The Great Snow Adventure of Twenty Ten (III)

Chapter 3

"I was just kidding," said Jess in disbelief. "Earlier, about the busses. I was just kidding!"

"Crap," said Steph.

They stood around and wondered what to do. Next to them a Target employee began to talk quietly to the couple with the child. The man explained that they had called a cab, but had already been waiting for an hour. Last they'd checked the cab was still coming, but...

Meanwhile three more people walked out of Target, one wearing a Carnegie Mellon sweatshirt, and asked about the buses. Steph and Jess told the two students (and the one parent) what had happened. They were dismayed. Now what?

Jess called the CMU non-emergency number, but was told that they were only dealing with emergencies given the circumstances.

"We'll try to arrange something eventually," said the person on the other end helpfully.

Next they talked to the police officer to see if he had any ideas. He volunteered to call CMU for them, and they thanked him while they exchanged frustrated looks, since that's what they had just tried. They hoped, however, a police officer would have more clout. Sure enough, the assurances given him were slightly less vague - that is, "we'll try to figure something out" became "we will figure something out," with which the girls had to be content.

While the police officer was on the phone, a nice family with a large truck asked if anyone needed a ride home. The family waiting for the cab gratefully accepted.

With the night wearing on, the girls moved into the sitting area, though to their disappointment, the counter (and therefore the fried chicken and hot chocolate) was closed. They decided to take turns calling home on Jess's cell, since they were hoping for a call from CMU on Steph's. Having apprised their families of the situation, they nobly settled in to wait. Unfortunately, and unepically, boredom also settled in.

"Okay," said Steph, "How about this. One person says the name of a character in movie or TV show, and the other says another character played by the same actor."

Jess suppressed the urge to roll her eyes (probably) and agreed with only slight protestation. Thus Selene and Gwen and Jesus and the Joker helped make time pass minimally faster.

And then - Steph's phone buzzed. Steph answered eagerly. Lo and behold, it was Lucas, their dorm's house fellow. He said that he was watching Avatar (naturally) at Loews, but that it would be over in half an hour and then he would gallantly come get them.

Elated, Steph went to tell the other CMU students. They now had only half an hour to wait.

An hour later, Lucas and his wife pulled up in their car. It was a four-seater. All six of the people standing around the car looked at each other in dismay.

"They said there were two of you," said Lucas.

"No, I told them five," said Jess.

They regarded the car in silence.

Luckily, Lucas and Mrs. Lucas had been seeing the movie with some friends who had their own car. Their friends volunteered to take the other three CMUers, and further crisis was averted.

Thus the travelers set out for home, hoping their journey might soon be over, yet knowing better, by this point, than to be certain of anything.

And they were right to fear...

[To Be Continued Once More]

The Great Snow Adventure of Twenty Ten (II)

Chapter 2

With some time to kill before the expected 8:41 arrival of the 59U, Jess and Steph decided to take a quick stroll around the interior of Target, to dry off and warm up. Racks of bathing suits and aisles of lingerie added a nice touch of both irony and unreality to the atmosphere. The place was almost empty, and the girls strode briskly and spoke loudly, still energized by their recent escape from the snow.

Near the end of their circuit, both girls halted in their tracks when Jess suddenly unleashed a joyful cry: "Gummies!"

They stood before an end shelf stocked with all manner of gummy snacks. Their eyes in their upturned faces reflected rows of boxes decorated with countless colors and designs. They stood a moment in awe.

Then Steph broke the moment by turning irreverently away and dancing forward impatiently. "We gotta go."

"One minute!" protested Jess, and carefully selected a box with Disney fairies on it.

"You know those are in entropy," said Steph, inscrutably.

"This kind isn't," Jess replied, apparently knowing what she was talking about.

The girls proceeded to the registers, where Jess purchased her box of gummies, and then went out to the main entrance to wait for their ride back to campus. Waiting along with them were a tall dark-skinned twenty-something couple with a few small bags, and a Hispanic couple with a large cart full of appliances and a small adorable daughter.

