Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Night from hell ....
The recap.
Friday - I wake up at 7:00am then go back to sleep until 8:50 (class starts at 9). Attempting to shower, dress, and drive to class in 5 minutes goes awry. I now know how that one baseball player burned himself by ironing his shirt while he was wearing it. Must have been late for something.
Class went oh so slowly. I was falling asleep the entire day. It didn't help that I'd stayed up til near 2am playing poker the previous day.
Quick recap on poker night: Had no trouble finding my way to Newton, then got completely lost on the small roads (this will be a recurring theme). Ordered 4 chinese takeout dinners (which may get audited :/ ), then watched NBA for most the night. Lost $10 when I sat in for a short time, then at the end got 2nd place in a no limit tourney. Which netted me the buy-in, $5. At least I got to chill with some EMC buddies.
During a break I decided to call my cousin's friend, to see if she wanted to grab dinner. We end up playing phone tag but the wheels were in motion. Class ends, people bolt out the door. I relax at the hotel until around 7 or so, then head out. Two things.
Questionable decisions: even though I'm low on gas, I drive out to Cambridge anyways. By luck I manage to get on some of the streets I'm supposed to be on. Here's a sample:
This would be ok, if there were actually readable street signs in Boston. Even my cousin's friend was having a hard time making out the signs, and she's an optometrist!
Note to google/yahoo/mapquest. What we really need are directions that go [Turn right at Joe's Pizza (iconic / landmark directions!) Then make a left at street X cuz its going to turn into street Y even though it's never noted on the directions and you'd never know to turn off here.] Directions that take into account of street naming stupidity! Woot!
It takes me 30 minutes from the time I get off the supposed "correct exit" to find her place. Then after we head out to Legal Seafood, which is 15 minutes away, we promptly get lost and don't make it there for another HOUR. Yeeeeeahhh. The night is going real smooth. (She's driving btw, not me) I think we made it over the Charles River about five times before finally figuring out where the hell we are. Not that getting back was any easier.
Aside from that dinner was good. Crab cakes, clam chowdah. The grilled scallops were sumptuous. Yummy. Conversation wasn't bad either. She didn't agree with my plan of shipping clam chowder from Boston to California.
We leave the restaurant knowing that we do NOT want to go across the Charles River. And what happens? One way street after one way street, over the Charles River and lost again. Anyways, she finds some familiar freeway and we get back. Then she wants me to go inside so we can "map out" my return to Marlborough. Which I felt was unnecessary given that I'd get lost regardless but she insisted. So it was decided that I would disregard mapquest and take the 95 to the 90.
Somehow I make it all the way to the 95S freeway entrance without getting lost. Unfortunately it was blocked off. I had to figure out a way to reroute to it. Then going through the Ted Williams tunnel I catch a glimpse of a sign that says the 90 onramp is closed. !!!!!!!!!! I exit somewhere, drive around a ton until I see the 90W onramp right in front of some bridge.
My gas is dwindling all the while, and I was forced to resort to "easing up on the accelerator to save gas" tactics.The needle is west of the orange, meaning that I'm damn low on gas. My last moment of idiocy was trying to save gas by taking a short cut rather than take the 495N back home. Another thing I hate about MA. The dearth of 24 hour gas stations. Here I am, desperately low on gas, willing to pay $100 a gallon and every damn gas station is closed! Killing me. It really is a miracle that I made it back to the hotel instead of having to camp out in my rental car.
Obviously I didn't learn my lesson because the next day I headed down to the outlet malls and almost missed my flight back to San Jose. The reason I was late was because I was mixing and matching all the Lebron II shoes to find ones with the least flaws. I'd rather scuff up the shoes myself then buy them janky. I also got some shirts for August, when I head to NY for my cousin's big wedding. Woo-hoo.
P.S. yeah the possibility exist that I'm simply a moron. But I hate driving in Boston. Portable GPS is the way to go. ¶ 9:14 PM
Friday - I wake up at 7:00am then go back to sleep until 8:50 (class starts at 9). Attempting to shower, dress, and drive to class in 5 minutes goes awry. I now know how that one baseball player burned himself by ironing his shirt while he was wearing it. Must have been late for something.
