From: TRAVEN@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU (Blue eyes cryin' in the rain)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: long weekend (1) -- the trip east
Date: 5 Nov 92 05:08:00 GMT
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Getting to New Jersey...

The weekend itinerary calls for dinner Friday with my parents, some friends
of theirs, and my sister and her husband (they're in from Seattle, for these
and other reasons), in honor of my parents' 44th anniversary.  Saturday night
will be my brother's big Halloween party at his farm in upper Bucks County.

The logistics of travelling across Pennsylvania seem daunting.  My wife must
work at the hospital all weekend, so she's not coming and she also needs
wheels.  AMTRAK doesn't quite cut it, particularly for the return, since I'd
have to catch a 9:41am train on Sunday after a VERY late party that took place
an hour and a half away from Philly.  (Note to train buffs:  the westbound
Broadway Limited was booked solid on Sunday, and besides it doesn't arrive in
Pittsburgh until about 12:30am.)

I looked into flying, and found an extremely low fare of $161 round trip.  Not
only is this on bankrupt Continental Airlines, it also entails a change of
planes in each direction.  The 'intermediate' stop, you wonder?  LaGuardia, of
course.  Ah, deregulation...

Well, to cut to the quick, my wife said I could take the car anyway, that she'd
ask colleagues living near us for lifts to work.  And I was all ready to drive
the boring Pennsylvania Turnpike by myself, when...

At about 11pm Thursday night, we get a phone call.  This giggling woman
explains that she's a friend of my sister.  Well, actually it's her fiance
who's the friend of my sister.  And she was talking to her fiance, who had been
talking to my sister, and he had been bemoaning the fact that she (the giggler,
not my sister) wouldn't get to see my sister during her (my sister's) visit to
Philly, because she (the giggler) is in Pittsburgh, and then it hits them that
maybe I would want a ride to Philly since she (giggler) is going back home on
Friday and...and...

This entire soliloquy has raced past my ears in about 5 seconds.  At first I
thought this was a call from Seattle, but eventually the meaning of her words
reaches my cognitive centers.  OK, I'll think about it for a moment, and get
back to her.  But it isn't that easy, since she's staying with her father and
somehow the place she'll be sleeping doesn't have a phone, but she'll call me
in the morning before her planned 10am departure or maybe I should call her
father's office and we'll work out whether I'll catch a ride (leaving my
return method unknown) or drive it myself...

By morning, I've decided to take her up on the offer, as driving alone is a
mega-bore, it'll save gas, and my wife will have her wheels.  When I call dad's
office at 9:15, he's out to breakfast with her.  I read the paper (NYT, since
Pittsburgh remains newsless for the 6th month).  I drink coffee.  I read more
of the paper.  I leave another message at the office.  I drink more coffee.
Finally, at 10:45, she calls back, explaining that she had to have a leaky tire
fixed, and do I want a ride?  Sure, sounds great.  We hit the road, finally, at
11:30.

Well, Amy is really a very nice woman, engaged to my sister's ex-neighbor
Howard.  She's an artist and also a recruiter for her art school, which is why
she was in Pittsburgh.  We talk about art and artists, the NEA and Mapplethorpe
and Serrano (he's a real ass, she says).  We enjoy the superb yellow and orange
foliage of Pennsylvania.  We complain about the length of the trip.  She
appreciates having company.  She won't take my money for gas or tolls, since
the school is paying for it anyway.

As we head back to the car after a midtrip rest stop, a woman approaches us.
She's 50ish and looks a bit bohemian.  "Have you been having any troubles on
the road?" she asks.  We start to say something about the gray, foggy, rainy
weather, but she continues, "I heard noises while coming over the mountains.
There was laughter in the back of my car, and whispering behind me."  We
quickly find a reason to pull ourselves away from this apparition; while
walking to the car we look back to see her talking earnestly with several other
kind but soon bewildered souls.

Amy lives in University City near Penn, and my sister has arranged to pick me
up there (so she and Amy *do* get to schmooze for a moment or two, after all)
and take me the rest of the way to my parents' house in Cherry Hill.  We
eventually get there, then go out for dinner at a local Italian restaurant.
There are 7 of us, squeezing around a table at a circular booth originally set
for four.  Plenty of butt room for everyone, but knees are knocking constantly
under the table.  My mother's old friends Estelle and Phil pick up the tab
(first time they've *ever* done that, smiles my mother later).  Everyone at the
table proudly wears the 'Pro-Clinton, Pro-Choice' buttons provided by my
sister, though there is disagreement about Yeakel and Specter.

...to be continued, with the stories of property inspection and Halloween still
in the works.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
neal    traven@pittvms                  Bitnet          412-624-0097 (office)
        traven@vms.cis.pitt.edu         Internet        412-624-0110 (fax)
                    "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."
                                          -- Larry Andersen, relief pitcher