Trip to Hell and Back.

Ok let me start by saying this is not a diss to the whole state of New Jersey....

...On Tuesday Me, Quinn, Caitlin and her boyfriend Brandon all headed to the airport in Portland to head home from Maine. They were flying US Airways and we were flying Continental. I will not fly that airline again. From Portland we were to fly to Newark then to Richmond and since we would be getting in so late, we were going to stay the night in Richmond and head home Wednesday morning. Sounds like a great plan....

Well of course our flight to Newark gets delayed because of the air traffic and that delay now makes us miss our flight to Richmond so we have the choice to stay in Portland or to fly on to Newark and stay there. Option 2 worked out better for me because I had to work at 4 in Duck. So we fly to Newark and we make an attempt to catch our original flight to Richmond and by the time we got from Terminal A to Terminal C we made it just in time to see the plane pulling away.

I was so pissed, you just don't understand.

The airline did not comp anything. No food, no hotel, no nothing and they were all rude. So on our way to the other side of the airport to where all the hotel shuttles are we encountered an older Asian couple also flying Continental saying that they were rude to them and didn't help them out at all either but that there was an African American passenger from their flight that received food vouchers. The Asian lady proceeded to ask the lady at the desk what was up with that and she said it was at the agents discretion to give out vouchers which then shows me that Newark airport was also a little racist cause there were only black airline agents that night and no one got any help.

So we finally ask if we can just get our luggage and go on to a hotel. Oh no, our luggage is in a "secured area" they said and that it was fine and that it would definitely make it to Richmond with us the following morning. Ok, whatever. Almost every hotel was completed booked except four, which was a price range of about $104 to $299 and then I found one for $82. Hell yeah I thought!! We are only staying for one night, it can't be that bad.

Oh it was THAT bad. We kept going to the straight up GHETTO. I mean, liquor stores on the corners with homies standing outside and strip clubs with what looks like drug dealers at the door and to top it all off I spotted my first real life HOOKER and she was NOT cute. We asked the shuttle driver to take us back to the airport. Now by this time it is midnight, me and Quinn are cranky and irritable and we finally find a hotel for $100 something but my AAA saved the day with a major discount. I had to take a shower and Quinn went to go get food--a turkey sandwich and a chicken salad one--they gave him turkey with chips and then a tiny little ketchup cup size thing of chicken salad and a six pack of bud for almost $50 (apparently they don't sell beer in gas stations....yankees are so wack, dude).

We wake up and go straight to the airport and everything is going smoothly. We get to Richmond and go to baggage claim. Yay, here comes Quinn's bag.....and that's it. They lost 3 of our 4 bags, one of which contains mine and Quinn's brand new North Face jackets (which if you know about North Face, were not cheap), my new stuffed animal made of Alpaca fur (which also was not cheap) and my anniversary ring. They said they would have our bags to us last night, then today by 2:30 and now we are at between 6PM and 12AM today. I swear, nothing better be missing cause they don't want to piss me off.

All in all, New Jersey, it's airport and mostly it's people did not impress me and I could live the rest of my life without returning.

Maine

So, today was our full first day in Maine. YAY! Yesterday was so long. Drove to Richmond at 4am to catch our flight and then first stop once we hit Maine was Freeport to get our shop on. Quinn surprised me and got me a GORGEOUS ruby solitaire ring, white gold with a diamond band. Yes, I know and yes, you should be jealous (I will post pictures as soon as I can).

The original forecast for today was going to be 62 and rainy but amazingly it was in the 80's and sunny. We had the memorial for Alex today and it was beautiful. I like to believe that she most certainly had something to do with the amazing weather. We were a sea of baby blue with our matching Alex shirts as we each went down to the dock and spread a little bit of her ashes and then her family took her for one last boat ride. It was beautiful and hopefully this can give the Hartner's a little bit of closure to such a horrific accident.....Rest In Peace, Pretty :)

Don't ever take life for granted because you never know.....

On to a lighter note, today is also my very best friends birthday and I am pretty sad I am missing it but I wanted to go on and put it out there and tell her happy birthday.....Happy birthday Steph, love you!

