6.26.2011

From bad to worse, a crazy New York trip

This weekend was like something out of a movie! Now that it's over I can look back and laugh my brains out at everything, oh man it was crazy. On Friday, David and I planned on driving up to New York to attend a wedding for one of David’s very good friends, stay for a few hours, and then drive back that same evening because of many things planned on Saturday. I wasn’t planning on blogging about our New York trip because I figured it would be a “yeah the drive sucked but we were so happy to be there.” But the Lord likes to give us challenges, and challenges we received.

The trip started out a little later than we wanted. Originally, David was going to take Friday off so we could drive up Thursday night and have all day Friday to explore the city. Hitch number one: David has a “you can’t miss this even if your wife is in labor” presentation at work on Friday, so we couldn’t leave till after that was over. No biggie, we can still leave in the morning and have plenty of time to get there.

Hitch number two: Stupid us forgot to get a gift a head of time. I was going etch some Pyrex pans and throw in a few dish towels but I totally forgot (I do that a lot, maybe because I never write stuff down.) So we have to stop somewhere and grab something.

Hitch number three: We realize we’re out of gas. By now it’s 1:00, and the wedding begins at 7, with a 4 hour drive. No biggie, two hours will even give us a cushion for some traffic and a pee break.

So we’re driving along in our black car, with leather seats, and no air conditioning and a hot and humid summer day. The heat makes David sick. Hitch number 4: gotta stop to let David cool down, hydrate, and recover. No biggie, we only stopped for 20 minutes, we have an hour and half drive and it’s only four! Started to feel blonde fade to gray.

Back on the road! We get onto the New Jersey Turnpike, and noticed hitch number 5.

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Oh boy. I pull up weatherbug on my phone. “Severe thunderstorm warning.” “Flash flood warning.” And something else with the word “severe” in it. Before you could say “uh oh…”


It turned into this. (Please don't judge my weird voice.) And this isn’t even when it was at it’s worse. I was scared, there was flooding and claps of thunder that could shatter your ear drums. When we drove, water was shooting up over the car. Needless to say, we were driving under 10mph for almost an hour. 5pm and an hour fifteen till we get there. It’s ok…it’s ok Amie, there’s still a little buffer.

We made up about 5 minutes of that time and when we hit New York, hitch number 6: Friday afternoon rush hour. “Don’t worry honey, the traffic will all be leaving the city, not entering the city!” Wrong David, oh so very wrong.

It is now 6:55pm and we are a block away from the chapel. A block! I can SEE our destination. We made it! I thought. But no. Hitch number 7: stupid freaking weird NY roads that only go one way (the wrong way). If you’ve ever driven in the Bronx you know what I’m talking about, you can see your destination but you can’t get there because you can only drive one way. I chewed off all my nail polish during this 20 minute period and blonde is fully gray, cursing the fact that we drove so far for something so important to David and now we’ve missed it. 

Finally made it to the parking garage under the chapel. Hitch number 8: it’s locked, we are illegally parked and can’t figure out how to get in the garage and can’t get out. David lets me out so he can figure out the car and I run inside to get changed and actually be there. It’s 7:30 now, we are a half hour late. I change and am about to run into the chapel when David bursts through the door, car parked. Huh-freaking-zzah. He changes and we walk inside together. Huge sigh of relief.

Oh, by the way. From this point on, EVERYONE I see, meet, and interact with speaks Spanish. I don’t, I didn’t even take Spanish in high school. I took French.

Hitch number 9: What the heck…where IS everyone? Hubs rushes off to greet people he hasn’t seen since he left NY four years ago and leaves me in the dust with a language barrier. He comes back a few minutes later, apparently the bride “isn’t ready yet.” Um…ok? But I understand, weddings are stressful, things happen! I grab a seat while David runs around chatting with old friends. I don’t mind, he hasn’t seen these people in years plus I think he’s sexy when he’s speaking Spanish. So I sit and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Hitch number 10: It’s almost 9:30 when she emerges. (This is when I hoped to be LEAVING the reception.) Her poor groom was walking around chatting with people the entire time. But everything goes accordingly, she was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful (I think…I have no idea what was said, but there was a lovely spirit in the room) and it really was wonderful. When the ceremony ended and we went up to greet her and her new husband and by then it was after 10:30. We still have a 4 hour drive ahead of us! But getting home at 3am isn’t THAT bad…right? Right?

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{groom, bride, David, me}

Hitch number 11: Oh wait…we haven’t eaten since noon. Is THAT why I feel so weak? Ok fine, we’ll get some food and then leave. So we wait for our food, our delicious but very strange to me Dominican food, and David catches up with a few more old friends. Glance at my watch. Holy crap, it’s midnight.

We raced to the car to bring in the unwrapped gift we bought (humiliated), scribbled our names and congratulations on it, and on our way out bumped into the older couple we were sitting with at our table. The husband looks exactly like an older version of Bruno Mars, he even has the right hat! He informs David, in Spanish, that we cannot drive home that night, and that we will be staying with them. Though we really need to get home, we know it’s the best idea, and gratefully accept the offer. Hitch number 12: oh yeah, we have no extra clothes, no toothbrushes, no nothing for an overnight trip. No matter, at least we didn’t wear our formal clothes in the car! We still have the clothes we wore during the day.

We get inside and the lovely Puerto Rican couple turns on their Spanish hospitality, and makes us delicious hot coco and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Very sweet…but, uh, it’s almost 1am! Hitch number 13: of course we couldn’t refuse, and 1:30am comes very slowly because I am trying so hard to understand what the heck is going on around me. Dumb language barrier. But, I did learn that a lot of Spanish words sound very similar to a lot of French words, and I am able to pick up bits and pieces. Huzzah.

And then sleep. Blissful, blissful sleep. So grateful to have somewhere to lay my head.

Then an nearly pain-free drive home early the next morning. Headache, nausea, and a little stinky. But minimal heat, no storms, and barely any traffic. And we even made home with enough time to get everything done that we planned.

So, how was your weekend?

7 comments:

Amanda said...

Oh my goodness, what a trip! Well done for keeping going, many people would have given up after about hitch # 6! My weekend has been a walk in the park compared.

Misselle said...

Wow, that sounded like an adventure from those MK & A movies. At least you got some rest before heading back home. I would have been a grouch!

Unknown said...

Wow! Glad you guys made it home in one piece, what a crazy two days!

Just this... Alice said...

Bless your heart. That was some weekend. Talk about putting some excitement into your life.... I spent the weekend having a movie marathon with just a few power outages during our storm today in North Florida. So glad you made it home safely.

Tara @ Tales of a Trophy Wife said...

Crazy-but makes for a great story.

Unknown said...

Well THAT sounds like something that would happen to my hubby and I! ;)
What a blessing generous strangers can be!

Ami Allison said...

WOW!! What a trip. That was like a sitcom show!! SO exciting!

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