Monthly Archive for February, 2008

As you probably read from Brett’s post last night, yesterday didn’t go exactly as planned. First, I woke up for work around 8am, only to see that the ground and trees were completely covered in a thick layer of white powder. Assuming that, unlike school, work would go on despite the falling (and fallen) snow, I went about preparing for a normal day at my internship in Greenwich. Dad was kind enough to drive me to the office, and although it took us a little over half an hour, I was only a few minutes late. When I reached the building I found one of the doors open, but no one could be seen inside. I made my way to our office on the third floor, and found it open. The Executive Director and the Musical and Artistic Director were both working inside, but my boss, the Project Director, was not there. I was told that she would not be coming in because she had a long commute which would be considerably worse considering the weather. I was told to call her, and when I did, she told me that I needn’t go to the office in such horrible weather. Talk about frustrating! However, I was told that I would be permitted to leave around noon, and therefore decided to make the most of my short work day. The office was quiet, with only a few phone calls, and it was actually rather pleasant.

My sister, Emma, came to pick me up at noon, and the drive home was slow going. I had planned to drive up to Brett’s house after work, but it became evident that driving in such poor weather was not the best of ideas. After comparing the different options, we decided that the best way for me to get to West Suffield was to take Metro North to New Haven, and then Amtrak from New Haven through Hartford to Windsor Locks. I made a similar trip last week, and felt that it would be the safest and quickest way for me to travel. At 6pm, my mom dropped me off at the Darien station.

The train from Darien to New Haven was relatively quick and painless – I spent most of the ride listening to music and reading Three Cups of Tea, a book that my mom recommended highly. I quickly became absorbed in the story, and it helped me keep my mind off of the many stops we were making along the way. By the time we arrived in New Haven, my commute was half-way over. Or so I thought.

In New Haven I walked to the station with all of the other departing passengers. I had thirty minutes before my train to Windsor Locks and so, like last week, I positioned myself on one of the many station benches and waited for a platform assignment for my train. What I did not know, was that I would wait for a platform assignment for close to two and a half hours after my scheduled 7:20pm departure time. When the delay was first announced, we were told that, due to the weather, the train would be an hour delayed. Then, fairly soon after, the delay became two hours. As I waited in New Haven station, and saw various other trains come and go, I wondered if the train would come at all. Unable to really concentrate on my book, I spent most of the wait trying to get comfortable on the hard wooden benches and observing the array of people around me.

By 9:20pm, the revised departure time, passengers were getting restless, and still there was no listed track number. We continued to wait, impatiently, and twenty minutes later we were finally given a track number and allowed to board the train. While the train was busy, it wasn’t packed, and I was able to sit and read once again to pass the time. By now, the forty-five minute train ride to Windsor Locks seemed like nothing, and I was incredibly excited to see Brett when I finally arrived at 11pm.

I hadn’t eaten since leaving work, so when we arrived at Brett’s house I didn’t protest when he insisted on making me dinner. As he stated in his post, he experimented with fried mozzarella, which was quite good for a first try, and angel hair pasta with various red sauces. Afterwards, I was treated to a marble cake that Brett had made as a surprise. The entire meal was delicious, and I was happy just to finally be there with him. After spending some time with Brett and the dogs, I was exhausted and had to put myself to bed.

We didn’t sleep in too late this morning, and spent most of the day relaxing with the television and laptops to provide entertainment. Around 7pm we made our weekly trip to Roma Restaurant, and, like always, it did not disappoint. After making a quick stop at the hospital to pick up more cat food and check on Cheez-It, we drove to Enfield for the 9:15pm showing of Vantage Point. While the movie wasn’t bad, it certainly wasn’t as good as it could have been, or as good as I had expected it to be. The plot of the movie is creative (although thin), and there was an all-star cast, but there were simple ways that the movie could have been changed to make it much better. However, it was entertaining to say the least.

Brett and I have just split another yummy piece of marble cake, and we are watching Apocalypto, which is truly a great movie. I imagine that we will head to bed not long after the end of the movie, although thankfully we have nothing on the agenda tomorrow but relaxation. That is, of course, until my return trip tomorrow night on Amtrak and Metro North. Here’s hoping there’s no delays.

<3 J