Leg 1 of my adventure began at 7:30am, when I woke up and stumbled into some clothes and hurriedly makeup-ed my face. My roommate and I were on an adventure! Doggedly and unattractively, we dragged our luggage, laundry, and large backpacks down 2 flights of stairs, outside through the slushy snow, then down yet another monumentally long flight of stairs...through even slushier snow. Anyone overhearing would have thought an animal was dying while falling down the stairs for all the grunting and heaving we were doing.
I used brute force to crack the ice off my trunk, open it, and thrust my giant red suitcase inside. Then came the 20 minute ordeal, a true test of East Coasthood, of scraping 7 inches of snow and ice off my windshield WITHOUT gloves. And I nailed it!
Then, we were off! The open road before us, and school and all it's challenges behind. We're jammin to my specially made roadtrip home mix when, an hour into it, we realize something.
We. Need. Coffee.
I pulled off the highway because the sign promised me Starbucks. I was craving a nice soy caramel latte with an extra shot and my roommate (strictly a tea person) was desperate enough to want coffee as well. The need was immediate and very very pressing. So we drove and hunted but no Starbucks was found, much to our frustration. In our frenzied search, I drove too far down the road and had to then attempt to turn around. Every light, of course, said no u-turns, so I had to get creative.
On a serious caffeine low and somewhat panicked, I turned the wrong way down a one way street in my attempt to turn around. Because of the snow, my non-snow tires skidded, bringing me off the road and within an inch of a stop sign!
Recovering from this and shouting my apologies to oncoming cars, we meandered into the drive-thru of a McDonalds and I settled for a caramel mocha and a burrito. In my famished state, it did the job just fine.
So we drive and drive and drive.I dropped off my roommate, grabbed my golden ticket (aka my detailed set of directions) and started out for my first long drive all by my lonesome. It was thrilling! I sang very loudly to my music and finished my roommate's coffee that she (thankfully) left in the car.
I finally safely arrived at my friend's place, where I met his puppy who peed uncontrollably the entire 10 minutes I was in the house. Since I didn't want to traumatize the little thing too much, we left, and I was on Leg 2 of my journey home!
Leg 3 of my journey was supposed to be a 6 hour flight from Washington DC to California. I always wonder what my seatmate will be like on airplanes. Will we be friends? Will he/she be old? Will they want to talk to me? Will this swarthy young stranger be my future husband?? (Okay, the last one I really don't wonder too often...but it could happen!)
The guy sat down and I began my estimations. He looked to be about my age or younger, but he was on the shorter side, so I wasn't too sure. This was our conversation:
Him: "Man, this is gonna be a long flight."
Me: "Yeahhh." Pause, because I didn't know what to say. "The worst flight I had was from here to Germany. I thought I'd never get off that plane!"
Him: *awkward pity laugh* "Yep, this is gonna be a long flight."
Me: "Yep."
And that was that. I was convinced that no, we won't be friends, no, he does not want to talk to me, and NO, he is not swarthy and therefore not my future husband. So I used my defense mechanism and promptly fell asleep. Upon waking up, I watched two movies and a TV show about killer robots, and decided to nap again. It was then, with my eyes not yet quite closed, that I saw Seatmate bring down some white knitted gloves from his bag. "Funny," I thought. "I guess his hands are really cold?" I mean, to each his own I suppose.
Then, as I peeked out of my right eye, to my great surprise, the fingertips of his gloves lit up! Blue, read and green lights danced as he moved his fingers in fast patterns. Sometimes he'd go so fast I could feel his seat shaking...then he'd slow down. I was tired, and so I did not feel like dignifying this odd behavior by paying attention to it. I kept "napping". He kept up his light show for a good 45 minutes! At one point, I overheard a flight attendant ask him about it. He said it increased "finger agility".
I was not impressed.
My parents got lost in the airport trying to find me, so I sat and waited for an hour and called a friend. They finally found me, and we began Leg 4 of my journey home. In the middle of our two hour drive home, we stopped at a breakfast diner (it was close to midnight) and I devoured an omelet and hashbrowns.
Then, to my inexplicable relief, after 25 hours of travel, I was home. Home sweet home.
