Boston and New York - part three

Sunday was a bust. I woke up feeling really ill, and my fat issues had progressed to the point where it hurt like hell every time I moved. And while I'm a fan of pain in the right situations, this was not the right situation. So, despite feeling guilty for wasting a day in New York, I stayed in and rested. I had to go to the lobby and recheck in for the night, so while I was downstairs I went to the computer rooms and used all my single dollar bills on the internet machines. Lots of websites to check up on. After that I went back up to the dorm and spent the day alternately sleeping, reading, stitching and sitting in the windowsill people watching. What a waste.

Monday I woke up feeling better, and the fat issue had started to subside, which is just as well because I had a bus to catch and even if I'd been in excruciating pain I'd still have had to move. I caught the Megabus from New York, which was late. It got stuck in traffic, and decided to stop randomly outside a toll booth somewhere, making us even later, which meant that I missed my connection in Boston. This connection would have gotten me back to Maine at 8.15pm, with plenty of time to catch a public bus to Portland town center and another public bus to the Portland USM campus in time to get the last free shuttle bus at 10pm back to the Gorham campus where I live. Except that the bus was late, and I missed that nice handy connection.

The next bus from Boston would get me to Maine at 9.15pm. Not enough time for the barely-there public transportation system to get me to the campus in time for the last shuttle bus. After working this out I sat silently for a minute, with the word "crap" resounding in my head. I thought about it. It wasn't too bad. I could sit in the student center watching my shows on the computers all night until the first shuttle bus on the Tuesday. But wait, did they leave the student center open 24 hours? OH CRAP.

What to do, what to do? I have no cell phone, and I hadn't taken my laptop. No way to contact any of the people I know who have cars. Bloody wonderful. Cue panic. I had a mild panic attack in Boston South Station. I really didn't want to spend 10 hours sat in the cold on a bench outside the student center. Not my idea of fun.

Now, I've lived alone for a decade, and I've always considered myself fairly independent and capable of taking care of myself - sort of. I'm not. Not at all. I take it back. I'm very very dependent. I couldn't do anything without Neil's help. Yep, I went running to Neil again. I dug $5 in dimes and nickels out of my bag because it's all I had left and brought an international calling card from a vendor in the station. Was NOT happy about the all the change. I used the calling card to ring my darling Neil's cell phone and hope he was awake. This is about midnight English time. No answer. I left a message on his answerphone explaining the situation and begging him to transfer some money into my bank account so I could get a taxi from the Portland bus depo to the Portland campus. I explained it all in a hurried and rushed voice, hung up, then promptly burst into tears. Right in Boston South Station. Have I mentioned that I do not like Boston?

I tried Neil again five minutes later. Still no answer. I believe the message I left him that time was mostly sobbing. I tried again in another five minutes and the wonderful darling perfect amazing man answered. He'd transferred me the money. So I had the cash and got the taxi and got to Portland in time to get the shuttle bus and made it home safe and sound and exhausted. I really don't know what I'd do or where I'd be without him. He's so good to me.

It was a long and exhausting weekend, but I had a good trip. Despite horrible Boston and sick days and panic attacks, I really enjoyed myself and I'm very glad I went. A little disappointed that I didn't get to do some of the things I'd planned. I never made it to Mood, or to the Garment District, and I never took my ride on the Staten Island ferry, and I never made my trip to a certain jewellers in honor of my darling best friend, and I never made it to the zoo, and I never made it to the natural history museum and all kinds of other things I'd had planned. But New York is not going anywhere, and neither are all the things I missed out on. I WILL be back. I just might not go through Boston next time.