Back in Business
Okay so I'm back here at work. Got my coffee here and I'm ready to work. Quick post here about the trip though :
For the trip down to LA, we took the Amtrak train (which apparently doesn't have exclusive use of that track... it has to stop whenever Union Pacific says so). Sitting in coach kind of sucked donkey because no one follows the "bring headphones for personal electronics" rule except for us. The kid in front of us was playing his vampire-killing game on his laptop for like 6 hours with the sound cranked ("Slash slash, eeeiiiih!"). When he wasn't doing that, he was talking on the phone to his girlfriend about things that should be totally private (by the way - she might be pregnant - yikes! For the record, if she is knocked up, he will NOT be sticking around - he made that quite clear). The third thing about this guy that just took the cake was his long phone conversation with Mervyns (like KMart) Customer Service - he was on the phone for over 20 minutes trying to pay his shoplifting fine so he wouldn't have to go to jail (apparently he has lots of "priors"). Anyways, this kid was just too funny to be real. He was about 17 and provided loads of entertainment (and frustration!!). I'm not even going to really talk about the lady behind us that took a cell phone call at 11:30 at night and talked THIS LOUD. After 45 minutes of people turning around and giving her dirty looks, she still hadn't hung up. We took all our luggage and baby pillows to another car and tried to sleep. I got about 4 hours - J got 20 min.
The other awesome thing about coach seating is that everything is extra!! If I wanted a coffee I would have to walk 5 cars over, go downstairs, find the snack bar man (only open a few hours a day) and pay 2 bucks US for a little coffee. A can of Mountain Dew for J was $1.75. Wow. We got the cheapest things on the menu for meals and still ended up paying like $16-$20 for each time. Grr...
Anyways, by the time we got to Sacramento, we were over 5 hours behind!! We would literally just stop in the middle of nowhere for a Union Pacific train to pass. They wouldn't let any smokers just jump out and have one, so there were all these pissed off old ladies hanging out in the observation car all mad. Hee hee :) So when we got to Sacramento, we got off the train with all our bags, refunded our tickets for the rest of that leg, rented a car and drove to Los Angeles. Crazy - we drove it in just over 5 hours. J kept saying "When did this turn into a road trip?!" It was fun but it kind of sucked because Hertz only had SUV's available so we had to pay $118 for one day (plus gas!) for a Buick Rendevouz. But we made it to church that night and that was all we cared about.
Church was so awesome - it ended up being 4 hours (the sermon was about 2) and I loved every minute of it. The place was just so full of love and the Holy Spirit and it was just so awesome. If that was in Canada, I would move to that town just for the church. Maybe God will get J and I down there someday :)
The rest of the weekend was so cool - got to spend lots and lots of time with the neices and nephews and the grandparents and the inlaws. The wedding was so nice - so God centered. You just know they are going to have such a blessed marriage. B&C are now in the Cook Islands for the Honeymoon. Nice. The day after the wedding was B's birthday actually. What a weekend for him!
I'll post more about the wedding and family with some pictures later this week.
Regarding the trip home : If I ever get a chance to take a train again, I will get a Sleeper both ways!!! Oh my goodness - what a difference!! There was a "car attendant" for our whole car (Lynda) who makes the beds and takes your meal reservations and anything else. She had a coffee station set up with cream and sugar and juice and little plastic mugs. There was also a little room of free Mountain Dew and Pepsi and pretzels and crackers. All included! Our little sleeper was so cool - there is a huge window, a big bed that we pulled down at night with sheets and blankets and full size pillows. I slept like 6-7 hours of solid sleep that first night! There are 2 large reclining seats (that turn into a bed), coat hooks, lights, outlets, etc. The Sleeper also has a door that closes and locks plus curtains on the inside so we could completely close ourselves off from the rest of the car. We actually closed the door and curtains and watched The Princess Bride and some Simpsons with the sound up - that was nice :) Also - all meals in the dining car are included. We were ordering the most expensive thing pretty much each meal. I got the $20 pork chops and J was getting the $18 beer! Plus we would get dessert each meal - it was so cool!! The Sleeper cars also have showers that were a pretty big size (I didn't use one, but they were kind of neat).
