This was the reoccurring statement and theme of last weekend.  Before Justin's two week work trip to Guam, we decided to meet at our half way point for a date in New York City.  Doesn't a date in NYC sound fun?! 

And so the story begins...  What should be a 2 1/2 hour drive to city for me, turned into 3 1/2 hours and $18 dollars.  Tolls added up and the very congested Lincoln tunnel costs $8 dollars for my little car to pass through.  Justin's two hour drive turned into three as he crept past two accidents and hit rush hour traffic.

After entering into this very lively city, where you come close to hitting other cars or herds of pedestrians at every intersection, I found a parking spot on 48th.  One hour later, and a half hour after our reservation time, Justin arrived at "Brazil Brazil" for dinner.  In the mean time, I was patiently waiting - yet ready to order for the both of us- at "Brazil Grill," about two blocks away.  I was under the impression that this was the place Justin made reservations.  The hostess even accepted me under his name for 7pm.  I guess she thought she was being nice by accepting this lonely girl and her made up, imaginary reservation.  Well, thank goodness for cell phones.  Justin found me at "Brazil Grill" and preferred it over "Brazil Brazil."  We enjoyed dinner and live music.  We hadn't brought anything or made preparations to stay the night, but by the time we were done eating it was 9pm, so we thought it'd be wise to stay instead of parting so soon and struggling with sleepiness on our three hours of driving home to CT and PA.  We found a place to stay and a place to park until seven in the morning.

We woke up to a sunny morning, excited for a day in the city..... only to find that our cars had been towed at 7:07am.  After getting directions from three different people (Justin and I interpreting each of them differently) and walking in circles for and hour and a half, we found the towing pier.  Hungry, tired, and red from the chilling wind, we entered the office and took our seats among other sad losers- mostly from out of state, like ourselves.  We sat in the 'unhappy room' thinking about how much money NYC makes off of countless towed cars per day.  Besides, the violation ticket of $115 and the $185 for the tow (EACH)....that's $600 right there for the two of us.  Yeah, $300 each.  OUCH!  We thought  about how this may effect our honeymoon.

After the shock wore off a little, we left the gigantic warehouse of towed cars and decided to get out of the city.  I followed Justin (insanely close to his bumper in order to not let people cut in).  We headed to King's Point on Long Island... or so we thought.  Instead, we ended up in New Jersey.  At that point it was noon and we hadn't eaten, so we pulled into a Dunkin' Doughnuts....with no parking spots.  Out of the D&D parking lot we went, and down another road, aimlessly, til we found a bagel shop (with available parking).  We hugged and laughed- if not, we'd have cried.  As we sat down with our bagels and coffee I dropped my sugar packets in my coffee.  As they became soggy and useless I fought back anger and even a tear, instead, I sighed as I went back to the coffee bar to get more sugar.

At this point, we didn't feel it'd be wise to part ways for two weeks- what a frustrating note to say good bye on!  Instead of driving home we decided I'd go back to our apartment (my future apartment!) in CT to rest and he'd leave the next morning for Guam.  First, we had to find our way out of wherever we were in New Jersey.  Why not get separated and lost for a half hour in the wrong direction?  We certainly did.  Finally, we found each other again and found the very promising George Washington Bridge and I-95 North.  Two hours and heavy highway traffic later, we made it!  But it's not over......

After leftovers for dinner we decided to walk to a peaceful park on the water near our house.  It was beautiful until my stomach hollered and my intestines turned into a knot.  It was the sudden "I feel like I'm gonna crap my pants" feeling.  I ran/walked awkwardly home- each step feeling less hopeful.  Justin ran ahead to open the doors and prepare the toilet (lifting the lid).  I made it, barely.  (I later found out that there were public bathrooms in the park- which I ran right past). 

Before Justin left for his two week trip we needed to take care of some business- paying our rent that was due on Monday.  So, at 7:30pm we drove to the small "town" of Killingworth to drop off our check at the office on Kelseytown Road.  What could've been 20 minutes turned into an hour and a half of driving around in the dark, getting contradicting directions from about eight different people, to a road which (we started to feel convinced) must not exist!  We gave up and decided that I'd try again the next day... in daylight hours and after a trip to the library to retrieve mapquest directions- (we're not online at the house yet).

We came back to our little home around 9pm.  Justin packed for Guam and then we poured ourselves a glass of red wine.  Thank goodness for laughing instead of crying and hugging instead of hating.  Thank goodness for cell phones and public transportation, which we will ALWAYS take to New York City from now on.