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Oct. 30th, 2012 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicWell, it's been an adventure, but it looks like I will make it out of here after all :)
Jess and Noah's wedding was WONDERFUL. I cried basically start to finish. I LOVED it. So even though getting here sucked and getting out was a major challenge, I would do it all again, because it was so worth it. It was my first Jewish wedding, so that was a new experience for me. It wasn't a huge departure from what I'm used to, though. My favorite part was Jess' dad's song "Little Baby Mine," which he wrote for her 3 months before he died in 1986. 87? A long time ago :( They had a recording of him singing it, and it was so perfect for the occasion, and such a beautiful, beautiful love song for a daughter. I'm welling up just recalling it. I also love how when the rabbi announced at the end of the ceremony that it was a legal marriage, everyone whooped and hollered. Yay Massachusetts! Yay love!
The reception had the best wedding food I've ever eaten -- vegetarian Indian food and nutella/vanilla cupcakes. YES PLEASE. And there was dancing :) Jess has a swarm of little girls to whom she is an auntie, and they were the life of the party. When I got to the dance floor, they welcomed me into their dancing circles, and let me pick them up and swing them around and rock out. Phoebe (who was in utero when Jess and I first became friends and is now a GORGEOUS young lady) paused in the middle of one of our dances, gave me a funny look, and said "You're tall." It's true! I am! :) When we were all saying goodbye at the end, Shohannah (sp?) gave me a big hug and said "Bye, Meg!" I was so touched, because I never told her my name, and hadn't been introduced to her mom. Somewhere in there, she figured it out, though, and she knew me, and MELT. It's true, y'all. I kinda love kids these days. Still don't want my own. I feel like every time I make that proclamation, I have to include the disclaimer. But yeah, kids that aren't mine are kind of awesome.
After the ceremony, the phone calls from airlines began. Almost all those of us who were flying had our flights canceled. I was annoyed, because the storm wasn't predicted to get to New England until the evening, and my flight was 5am, headed west. The plane was originating in Hartford, and it wasn't going toward the storm at all, so there's no good reason to have canceled it. And they didn't cancel the 5pm flight, which seemed backwards. But I rescheduled for that afternoon flight, only to have it canceled as well. I spent a good chunk of yesterday researching a way out of town. Hartford had nothing coming or going until Thursday at the earliest, and the very nice guy at United Airlines was super helpful and got me on a flight out of Manchester, NH, 2.5 hours away, for this afternoon. The problem then was finding a way to get up there. I tried Amtrak -- no routes go that way. Greyhound -- all service suspended. Shuttles -- don't go that far. Soliciting rides from locals -- no dice. Rental cars -- none available. So I gave up and called UA back and was like, "well, I can't get to MHT, so I guess I need a BDL flight after all." But there was NOTHING, so I was like, ugh, I guess I'll keep trying. The lady was apologetic and asked if she could help with anything else. "It's a long shot, but can you hook me up with a rental car?" And she did! And it was cheaper than everything else! I got up at ass o'clock this morning, picked up a godawful car that I hope I never have to drive again (Dodge Avenger...meh), and drove my ass to NH. I've been at the airport since 10am for my 5pm flight, but I'm a few minutes away from boarding now, and it looks like I'll actually make it home tonight. Rah!
Now here's the bullshit. The storm never came here. I understand it was pretty devastating where it DID hit, but it pretty much followed projections, and it was never projected to touch western Mass and most of NE. And it fucking didn't. It rained a little, and was a little windy for a little while, but nothing that happened would have been outside the realm of ordinary had there not been a nearby superstorm. And it's been sunny and clear most of today, yet only 5 out of 50 flights from this airport are not canceled. I'd really like to see the number crunching process that led the airlines to believe canceling so many flights was the way to go. Obviously it's better to be safe than sorry, and I can understand a few precautionary cancellations within the potential danger zone, but my 5am flight out of Hartford should have never been in question. Of course nothing can get to New York right now and I'd bet the DC hub is also kind of a mess, and some inbound planes probably got stuck in those places, so those flights have to be nixed even if they're not in the path of the storm, but I still maintain that the overall reaction was a giant overreaction. That is not to say that I don't believe the storm was severe and catastrophic in some places. Also, while I'm bitching about it all, it's really not that big a deal. I had a great time, NoHo was not a bad place to be stuck, and I didn't miss anything important. It cost me a little extra with the rental car and a few more meals out while I was here, but I am in no way sorry I made this trip, and it was a good one, even with all the bullshit.
It was fun being back in Northampton. Last time I was there was the summer of 2002, when I was dating Nate and spent most of the summer in his attic apartment. Only a few parts of the city were familiar to me, because I spent so much of that time just holed up in his place, or on the hiking trails behind his house, so it wasn't really like coming back to my old stomping grounds at all, but it wasn't completely foreign to me, either. Western Mass is definitely another one of those areas that would've been great for me to live, had I not found Portland first. Oh, Portland. I'm excited to get home.
