65 lol.)

I approached the GPS destination via route 1&9. I saw a sign that said “Bessemer street” with an arrow, but my GPS said another mile. I was like, “huh?” So I kept going. I never actually saw a sign that said “This is Bessemer street.” Then my GPS said, “Turn right onto station road.” So I did. And THERE WAS A HUGE METAL GATE CHAINED SHUT with a sign that said “road closed.”

“What the hell?!” I cried out loud. I was on a high way, I couldn’t just turn around. So I followed my GPS aka The Devil’s Voice which took me on a U-turn route by going straight and taking exits, and I came back around…only I didn’t see that “to Bessemer street” sign again. I just somehow ended up at the same closed road! That took about 15 minutes, and I’m starting to stress about my flight.

I pulled into a Hilton Hotel next to my closed road, and said to the Front Desk guy, “excuse me, can you help me?” He had no idea. I checked some written directions the rental place gave me, and I could not figure them out. They were so confusing. I called my car company office and no one was there because it was like 5 AM! So I did the same U turn route again trying to pull into another car rental place, and they told me that had no idea what E-Z park or Drive-O was. Omgggggg and then I found myself at the stupid Hilton hotel again.

I started crying in panic and frustration because now it was 5:25 AM. (flight at 6:45, boarding at 6:15) . Okay okay, after swallowing my emotion via jedi mind trick, I called the Drive-O roadside help or something or other, and some lady told me no, she never heard of Bessemer street, but her address shows Cargenie street? I should go there. My gps said it was 20 minutes away. SCREW THAT!!! O_O;;; panic….

Screw you guys, I’m not missing my fight. I had committed to TuffNuff to man my table, plus take care of other stuff. SO I did the freaking U turn route again, and went to The Parking Spot, freaking parked my car, left the ticket stub in my car, and took a shuttle to the airport. Screw them, screw New Jersey roads, screw the snow, screw the cold, screw my GPS, screw everything but the very friendly shuttle driver who was very reassuring and sped me to my terminal.

I checked in on time, hurried through security just barely. I got a little relief laughing at this dude in a car hat. haha ;D

I power walked to my gate, and ate some freaking FROZEN YOGURT, thus saving my sanity. YAY SANITY!!!

See? My sanity. 6 AM, a new early record, baby! XD (previous record was 9 AM)

Flew to Las Vegas!!!! MY HOME!! WARM! Left at 6:45 AM, arrived at 8:45 AM because of the time difference. Read more Wheel of Time. I read 200 pages in my entire trip. The Last Battle is underway. Landed 30 mins early! :} Mom picked me up, and I decided I didn’t wanna stress her out, since she gets stressed out easily, so I didn’t rant about my trip. Then the car company called me on the ride home.oh well. LOL So she got to hear me be like, “I drove around for HOURS and I could NOT find your place, so I left your car in parking lot C spot L! go pick it up! And I don’t expect to be charged for the day!” They agreed not to charge me if I overnighted them the key.

After I hung up, mom said, “I don’t wanna know. Just keep on top of it.” THANK YOU, Mom! 😀

Went home, got my gear, ran to the post office, spent 20 bucks mailing them the key, and then made it in time for MMA training. IT FELT SOOOO GOOD to train. I had literally been doing nothing but sitting my whole trip. I trained with Heather and Jeramie and my team. And I somehow couldn’t find my gloves, to Guns lent me his. Thanks, coach. ;_; Life saver….

After practice, I had to call my health insurance company to confirm payment because I’ve been having problems for MONTHS with them. I actually called, got stuck on call waiting, and drove ALL THE WAY HOME listening to the ‘hold music’ before I got to talk to a human being. When someone answered, I was near home, but pulled into a restaurant parking lot. Got that handled! 😀

Then went to TuffNuff!

I sold my books and T shirts, met people, took pictures! It was awesome. :}
Heather helped me.
photo taken by Silton.

and we met a man in a pizza suit. LOL I was on my way to the restroom, and screamed across the hall, “HEATHER!!! COME HERE!!!! Heatherrrrrrr!”
The guy in the pizza suit actually started laughing.

Lots of great, exciting fights! Syndicate team members did pretty well. Congrats to Caleb and Jamie on impressive victories. Even Corey who unfortunately lost, was beating up his guy, and side-kicked him in the head like twice. It was so cool.

Lots of people! TuffNuff is awesome!

And I got to chat with Tonya Evinger a bit.

Thanks to Heather and her friends for hanging out with me and supporting me in selling my stuff.
Went to bed at 11:30 PM exhausted.

/end of craziness

For now ….…