That should definitely be an interesting party, though. The cast of characters in the limo will most certainly end with some sort of massive blow up at one individual girl. I can not say that I really feel that bad for her....and if you are an OBXican then you probably know to whom I am referring to. Let this be a lesson to not mess with other peoples boyfriends/baby daddys/fiances/life partner's, whatever....its just not nice and well, it's freaking annoying. :)

Speaking of not nice and annoying, I currently attempted to be nice to people that I used to dislike. You know, "tryin' to squash the beef." That totally backfired on me!!!! That person I was trying to be nice went and told people whose business it was none of and caused a whole drama fest. It is over and done with now but I just don't understand why people do things when they know for a fact it is going to start drama (i.e. steph's birthday). When you know that what you are doing is wrong and that it is going to start shit then in the end that person has no right complaining about how much they hate drama and blah blah blah because well, obviously they must thrive for the drama cause they are the ones creating it, knowingly.

So happy I am off the OB for awhile :) and soon I should have some pictures of some Maine adventures. Going to get my fishing license tomorrow so hopefully I can catch me a big one ;).

UPDATE (July 5):
So far Maine has been a blast. I still have yet to catch a fish while Caitlin is killing it so I am a little sad. Been getting my shop on like crazy!!! Yesterday we went out to Pemaquid Point to see the lightouse that is in the Red Lobster commercials and walk out on the rocks. It was such a great day to go out there. Last night it was cold enough to make a fire in the fireplace so that was nice. We sat around and played games and got drunk and watched fireworks. This morning after breakfast at the famous Moody's Diner we went to an Apalca farm and that was pretty cool. They are pretty interesting animals, not to mention that our tour guide had been shocked by the electric fence one too many times cause he was a but case. Haha. Over all it's been great fun thus far, below are some pics so check em out :)

Us at Pemaquid Point aka the Red Lobster commercial
lighthouse

Alpaca's - They were so dern cute :)

Quinn and his first catch of the vacation...too bad I am whooppin everyone's
ass in catching lilly pads ;)

Anniversary.Memories.Birthdays.

This morning I began to pack up a few things for my vacation next week and came across Keller's paperwork in my filing cabinet. I have now had my lil blind dog for a year!! AWW, YAY! Which then also reminded me that tomorrow is Quinn's birthday and I have given him choices, do you want clothes?, do you want to wait and get something in Maine? do you want another Ipod(cause his got stolen when our cars got broken into)? And I still haven't gotten an answer so I don't know what to do. I am thinking I will take him out to dinner somewhere nice and then probably get some of his friends together and go to Chilli's or something since we have to pack and be out there door and ready to go on Sunday! I can not wait to go to Maine and this year we will be up there for July 4th which is one of my favorite holidays and it will also be me and Quinker's 2 year anniversary. Oh wow! Look at us go, a whole 2 years. Haha. I don't know how he has put up with me for this long ;).

But, also as I began to pack I looked up at the end table in the living room and saw the picture of Alex that we have in a pretty silver frame and my mood quickly changed. Last year packing for Maine was a blast and I couldn't wait to get there, more importantly I couldn't wait to get there and go to Freeport with Caitlin and Alex and get my shop on. For the first two days we were in Maine last year, we (the three of us) shopped till we dropped till Alex had to leave. It was so much and was such a good bonding moment spent with endless girl talk and Starbucks coffee. Of course there were other fun times like actually playing in the lake and going to the local fire department for their "chicken bbq" that was NOT bbq (damn yanks mess up everything!!! hahahah).

With all these memories flooding back to me I couldn't help but be saddened by remembering that this year Maine will still be fun and Alex will definitely be there in spirit, but it is not going to be the same. Everywhere we look we will be reminded of her and the memories that were made at the Lake with her every summer. I am especially saddened for Caitlin and her family (Jane, George and Zeke) because I know that this trip will be especially hard on them because we are going to be doing a sort of "memorial service" for Alex where we will be spreading her ashes at her favorite place, the Lake. So please keep the Andrus/Hartner family in your thoughts and prayers this week as we all say our final goodbyes to Alex :(.

But don't get too sad, ya'll. Alex is going to be there with us and she would want us to have fun and fun we will have. Every laugh, every smile and every "remember when..." story will be with her in our memory. Keep looking for updated posts with pictures and stories of our adventures in Maine (yay, the house we are staying at this year has cable and internet, SCORE!).