Monday, July 10, 1995
This is part one of at least four tales from my past. What you are about to read was typed out and e-mailed to friends back in the summer of 1995. (Keep that in mind as you read.) If I had a blog back then, this would have been the entry…
The job search is moving slowly…so I decide to take a break and visit some people along the eastern seaboard. I got up at (GASP!) 6am! Leaving at 7am, I arrived in Boston’s Logan Airport at a little past 9am. There’s a HUGE sign that reads “AIRPORT PARKING – Shuttle to Terminals” (or something to that effect). I figure that parking away from the airport would be relatively cheap. So drive my silver Buick into the lot.
“How much?”, are the first words out of my mouth since leaving home. (Well…except for singing along to the MST3K tape in my car.)
“Drive over there and give him your keys,” she demanded.
“How much?!”, I repeated.
“$10.50 a day”, she said.
I groaned.
After having a little trouble getting my house key off of the ring with the car keys, I handed them over and grabbed my luggage.
It was a nice ride towards Logan. He asked, “Which airline?”
“Amtrak”, I said with a grin. He gave me a really strange look. “I just need to get to the T.”
“Oh…ok”, he replied. He seemed to be thinking, “Smart-ass kid. Why doesn’t he drive to the station instead of the airport!”
I arrived at the T station and didn’t have to wait long for the blue line to arrive. After voyaging through the depths of Boston on blue, green, and red trains, I finally arrived at South Station. I was a little upset I couldn’t leave from Worcester. It seems that they stopped having trains go through there. Now they only go through Rhode Island.
After calling Mom to let her know that those aliens in New Hampshire didn’t get me, I started to look around the station. (My Mom believes that aliens work at the New Hampsire tolls. Every time I have to drive through, she wants me to call when I arrive.) There was a nice newsstand run by Sirajul and Mujibur. I picked up a “NetGuide” to read (hoping that my “CHiPs” WWW page would be listed…it wasn’t.) While at the register, I noticed Neelix and Kes (from Voyager) on the cover of TV Guide. I thought, “Neat.” Then I read the title near the bottom… “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie”. Needless to say, I bought it. There was a great article on the movie this fall…complete with PICTURES! Oooh!
After getting something to eat at Au Bon Pain, a line began to form for the train. I waited.
When boarding the train, I was walking down the aisle looking for a seat that looked just right. When I saw an outlet, I knew I found it. I put my bag above and sat down…putting my laptop case beside me. After the train got moving, it wasn’t long before I got tired of reading…so I decided to play some solitare…and whipped out my PowerBook. I was thrilled to find that the outlet WORKED! I wouldn’t have to run off batteries!
At about 7:30pm, after 8 hours, the train pulled into Penn Station in Baltimore Maryland. Nick Okrant and Jim Jawarski were there to greet me. (Andrew Ferguson was in the bathroom.)
We were all starved (Amtrak food is expensive and SUCKS!) so they drove me to College Park, MD to a place called “Santa Fe”.
It was pretty uneventful until I got my order of Buffalo wings. WOW! They were *HOT*! I could only eat 4. Fergie could only eat 2 or three. Jim only tried one. We couldn’t get the taste out of our mouths!
Later that same night, we went to Georgetown. I got a glimse of DC on the way. There was a nice little coffeehouse where Fergie and I could play chess on the tabletop while Jim watched. We had to call it a draw. (I think I could have won in about 75 moves…he could have never gotten me.)
After checking e-mail via America Online’s College Park, MD access number, I called it quits and went to bed.