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Alright, since I’m sure all of you even noticed I was gone last weekend (har har), here’s the recap of my trip to Ohio. On the eve of ConnectiCon; oops. XD; It’s long. You were warned. This trip was basically the highlight of my summer. Friday: Woke up at 3am, which is when I normally go to bed, so that was a little odd. Parents drove me to the airport, we checked my suitcase, yadda yadda, found out they changed my departure gate. Went through security, cried a bit cuz that was where my parents were stuck and couldn’t come any further. Security wasn’t that bad; had to pull out my camera and the little bag with my shampoo and stuff in it, and take off my watch and shoes, and that was about it. Found my gate, sat down, boarded when they called my seat row. Sat in the wrong seat at first, but when its real owner showed up we set that straight. I ended up on the left side of the plane on the aisle seat that time. Put in my earplugs... waited. They were having some issue with one of the dials in the front not matching what the wings of the plane were actually doing, so there was about a half hour delay as they fixed that, and then we were in the air. No real turbulence to speak of. The lady behind me (whose seat I tried to sit in) turned out to live in the area near my college, so we talked about that for a bit. The man in the seat across from there joined in, because he’d been there once or twice. I was a little worried about my connection in Detroit since we had gotten off the ground late, but the man told me that I should ask the stewardess to see if they’d call ahead and make sure about it (my Detroit layover was only an hour long, and we were already half an hour late), but she didn’t; just told me I’d be on time. (Funny thing about me: if you put me somewhere with someone I know, I’ll only talk to the someone I know. Hence, a lot of people think I’m very shy and quiet, which I am. But if you put me somewhere full of strangers, I’ll talk to whoever’ll listen to me. XD; I act a lot differently when I’m alone than when I’m with people.) Anyway, Detroit airport was frickin’ scary. There are three sections, with gates A, B, and C, and a tram that runs between them, as well as this big underground... cave-thing with three of those huge people-moving conveyor belts in it. Trying to navigate that with twenty minutes before I had to be at check-in was... less than fun. I got off the plane from CT at one of the A gates, so first I was told to go to gate C-1. Then I got there, all out of breath from hauling my carry-on bag across two buildings, sat down, and had to get up again and haul ass about five minutes later because they changed us to gate C-28. Saw some lady get up at the same time I did, so I went over and was like, “Are you headed for gate C-28?” and she said, “Yeah,” so I said, “I’m just gonna follow you, then, if that’s okay.” XD; Then we sat for a while (me and the lady I followed) and talked. Apparently she’s traveled on just about every airline there is. I asked her about Korean Air, the airline taking me to Japan next month, and she went on and on about how once I fly with them, I’m never going to want to fly an American airline again. XD; She said their service is superb. Things to look forward to... So then we boarded this little puddle-jumper plane that was actually so short that I, at 5’3”, had to duck in order to walk around. I sat in the back row across from a very nice guy named Roy from California/the Philippines, who chatted with me all through that particular flight so that I didn’t notice any turbulence or anything. The flight took an hour, but all but 17 minutes of that was spent taxiing on the runways at either end; we were only in the air for 17 minutes. Roy had been to the airport in Toledo before, so he showed me where the baggage claim was (I didn’t see a sign for it anywhere, unlike at the other two, bigger airports). I grabbed my suitcase and headed back into the main lobby thing, and looked around. I had called Snare while I was at the baggage claim and she told me she was standing at the bottom of an escalator, and she was wearing a green shirt. Turns out she thought I’d be coming down the escalator, but we’d come down from the other side, so when I found her, I actually snuck up behind her and poked her in the shoulder. :P She gave me a hug, introduced me to her parents, she and her dad took my bags, and we were off to the car. It was interesting, because there was no real feeling of, “Whee, this is the first time I’ve ever met you people!” It was like I’d known them before. Strange in a cool way. :D They had brought water bottles in a cooler, which was awesome since you’re not allowed to have them on the plane anymore unless you buy them from an airport vending machine, which I was a little too busy having a hernia to go bother with when I was in Detroit. >.