While they waited, Jess opened her prize and handed Steph a tiny white packet. Steph ripped it open, extracted its squishy, brightly colored contents and popped a purple fairy into her mouth.

"Okay, so this was a good idea," she admitted, chewing.

"See?" said Jess, tearing into her own packet.

A bus went by the doors, and the girls straightened, but then Jess shook her head. Wrong one.

More time passed. Impatient, Steph ventured outside, still under the shelter of Target's roof, and peered into the white haze. She waited, watching, until another bus pulled into the lot. Steph squinted at it, trying to make out its moniker. "59 -" She read, and beckoned excitedly to Jess, who came forward to look too.

"A," said Jess. "It's the 59A."

"But - !"

"A," repeated Jess.

Steph sighed.

Discouraged, they went back inside and leaned against the wall to wait. To see better, they stood close to the exit doors and stared through the glass, or more likely the plastic, with the unfortunate result that any time either of them turned her head or shifted her stance the automatic doors swung open and let in a blast of cold air, which would send them scurrying backward a few inches, as if that made a difference.

People still came and went, but only in a trickle, and all with their own cars. The exception, was two other girls, obviously students, who also came to stand in the entrance.

"Are you waiting for the 59U?" asked one.

Jess replied that they were, and all four of them briefly made small talk. The other girls went to a place by the dubious name of Pitt, and not Carnegie Mellon, but it was the same bus either way: the magical and currently missing 59U.

More time passed. Jess was starving. Steph was getting a headache. They were ready to get back to the dorms.

They were just debating whether the addition of more sugar (via gummy fairies) would help or further irritate Steph's head when the police officer walked in and said,

"Sorry, everybody, but I just got a call from Port Authority, and they're only doing main routes because of the snow. Anyone waiting for a bus is going to have to walk over to Eighth."

Jess and Steph stared. Eighth was all the way back in the other direction, past Loews, where they had come from.

"Seriously?" said Steph.

"Is Target still open?" asked Jess.

"Uh... I guess technically," replied Steph, nonplussed.

"Good," said Jess, "I'm going to buy a hat."

But just then the police man returned. "Sorry, folks, I guess they decided the snow was too dangerous. They shut down all buses. Port Authority is closed."

[dun dun DUN... To Be Continued]

The Great Snow Adventure of Twenty Ten (I)

Chapter One

Once upon a time, the time being February 2010, a young and untried university student (let's call her Steph) acquired the unfortunate distinction of being the only mortal being in the world not to have seen a particular marvel of that time called Avatar. Eager to shed this unhappy distinction, she bravely set out one Friday after Biology class with her best friend, a fellow university student whom we shall call Jess, on a quest to a place called Loews, where Avatar could be found. Jess, or course, had already seen this marvel, but wished to witness it in 3D this time.

Almost immediately they ran into trouble. They arrived just on time at the bus stop, and shivered in the softly falling snow as they waited for the arrival of the magical 59U. Though the snow came readily, the bus did not; and even when it did, it passed right on by without even slowing. Freezing, the girls boarded the next bus to arrive, and were told by the driver that 61C's would be arriving shortly. Encouraged, the girls sacrificed the warmth of the bus to other passengers and returned to their snowy wait. And wait they did.

"His idea of soon is not my idea of soon," complained Steph.

"Yeah," replied Jess, "mine either."

Just when Steph was thinking that she was doomed to be eternally the One Who Never Saw Avatar, the promised line of 61C's pulled up - stuffed full. The girls squeezed their way into the belly of the second bus, or rather its mouth, as Jess was practically leaning against the door. The bus started up, Steph did a little dance to avoid treading on some inconveniently placed feet, and the girls clung to their tiny portions of metal pole as they were transported, finally, towards their destination.

But not to their destination, because only the 59U could have born them so far. The 61C spewed them out on a sidewalk near an area referred to as the Waterfront, and they began the last stretch of their journey: the fifteen minute trek through the Waterfront to Loews. The snow was chilly but not unbearable; after all, they were eagerly anticipating their reward.

