June 8, 2008 | Filed under: 20 seconds and under, good eatin', misadventures
The day started off great! Birthday party, face-painting, pizza and good friends. Then it took an ugly turn.
The party was on Long Island and we were driving home upstate from there. We knew we had the Belmont Stakes, a Yankees game and just plain ‘Saturday’ to contend with traffic-wise, and because of that and the fact that we had my entire record collection and a whole mess of baby tomato plants in the bed of the truck on a 90F day, we knew we had to hit the road early.
But something went wrong. We zigged when we should have zagged and after a spell I looked out the window and saw water. We were deep South instead of Way North. We got off the highway but couldn’t get back on and ended up driving through the whole of Brooklyn– all of it, no really ALL OF IT from Canarsie through Kings Plaza, Midwood, Prospect Park, Park slope, Fort Green and Williamsburg– via Flatbush Ave. On a Saturday afternoon.
You may have to be a New Yorker to appreciate how awful that really is. If you’re not, here’s a visual:
The drivers were complete maniacs, we got cut off from the right at literally every block. The traffic getting past the GWB and Yankee Stadium was insane. We left the party at 2:30 and didn’t get out of the damn city ’till about 5:30.
We didn’t get home ’till 8:30.
We were broken.
So we broke out the champagne we’d been saving for a rainy day.
(it was also raining)
June 8, 2008
@ 5:39 pm
Awww Bek. These things happen. I hope the champagne was good. And thanks again for the face painting–didn’t get too many strange looks on the train or subway.
J
June 8, 2008
@ 9:43 pm
Pop em if you got em.
June 9, 2008
@ 6:56 pm
B, I’m so confused with Missbhavens soap opera. Is the Catskills your new home or a weekend getaway? Do you still live in NYC where you gotta move the car or sit in it till parking nazi goes by? The only thing I know is you bring them into the world and I watch them leave.
JC RN and do I have a story bout snakes in my marina.
June 9, 2008
@ 7:08 pm
It is indeed one long soap opera, isn’t it? Brian works in NYC and has to move the car when it’s there. I, being without a license *never* have to move the car no matter where it is, but we do, in fact, live upstate. I have a travel nursing job in the city 3 days/week which is convenient because Brian freelances and spends long stretches in NYC.
But when I’m not working or sleeping between shifts, I’m here at home killing dandelions, making rhubarb jam and occasionally popping champagne.
June 10, 2008
@ 7:19 pm
I all well feel your pain
June 22, 2008
@ 7:15 am
Robert Louis Stevenson once said it was better to travel in hope than arrive. In your case though, I think he might have been wrong. Thank god for bubbles.