>; Called Mom and Dad to tell them I was alive and in the custody of Good People, and then we went to the Toledo Zoo. First thing as we got inside was this special seals-and-polar-bears exhibit. My favorite! Stood in line and met this little kid with a propeller hat that we proceeded to encounter just about everywhere we went for the rest of the day. Kid was a sweetheart; NO qualms talking to strangers. XD; He kept engaging me in conversation, telling me things like, “That one [seal] is playing hide and seek!” Got to the polar bears; I think I counted two adults and two babies. SOCUTE. Want one for a pet; no, I don’t want to hear how impractical that is. >P Didn’t get to stick around for very long, cuz there was a very large crowd and the maintainers kept shuffling us out, but polar bears = love. There were a ton of exhibits: monkeys, reptiles, wild cats, birds, African animals, fish, etc. Snare already covered most of that in the entry that she wrote, so I’ll just cut to my favorite thing next to the polar bears. There was a train ride that we went on around the African animals exhibit where we got to see zebras and giraffes and such, and I took a very wonderful picture of a crocodile, ‘cept the croc turned out to be fake. Go me. ._.; Also, the concession stand at the zoo had, like, the best lemonade ever. :O Their French fries were also pretty fab. So, we stayed there for about four hours and we were all getting pretty beat down by the heat and from being on our feet for so long, so we headed back to the car. For all the warnings people kept giving me that Ohio’s flat as a pancake, I didn’t find it all that dull. There weren’t nearly as few trees as I had imagined, and it’s not like we went miles and miles without seeing other cars and buildings. The town Snare lives in reminded me, layout-wise of Amherst, actually (or maybe more like Munson, MA, which is a town we drive through on the way to Amherst). Saw the library where her mom works, and the rich-people part of town, and the downtown area, and then the residential area where (duh) she lives. We had pasta for dinner with her family’s homemade tomato sauce, which was frickin’ divine. Brownies for dessert while we watched part of the first Harry Potter movie on TV ( After they went home, we were going to go in the hot tub, but it was, in fact, too damn hot out to even think about using the hot tub, and also, I had gotten a bit of sunburn on my shoulders*, so we went to bed instead. XD *Snare’s parents went out and grabbed some Noxzema just for me while they were out; I was very grateful. ; . ; Saturday: We woke up pretty early on Saturday so that we could go to the fundraiser breakfast at the Masonic Lodge that Snare’s dad’s friend is a part of. I got bacon, which I hadn’t had in ages, so I was happy. After breakfast, we headed for Lake Erie. I may have the next couple of stops out of order, because they were all in the same general vicinity of each other, but you get the idea. We stopped at Marblehead Lighthouse which is located in a state park (which meant I couldn’t swipe a rock from Lake Erie to give to my mother; oh wells). Unfortunately for us, we were a weekend too late, and it was closed to the public, so we only got to see the outside. But it was still cool, since I’ve never been to one before; apparently it’s still in operation, although it’s automated now. From the lighthouse, across the water to the right, you can also see Cedar Point amusement park, which is apparently famous to people who like amusement parks. :P We drove to a town called Port Clinton, where we stopped briefly at a quilting shop so Snare’s mom could poke around. There was a really cool quilt on the wall that was made using little characters cut from cookie cutters, but the lady who owned the place forbade me from taking a picture of it. Memorable squares on it were this adorable little polar bear, and a little purple piggy. Then we went to another apparently famous place known as Cheesehaven. BAD ASSERY TO THE MAX. Srsly. They put out free samples of everything, and you just wander around eating cheese and salami and stuff. It’s grand. I really would have liked to buy some of their salami and their cheddar spread, but I didn’t have a cooler in which to keep them fresh on the plane ride home. Might be able to buy from them online, though. That was something I noticed about Ohio: everywhere we went where there was food involved, there were free samples. I very infrequently get that here in CT. That