Nanuet, NY

Ah, scenic Nanuet, NY, home of the U-turn and the strip mall. Speaking of strip malls, there’s a “Playa’s Club” across the street from the hotel. Don’t know, and don’t plan to find out, if there’s any stripping in there, but there seems to be here in the hotel after hours. I should of known from the guy’s reaction, from behind the counter, when he saw I had reserved a room for 13 days that this wasn’t your ordinary Days Inn. I’d waited behind two young “Gangsta’s” as they’d tried to use the phone to make sure whom ever was staying in the room they had rented had gotten safely back to Albany. It could have been a family reunion, but one of the gentlemen asked me something about what was in my hand, I couldn’t immediately translate his particular NY dialect, so I simply said it was my itinerary. He then replied with, “There was a fire?” I countered with “A fire?…No, my itinerary.” To which he then asked what the word meant and I explained it to him. I must of seemed intimidated explaining this to him so he shook my hand to let me know all was good and her had no intention of killing me over new vocabulary words. They then left and I checked in. The man behind the counter not only looked surprised at my decision to stay as long as I was, but seemed possibly happy to have people staying all night. Like the old proverb says, “You get what you pay for.” Since I didn’t pay for the room, it would seem that it applies doubly for me.

The flight from L.A. wasn’t too bad. Murphy, one of the aforementioned Irish gentlemen I’ve met at the pub offered to give me a lift. All seemed to go smoothly until he dropped me off. He asked me if I had everything and I replied yes. He took off and moments later I noticed I’d forgotten my glasses case in his car. If I’d had my regular glasses on at the time I would have simply called him and had him hold onto it until I returned, but instead I was wearing my sunglasses and my regular ones were in the case. After a brief call on the cell, Murphy said he swing back around. Unfortunately it was difficult to do so on the upper level so I clambered down an out-of-order escalator and stood waiting on the lower level for Murphy’s return while I sweated profusely and wondered if this was an Omen for how the trip would be.

Eventually Murphy made his way around and pulled over for me to retrieve my glasses. However, before I could, a motor cycle cop pulled up and said, “If you get in that car I will give you a ticket.” I looked at the cop and then back at Murphy, noticing that Murphy had pulled into a red lane. Looking back at the cop I said, “Can I just open the door to get my glasses which I left in the car? I need them before I board the plane.” The Cop looked at me as though I was speaking Greek. He was a large fellow who obviously enjoyed lifting the weights. I turned back to Murphy, caught between him and the Cop. Murphy had found my glasses and was taunting me with the case through the window. I turned back to the cop and said, “Can I just get them handed to me through the window?” There was a long enough pause for me to feel three beads of sweat roll down the back of my neck. Finally the Cop said, “I guess so.” Relieved I went to the window and got them from Murphy. I thanked Murphy who rightfully sped off and I then thanked the Cop who grunted and then rode off on his bike.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful.

I could tell you about Kinko’s and Staples this morning or of my trip to Home Depot and Target as well, but it tires me know to think of them. Start work tomorrow training some people on these overly complicated surveys that for some awkward reason have to be performed on 11x17 paper, which was most likely drummed up by someone who isn’t in the field doing them.