Anyways, the train is definately the way to travel if you get the Sleeper and you don't care about being late! By the way, we were over 7 hours late getting home. Suppossed to be Seattle at 8:30pm. We finally got off the train at about 3:30am. Yikes.
Not much else to say - I've obviously got tons of work that piled up while I was gone. I'd better get back to it :)
So excite about moving!!! Quick quotes from the Office....
Michael Scott: When people hear the term 'big brother' they immediately think it's bad or scary. I don't. I think, 'Wow, I love my big brother.'
Kevin: [to Ryan] Not so fast, 'fire guy.'
Michael Scott: I do think I'm very approachable as one of the guys, but maybe I need to be even more approachabler.
Michael Scott: Come on, that guy! [looks at camera] He's a good guy; not a terrorist.
Michael Scott: If I step on a mine in Scranton, Pennsylvania and die, you can have my job, okay?
Michael Scott: I would not miss it for the world, but if something else came up, I would definitely not go.
Michael Scott: Think about this: what is the most exciting thing that can happen on TV or in movies, or in real life? Somebody has a gun. That’s why I always start with a gun, because you can’t top it. You just can’t.
Dwight Shrute: I think one of the greatest things about modern America is the computerization of medical records. As a volunteer sheriff, I can look up anyone's psychiatric records or surgical histories. Yeast infections... there are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we’re downriver... from that old bread factory.
Michael Scott: So Bernie's huh? We're all going to Bernie's?
Bill: Oh, uh, sorry, we're not going as a group. It's just a private friend, who happens to know all of us from differnet ways, is throwing a private birthday thing, so...
Michael Scott: The IT tech guy and me did not get off to a good start.
IT Guy: What's your password, Michael? [both look at sticky note attached to monitor] Oh, it's 1 2 3 4.
Michael Scott: Yes...
Michael Scott: Oh no, everybody, Oscar's gone crazy. What other ghost stories do you have for us? That I'm a robot? I will destroy, everything, in my path, [makes robot sounds] oil can, Tin Man.
Michael Scott: There's always a distance between a boss and the employees, its just nature's rule. It's intimidation mostly. It's the awareness that they are not me.
Jim Halpert: And my roommate wants to meet everybody. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm making Dwight up. (pauses) He is very real.
Stanley: I didn't think the premium laser color copy batch would see as well as it did.
Oscar: It surprised us all and I'll tell you why-
Kelly: I'm sorry guys. Can we please not talk about paper? There's gotta be something else we can talk about.
[silence]
Jim's Roommate: Nice Birkenstocks.
Dwight Shrute: Thanks. I have another pair in my car for special occasions.
Dwight Shrute: Jim! You think this is a good idea? Hidden key in a rock?
Jim's Roommate: You must be Dwight!
Angela: I think its alright. I mean, Jesus drank wine.
Michael Scott: Here is some wine; I would love a glass if you're going to open it. Hello Temp! Take my jacket! [throws jacket at Ryan]
Jim Halpert: Angela, burger? Dog? Havin' fun?
Angela: I got sap on me.
Jim Halpert: Chicken, hot dog, burger?
Angela: I'm a vegetarian.
Jim: There's soda inside.
Michael Scott: Funny story. The way I got into improv was- I got into improv- oh, the story about me getting into improv was that I was walking down the street and a racecar pulls up, and the guy says, 'Hey, you're funny. You're the funniest guy I've ever seen. Or my name is not Dale Earnhardt.' [laughs] And that, was an improv. [pause] Um, the real way was that I found a flyer.
Jim Halpert: It's true, I'm having a party. I've got three cases of imported beer, karaoke machine, and I didn't invite Michael... so, three ingredients for a great party.