Japanese place in the mall food court offers samples of their teriyaki chicken, and there was some other specialty store around Christmas that offered (really unsanitary-looking) samples of stuff, but other than that, I don’t think I ever see it here. So then we went to the actual port part of Port Clinton so we could get on the ferry. We overshot the parking lot the first time, which was actually kind of cool because when we turned around, the bridge we had just come over had been put up to let three sail boats through. I don’t think I’d ever seen a split-bridge go up before. I know we have them here, but I’ve never been around when boats are passing under them, so that was spiffy. We parked the car and headed for the ticket counter, and I heard Snare’s dad say, “They got the bugs.” And I looked, and he was indicating this white car in the parking lot that was COVERED IN INSECTS. I probably went pale. He assured me that they only had a life expectancy of four days; I told him that if they landed on me, they were going to have a life expectancy of about four seconds. (Shut up; I thought it was clever. >.>) Blech. They don’t bite, but I’m bug-o-phobic anyway. XD Apparently about ten minutes before the ferry shows up, a whole mob of people come rushing to the ticket counter. We kind of got stuck in that mob, so we missed out on the ferry we’d planned to take, and got one for half an hour later instead. So we sat on benches in the shade and people-watched. There were a lot of really adorable toddlers around, and most of them were well-behaved. Not gonna lie – the ferry rides were up there as one of my favorite parts of the trip. I’m such a Pisces when it comes to boats. I love water-travel. I took probably half the pictures from that day while we were on the damn ferry. XD; *nerd* The island that we went to is called Put-in-Bay. On the ferry ride there, you can see this house that someone had built into the side of the island out of the front of a boat. I keep trying to figure out whose estate it is, but I don’t really know. Also, while on the ferry, we saw this huge swarm of boats; apparently there was a race going on that day. Basically the first thing we did when we got to the island was rent a golf cart. SO FUCKING FUN OMG YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW. The one we got had backward-facing seats, which made it even better. I had a ball trying to snap pictures of the cool-looking houses on either side of the road as we sped along at like 15-30mph. XDDD I saw my dream house, and got a perfect shot of it on the second pass. So... places we visited include: Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial: A tall stone column with a big metal observation platform at the top. When we were coming in on the ferry, I thought it was a lighthouse, but apparently it’s a burial site where three Americans and three English soldiers from the War of 1812 were buried. As was the story of our weekend, though, we weren’t allowed up in the observational platform because they were renovating. The Chocolate Café: I wish I’d gotten a picture of the outside; I just realized that we never did pass by it a second time on the way back to the port. ; . ; But anyway, they had really good ice cream. Got to try my first full-sized waffle cone, which was delicious. Their big thing, though, as the name implies, is obviously selling candy. We got truffles and fudge. :D Put-in-Bay Butterfly House: Didn’t get much for pictures here because butterflies are freaking SPAZZY and don’t like to sit still for the camera. D: Lots of pretties, though. I wanted to buy something from their gift shop for my mom, cuz she loooooves butterflies, but she kept insisting to me on the phone that I was not to spend any money on her, so... :/ After we got done sightseeing, which actually took several hours, we went on a hunt for the perfect souvenir T-shirt for me to bring home with me. I’m picky with my clothes, and a lot of the shirts there had to do with drinking; we all know I’m such a lush... Haha. So finally, I found this cute navy blue one with little anchors and sailboats on it that said “Put-in-Bay” at the top, and I was like, “MINE YES PURCHASE NOW.” Will get people a picture of it after it goes through the laundry... which I meant to do today and totally forgot. Shit. *facepalm* Anyway, I digress. We drove the golf cart back to the rental place, dropped it off, and went to hang out in line for the ferry back to Port Clinton. Snare had bought a dragon plushie at one of the gift shops, and this little 3-year-old girl was eyeing it with envy. Her mother eventually brought her over and asked if her daughter could play with it, and the poor thing did NOT