Class went oh so slowly. I was falling asleep the entire day. It didn't help that I'd stayed up til near 2am playing poker the previous day.
Quick recap on poker night: Had no trouble finding my way to Newton, then got completely lost on the small roads (this will be a recurring theme). Ordered 4 chinese takeout dinners (which may get audited :/ ), then watched NBA for most the night. Lost $10 when I sat in for a short time, then at the end got 2nd place in a no limit tourney. Which netted me the buy-in, $5. At least I got to chill with some EMC buddies.
During a break I decided to call my cousin's friend, to see if she wanted to grab dinner. We end up playing phone tag but the wheels were in motion. Class ends, people bolt out the door. I relax at the hotel until around 7 or so, then head out. Two things.
1) Mapquest totally sucks.
2) I could have perfect directions and still get completely lost. Driving in Boston is the worst.
Questionable decisions: even though I'm low on gas, I drive out to Cambridge anyways. By luck I manage to get on some of the streets I'm supposed to be on. Here's a sample:
turn right on road A
go straight on road A, turns into road B
road B turns into road A
slight right on road C
road C turns into road A
This would be ok, if there were actually readable street signs in Boston. Even my cousin's friend was having a hard time making out the signs, and she's an optometrist!
Note to google/yahoo/mapquest. What we really need are directions that go [Turn right at Joe's Pizza (iconic / landmark directions!) Then make a left at street X cuz its going to turn into street Y even though it's never noted on the directions and you'd never know to turn off here.] Directions that take into account of street naming stupidity! Woot!
It takes me 30 minutes from the time I get off the supposed "correct exit" to find her place. Then after we head out to Legal Seafood, which is 15 minutes away, we promptly get lost and don't make it there for another HOUR. Yeeeeeahhh. The night is going real smooth. (She's driving btw, not me) I think we made it over the Charles River about five times before finally figuring out where the hell we are. Not that getting back was any easier.
Aside from that dinner was good. Crab cakes, clam chowdah. The grilled scallops were sumptuous. Yummy. Conversation wasn't bad either. She didn't agree with my plan of shipping clam chowder from Boston to California.
We leave the restaurant knowing that we do NOT want to go across the Charles River. And what happens? One way street after one way street, over the Charles River and lost again. Anyways, she finds some familiar freeway and we get back. Then she wants me to go inside so we can "map out" my return to Marlborough. Which I felt was unnecessary given that I'd get lost regardless but she insisted. So it was decided that I would disregard mapquest and take the 95 to the 90.
Somehow I make it all the way to the 95S freeway entrance without getting lost. Unfortunately it was blocked off. I had to figure out a way to reroute to it. Then going through the Ted Williams tunnel I catch a glimpse of a sign that says the 90 onramp is closed. !!!!!!!!!! I exit somewhere, drive around a ton until I see the 90W onramp right in front of some bridge.
My gas is dwindling all the while, and I was forced to resort to "easing up on the accelerator to save gas" tactics.The needle is west of the orange, meaning that I'm damn low on gas. My last moment of idiocy was trying to save gas by taking a short cut rather than take the 495N back home. Another thing I hate about MA. The dearth of 24 hour gas stations. Here I am, desperately low on gas, willing to pay $100 a gallon and every damn gas station is closed! Killing me. It really is a miracle that I made it back to the hotel instead of having to camp out in my rental car.
Obviously I didn't learn my lesson because the next day I headed down to the outlet malls and almost missed my flight back to San Jose. The reason I was late was because I was mixing and matching all the Lebron II shoes to find ones with the least flaws. I'd rather scuff up the shoes myself then buy them janky. I also got some shirts for August, when I head to NY for my cousin's big wedding. Woo-hoo.
P.S. yeah the possibility exist that I'm simply a moron. But I hate driving in Boston. Portable GPS is the way to go. ¶ 9:14 PM