That was a good one :)
For the trip down to LA, we took the Amtrak train (which apparently doesn't have exclusive use of that track... it has to stop whenever Union Pacific says so). Sitting in coach kind of sucked donkey because no one follows the "bring headphones for personal electronics" rule except for us. The kid in front of us was playing his vampire-killing game on his laptop for like 6 hours with the sound cranked ("Slash slash, eeeiiiih!"). When he wasn't doing that, he was talking on the phone to his girlfriend about things that should be totally private (by the way - she might be pregnant - yikes! For the record, if she is knocked up, he will NOT be sticking around - he made that quite clear). The third thing about this guy that just took the cake was his long phone conversation with Mervyns (like KMart) Customer Service - he was on the phone for over 20 minutes trying to pay his shoplifting fine so he wouldn't have to go to jail (apparently he has lots of "priors"). Anyways, this kid was just too funny to be real. He was about 17 and provided loads of entertainment (and frustration!!). I'm not even going to really talk about the lady behind us that took a cell phone call at 11:30 at night and talked THIS LOUD. After 45 minutes of people turning around and giving her dirty looks, she still hadn't hung up. We took all our luggage and baby pillows to another car and tried to sleep. I got about 4 hours - J got 20 min.
The other awesome thing about coach seating is that everything is extra!! If I wanted a coffee I would have to walk 5 cars over, go downstairs, find the snack bar man (only open a few hours a day) and pay 2 bucks US for a little coffee. A can of Mountain Dew for J was $1.75. Wow. We got the cheapest things on the menu for meals and still ended up paying like $16-$20 for each time. Grr...
Anyways, by the time we got to Sacramento, we were over 5 hours behind!! We would literally just stop in the middle of nowhere for a Union Pacific train to pass. They wouldn't let any smokers just jump out and have one, so there were all these pissed off old ladies hanging out in the observation car all mad. Hee hee :) So when we got to Sacramento, we got off the train with all our bags, refunded our tickets for the rest of that leg, rented a car and drove to Los Angeles. Crazy - we drove it in just over 5 hours. J kept saying "When did this turn into a road trip?!" It was fun but it kind of sucked because Hertz only had SUV's available so we had to pay $118 for one day (plus gas!) for a Buick Rendevouz. But we made it to church that night and that was all we cared about.
Church was so awesome - it ended up being 4 hours (the sermon was about 2) and I loved every minute of it. The place was just so full of love and the Holy Spirit and it was just so awesome. If that was in Canada, I would move to that town just for the church. Maybe God will get J and I down there someday :)
The rest of the weekend was so cool - got to spend lots and lots of time with the neices and nephews and the grandparents and the inlaws. The wedding was so nice - so God centered. You just know they are going to have such a blessed marriage. B&C are now in the Cook Islands for the Honeymoon. Nice. The day after the wedding was B's birthday actually. What a weekend for him!
I'll post more about the wedding and family with some pictures later this week.
Regarding the trip home : If I ever get a chance to take a train again, I will get a Sleeper both ways!!! Oh my goodness - what a difference!! There was a "car attendant" for our whole car (Lynda) who makes the beds and takes your meal reservations and anything else. She had a coffee station set up with cream and sugar and juice and little plastic mugs. There was also a little room of free Mountain Dew and Pepsi and pretzels and crackers. All included! Our little sleeper was so cool - there is a huge window, a big bed that we pulled down at night with sheets and blankets and full size pillows. I slept like 6-7 hours of solid sleep that first night! There are 2 large reclining seats (that turn into a bed), coat hooks, lights, outlets, etc. The Sleeper also has a door that closes and locks plus curtains on the inside so we could completely close ourselves off from the rest of the car. We actually closed the door and curtains and watched The Princess Bride and some Simpsons with the sound up - that was nice :) Also - all meals in the dining car are included. We were ordering the most expensive thing pretty much each meal. I got the $20 pork chops and J was getting the $18 beer! Plus we would get dessert each meal - it was so cool!! The Sleeper cars also have showers that were a pretty big size (I didn't use one, but they were kind of neat).
