judecorp | Operation: Second Date

Friday night I was silly and stayed up far too late. After a lovely sushi dinner with

badadam, I was going to go home. But I wanted to play with the kittens, so I went inside, and

crushinator was there drinking Wild Turkey. They started watching But I'm a Cheerleader so I thought I would stay until the love scene. Well,

tandex comes over. And then right before the love scene,

chutup comes over, too, and so I might as well stay until the end of the movie. They were going to play Death to Smoochy next, and I love that movie, but I was like, "No. I'm going home." I made it to the porch and Jared, Bart, and Cari were out there, and they were talking to me. And I was talking, and talking, and I had more to drink, and then by the end of the night I was coming out straight and kissing Bart and Jared (and Cari, too, so not too straight). Eventually I was like, "I'm going home. It's after 11." But I told them to come over, so they did. Bart and Jared left by 1am, and Cari wanted to stay in case something happened and my ride to the airport slept through.

We woke up at 4:25am after falling asleep around 2:30.

356dreamer came to take me to the airport and everything on that end went off without a hitch. It was pouring rain in Newark, and

The Girl had left me a message saying there had been a problem with her car-tow-thinger and she would be late picking me up. I think she got to me around 9:40am. Our first delay.

The right brake light/directional was out in the truck, and her dad wanted it fixed, so we loaded the rest of everything into the truck and then went searching for this one mechanic the Budget place told us to go to. After navigating through all these little townie streets, we get there at noon to find they close at 11:30. By this point, her mother is freaking out and I'm using my powers of persuasion to convince her that we should just go anyway. Her dad is calling the emergency 800 number, and by now her mom has switched teams to /his/ side, and eventually my Jennifer is like, "I'm getting in the truck now, BYE!" and we head off. It's raining. We're in Hackensack and don't know how to get to I-80. We ask the police at the police station. We get directions. We start going through Saturday rainy-shopping traffic to the entrance to 80, which, of course, is closed for construction. We follow the detour and get on. Construction. Rain. Saturday. It's 1pm.

Through most of the New Jersey we're going 40mph. We get to hilly Pennsylvania and we're averaging 50-55. It's pouring. We're in mountains. Visibility is bad. We stop for food in the Poconos and I laugh because a) it's a lovey-love resort town, and b) A. and I stopped there overnight when /we/ moved to C-bus. We eat Arby's because wouldn't you know there was like a 20 minute wait at /Friendly's/. Oy. We drive and drive and drive and by 9pm we're only in Youngstown, OH. There are about 7 hours of sleep between us (my 2, her 5), and we're slipping, so we head off to find a place to sleep.Easy, right? WRONG.

All of the cheapo motels are full, and the only rooms available are at the Holiday Inn. Apparently there's a big wedding at the HI, but all of the guests are at the cheap motels. Their parking lots are empty, the HI's is full, and we're a 15' truck towing a Jeep. Yay. We park. We get a room. I shower. We unwind. Pent up energy. Yes. At 11pm, we're dead to the world. In the morning, we eat our free breakfasts I pouted for, along with the "Great Rate" which is less than they quoted us for AAA, but why don't they offer it in the first place? Grr.

When we get to Akron and start heading south, the clouds have broken and the sky is sunny and clear and glorious. It's beautiful. The trees are wonderful colors and we have about 1.5 hours left. I crank the radio and find a cheesy easy-listening station and we sing "Kokomo" and make fun of everything. This is heaven on earth, and I'm loving every minute. We're well-rested, we're happy, we're almost there. I call

pattisimmons and arrange for moving at 1pm.

We go to the Budget place to have them remove the tow, and I get to drive the Jeep (yay!) to the Village. I call

laughingsal and she walks over, and

pattisimmons arrives. For 2 hours, we're a FOUR WOMAN MOVING MACHINE. We clear everything but the two enormous wardrobes (chiffarobes?) and we are MIGHTY. We eat Chipotle.

356dreamer shows up after I nearly break my arm, and I snap at him like all get-out (Sorry, Steve-o) and we move the wardrobes.

chutup comes with her daughter and the KITTEN! WHEE! Jennifer needs a bed, and lo and behold, Patti has one. Yay. We go get it. Elaina wants to ride in the truck. I'm half-tempted to tie her to the railings back there. Oops.

Ms. Jen and I move all of the boxes that we'd put in the bedroom so we can assemble the bed. Patti comes back with the missing pieces. We go to Target to get sheets. We eat chinese food (how cliche) amidst the boxes with a sleeping kitten on the bed. Great idea. We walk down the street, it's 11pm, neither of us is good for anything, we pass out.

I woke up at 9am with a sleeping girl and two sleeping cats on my bed. The sun is shining through the window and I don't go to work until 12:30pm. I'm not even all that sore at the moment. Really, does it get any better than this?