Jess and Noah's wedding was WONDERFUL. I cried basically start to finish. I LOVED it. So even though getting here sucked and getting out was a major challenge, I would do it all again, because it was so worth it. It was my first Jewish wedding, so that was a new experience for me. It wasn't a huge departure from what I'm used to, though. My favorite part was Jess' dad's song "Little Baby Mine," which he wrote for her 3 months before he died in 1986. 87? A long time ago :( They had a recording of him singing it, and it was so perfect for the occasion, and such a beautiful, beautiful love song for a daughter. I'm welling up just recalling it. I also love how when the rabbi announced at the end of the ceremony that it was a legal marriage, everyone whooped and hollered. Yay Massachusetts! Yay love!
The reception had the best wedding food I've ever eaten -- vegetarian Indian food and nutella/vanilla cupcakes. YES PLEASE. And there was dancing :) Jess has a swarm of little girls to whom she is an auntie, and they were the life of the party. When I got to the dance floor, they welcomed me into their dancing circles, and let me pick them up and swing them around and rock out. Phoebe (who was in utero when Jess and I first became friends and is now a GORGEOUS young lady) paused in the middle of one of our dances, gave me a funny look, and said "You're tall." It's true! I am! :) When we were all saying goodbye at the end, Shohannah (sp?) gave me a big hug and said "Bye, Meg!" I was so touched, because I never told her my name, and hadn't been introduced to her mom. Somewhere in there, she figured it out, though, and she knew me, and MELT. It's true, y'all. I kinda love kids these days. Still don't want my own. I feel like every time I make that proclamation, I have to include the disclaimer. But yeah, kids that aren't mine are kind of awesome.
After the ceremony, the phone calls from airlines began. Almost all those of us who were flying had our flights canceled. I was annoyed, because the storm wasn't predicted to get to New England until the evening, and my flight was 5am, headed west. The plane was originating in Hartford, and it wasn't going toward the storm at all, so there's no good reason to have canceled it. And they didn't cancel the 5pm flight, which seemed backwards. But I rescheduled for that afternoon flight, only to have it canceled as well. I spent a good chunk of yesterday researching a way out of town. Hartford had nothing coming or going until Thursday at the earliest, and the very nice guy at United Airlines was super helpful and got me on a flight out of Manchester, NH, 2.5 hours away, for this afternoon. The problem then was finding a way to get up there. I tried Amtrak -- no routes go that way. Greyhound -- all service suspended. Shuttles -- don't go that far. Soliciting rides from locals -- no dice. Rental cars -- none available. So I gave up and called UA back and was like, "well, I can't get to MHT, so I guess I need a BDL flight after all." But there was NOTHING, so I was like, ugh, I guess I'll keep trying. The lady was apologetic and asked if she could help with anything else. "It's a long shot, but can you hook me up with a rental car?" And she did! And it was cheaper than everything else! I got up at ass o'clock this morning, picked up a godawful car that I hope I never have to drive again (Dodge Avenger...meh), and drove my ass to NH. I've been at the airport since 10am for my 5pm flight, but I'm a few minutes away from boarding now, and it looks like I'll actually make it home tonight. Rah!
Now here's the bullshit. The storm never came here. I understand it was pretty devastating where it DID hit, but it pretty much followed projections, and it was never projected to touch western Mass and most of NE. And it fucking didn't. It rained a little, and was a little windy for a little while, but nothing that happened would have been outside the realm of ordinary had there not been a nearby superstorm. And it's been sunny and clear most of today, yet only 5 out of 50 flights from this airport are not canceled. I'd really like to see the number crunching process that led the airlines to believe canceling so many flights was the way to go. Obviously it's better to be safe than sorry, and I can understand a few precautionary cancellations within the potential danger zone, but my 5am flight out of Hartford should have never been in question. Of course nothing can get to New York right now and I'd bet the DC hub is also kind of a mess, and some inbound planes probably got stuck in those places, so those flights have to be nixed even if they're not in the path of the storm, but I still maintain that the overall reaction was a giant overreaction. That is not to say that I don't believe the storm was severe and catastrophic in some places. Also, while I'm bitching about it all, it's really not that big a deal. I had a great time, NoHo was not a bad place to be stuck, and I didn't miss anything important. It cost me a little extra with the rental car and a few more meals out while I was here, but I am in no way sorry I made this trip, and it was a good one, even with all the bullshit.
It was fun being back in Northampton. Last time I was there was the summer of 2002, when I was dating Nate and spent most of the summer in his attic apartment. Only a few parts of the city were familiar to me, because I spent so much of that time just holed up in his place, or on the hiking trails behind his house, so it wasn't really like coming back to my old stomping grounds at all, but it wasn't completely foreign to me, either. Western Mass is definitely another one of those areas that would've been great for me to live, had I not found Portland first. Oh, Portland. I'm excited to get home.
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no subject
Date: 2012-10-31 12:31 am (UTC)That is really weird about the 5am flight being cancelled. You'd think they'd have a bit more leeway time-wise for making the call. I wonder if even all the early ones were cancelled or it was because they involved transfers from farther south or something...
Glad it sounds like you'll make it home safely!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-31 04:46 am (UTC)Purely speculative.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-31 06:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-01 12:17 am (UTC)