Anyways, the train is definately the way to travel if you get the Sleeper and you don't care about being late! By the way, we were over 7 hours late getting home. Suppossed to be Seattle at 8:30pm. We finally got off the train at about 3:30am. Yikes.
Not much else to say - I've obviously got tons of work that piled up while I was gone. I'd better get back to it :)
So excite about moving!!! Quick quotes from the Office....
Michael Scott: When people hear the term 'big brother' they immediately think it's bad or scary. I don't. I think, 'Wow, I love my big brother.'
Kevin: [to Ryan] Not so fast, 'fire guy.'
Michael Scott: I do think I'm very approachable as one of the guys, but maybe I need to be even more approachabler.
Michael Scott: Come on, that guy! [looks at camera] He's a good guy; not a terrorist.
Michael Scott: If I step on a mine in Scranton, Pennsylvania and die, you can have my job, okay?
Michael Scott: I would not miss it for the world, but if something else came up, I would definitely not go.
Michael Scott: Think about this: what is the most exciting thing that can happen on TV or in movies, or in real life? Somebody has a gun. That’s why I always start with a gun, because you can’t top it. You just can’t.
Dwight Shrute: I think one of the greatest things about modern America is the computerization of medical records. As a volunteer sheriff, I can look up anyone's psychiatric records or surgical histories. Yeast infections... there are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we’re downriver... from that old bread factory.
Michael Scott: So Bernie's huh? We're all going to Bernie's?
Bill: Oh, uh, sorry, we're not going as a group. It's just a private friend, who happens to know all of us from differnet ways, is throwing a private birthday thing, so...
Michael Scott: The IT tech guy and me did not get off to a good start.
IT Guy: What's your password, Michael? [both look at sticky note attached to monitor] Oh, it's 1 2 3 4.
Michael Scott: Yes...
Michael Scott: Oh no, everybody, Oscar's gone crazy. What other ghost stories do you have for us? That I'm a robot? I will destroy, everything, in my path, [makes robot sounds] oil can, Tin Man.
Michael Scott: There's always a distance between a boss and the employees, its just nature's rule. It's intimidation mostly. It's the awareness that they are not me.
Jim Halpert: And my roommate wants to meet everybody. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm making Dwight up. (pauses) He is very real.
Stanley: I didn't think the premium laser color copy batch would see as well as it did.
Oscar: It surprised us all and I'll tell you why-
Kelly: I'm sorry guys. Can we please not talk about paper? There's gotta be something else we can talk about.
[silence]
Jim's Roommate: Nice Birkenstocks.
Dwight Shrute: Thanks. I have another pair in my car for special occasions.
Dwight Shrute: Jim! You think this is a good idea? Hidden key in a rock?
Jim's Roommate: You must be Dwight!
Angela: I think its alright. I mean, Jesus drank wine.
Michael Scott: Here is some wine; I would love a glass if you're going to open it. Hello Temp! Take my jacket! [throws jacket at Ryan]
Jim Halpert: Angela, burger? Dog? Havin' fun?
Angela: I got sap on me.
Jim Halpert: Chicken, hot dog, burger?
Angela: I'm a vegetarian.
Jim: There's soda inside.
Michael Scott: Funny story. The way I got into improv was- I got into improv- oh, the story about me getting into improv was that I was walking down the street and a racecar pulls up, and the guy says, 'Hey, you're funny. You're the funniest guy I've ever seen. Or my name is not Dale Earnhardt.' [laughs] And that, was an improv. [pause] Um, the real way was that I found a flyer.
Jim Halpert: It's true, I'm having a party. I've got three cases of imported beer, karaoke machine, and I didn't invite Michael... so, three ingredients for a great party.
That was a good one :)
posted by Sara @ 7:07 AM
1 Comments:
At 11:46 AM,
Abby Mommy said…
Hey! Ah good to read a good post, its been awhile. Well i posted a new one too, so check it out! Other then that...cya in 4 days!!!! ah......its going to be a great moment in the airport. I'm gonna e-mail you now too...so read it.
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