And what a reward it was. Armed with large plastic glasses and a small bag of popcorn, they entered the theatre and became entranced. Three hours later they left the theatre in a haze of glorious victory.

Which was quickly (and quite literally) dampened by the increasingly thick snow. Shrieking in the cold wetness, still giddy from their feat, the girls turned to their next quest: dinner. Agonizingly, everywhere they tried (including places with such odd appellations as 'Panera', 'Starbucks', and even 'Barnes and Noble') was closed and dark.

"It's only a little snow," said Jess. "This is crazy. Watch even the buses shut down."

"Seriously," said Steph. Then she laughed.

Disappointed and mellowing in the cold, the girls yet refused to relinquish their dreams of warm food. Their one goal now was to retreat home, and seek sustenance there. Retreat, however, required the 59U. The 59U picked up at a place a ten-minute walk way, aptly called Target, for which they now headed.

It proved to be a very long ten minutes. The wind blew directly in their faces, as it must on all epic quests, and attempted to suffocate them in deadly silent snowflakes. Drown them, more appropriately, because this was the wettest snow Steph had ever encountered. By the time the girls reached Target they couldn't feel their fingers, and their faces and necks streamed with freezing water. Still game, they stamped up and down and laughed in relief, and celebrated the end of their struggles. They had only to wait for the bus now, safely inside the shelter of Target, and then they'd be home.

If they only knew...

[To Be Continued]

After The Storm

The Best Part

is the leaves that were frozen to the ground. In the sudden heat, they have pulled away or been kicked free, leaving behind only faint, icy outlines.

City Night (Illustrated)

It's a pretty bad picture, since it's through a reflective window, but you get the idea:

City Night

I wanted to take a walk but it was pouring outside. I was going crazy with restlessness. I felt like pacing madly around the room, but Lizzie was deep in cyberworld and I didn't want to distract her.

Finally the rain let up a bit. Jess remembered she had a Starbucks card, so we decided to walk down to Craig Street for coffee. With sweatshirts and boots it turned out to be perfect temperature outside, with the rain a nice refresher.

Did I say walk down? We ran, we skipped, we jumped. We did stop at Starbucks for a while to share a frappe, but the caffeine only geared us up more. So instead of heading back we kept going, passing the library in a flash, ending up all the way down at the Pitt campus before we knew it. U-turn and heading back through the garden, city all around. Dark, wet streets and dark, deep sky, but the air illuminated by city lights. Massive multi-leveled buildings towering and close, and cars rushing past, but still trees and open streets, people here and there but not crushing. Brisk, but not chilly; sprinkled but not soaked; alternating speed and motion.

Cities soothe and exhilarate me.

Can Opener is Crap

(Or lesson in persistence.)

Headshot

correlational experimental multifactoral zzzzz 红茶还是绿茶 zzzzz section M media message bagel 去中国饭馆 - 什么?? french bread cereal KATLA THE THRALL rice zzzzzzzzzzz box WATER BOAT WATER George points if then map map export cut map zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!! pasta roll cinnamon SLAVE Irish gangster mother Katie 我要三十饺子和两双筷子，谢谢 blogging FUTHARK blogging shower 学，学，WHO KNOWS, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

[Free online translation!

Psych (but really stat), drowsy Chinese study, odd texting and breakfast, confusing Chinese swim, snack (lunch), viking book and nap, long tedious I&A, dinner, viking book, Castle, satisfying Chinese homework, blogging [unable to translate], rune search, blogging [unable to translate], predictions for the future. Order a professional version for only $29.99 a month! You'll never have to slog through a messy brain again!]

Dear Who?

So yesterday I got a reply to my application to be a peer tutor - very prompt of him, really. In his email, the peer tutoring coordinator asked me to choose one of the listed time slots to set up an interview. Hence I needed to reply.

The two rules I have learned about replying to official letters are the following:

1, Address your correspondent the way he addressed you, and

2, Refer to your correspondent by the name with which he signed the letter.

Well, great. Easy as pie. Until I looked at the letter again.

Dear Stephanie,

Thank you for your application, etc., etc.

John