want to part with it, although she was very polite about it when she gave it back. XD; The ferry back was awesome. We had sat on the enclosed deck during the trip there; on the trip back, I requested that we sit on the open-but-canopied deck, and Snare’s family, being super nice to me, agreed. Itwassofunomfgsrsly. My hair tried to eat people, which is always delightful. But honestly, I freaking love that kind of thing. Boat rides, man. Boat rides are FTW. Back in Port Clinton, we found the car to be, thankfully, bug-free. Snare and her mom realized that there was a gourmet popcorn place nearby, so we took a little detour. Once again, free samples like whoa. The place was called Great Lakes Popcorn Co., and they had everything from cheddar popcorn to caramel popcorn to fruit-flavored popcorn to root beer popcorn... it was crazy. XD; And delicious. We got the cheddar and the vanilla butternut, and then we returned to Snare’s house for a brief time. Snare's parents tried to find a place specifically where I could get a rock from the lake and stick my feet in the water just to say that I did it, but we ended up in a marshy area. I really appreciated the effort, though. ; . ; Then, I liked the movie a lot. I was confused at some parts because let’s face it, I don’t know jack shit about the franchise and all the bad-guy robots looked the same to me cuz they’re all black and grey, except the little shit who turns into a boom-box, at whom I laughed hysterically. Optimus Prime wins at life, though. *thumbs up* Will probably get the DVD when it comes out. Definitely was pleased to note at the end of the day that I had not gotten sunburn at any point during the trip to Lake Erie, and I celebrated by going in the hot tub when we got back. WANT. WANT VERY MUCH. I’d trade our pool for a hot tub any day. Aaaaany day. I’d never have backaches again. T__T And then we went to bed, and vowed to sleep in as late as we could without wasting all of Sunday. XD Sunday: At about 8:30 in the morning on Sunday, I woke up for reasons pertaining to the potty. :D When I went back to my sleeping bag and laid down, I heard the unmistakable sound of a gleeful, very-much-awake doggy running up a flight of stairs. This was proven accurate about half a second later when Biscuit came in in all his mini-poodle glory and sat down at the crook of my arm. XD; SODAMNCUTE. I was pretty sure Snare was still asleep, and I wasn’t sure if, if I pretended to be asleep, he’d go try and wake her up instead, so I petted him and he flopped over on his back so I’d give him a belly rub. XD; And after about five minutes he must’ve decided his work there was done, cuz he went back downstairs, and I went back to sleep. I woke up at 10 but didn’t officially drag my ass out of bed until 10:30 when Snare got up to turn the AC back on. We lazed around for a bit, checked email and whatnot, and then I busted out the subbed Yu-Gi-Oh! DVDs. There was a whole mess with that when I was packing, in which I first couldn’t find the ones she’d requested, and then was having a fit at the idea of putting them in my checked luggage. If I lose them, I can’t replace them; they’re illegal now that 4Kids bought the rights to officially sub the series (even though they never got past, like, the second disk). So the HK subs have vanished from eBay. But anyway, I brought plenty, and we watched Bakura be queer and kick some ass
At about 2:30, I packed up all my stuff and we headed out. We went to Coldstone for some ice cream, then to Boston Market for dinner (yes, in that order). We ended up getting to Toledo airport a little earlier than planned, but it was okay; we just sat and watched planes take off and land while we chatted about stuff. It was actually really amusing. Apparently there’s a hole in the front of the plane about the size of the gas-cap on a car that they can open up and stick their arm through to retrieve things from people on the ground. Pilot: Damn it, I forgot my inhaler! *snickersnort* Also, when the guys unloading the luggage compartment were all finished, they rode down the baggage ramp like a slide. XD; When we saw my plane land, we headed over to the security area, and then I had to say goodbye, which sucked, cuz... y’know... goodbyes suck. ... ... ... ... Even when you know that when you get home at midnight, you’re going to sit your dead ass in front of a computer when you should really be asleep and talk to the person you just said goodbye to on AIM. Yup. XD Kind of regret not taking a picture, though. Also regret not having taken pictures out the plane windows, especially on the way home, since I saw Detroit and Hartford all lit up at night... Buuut anyway, the security there was different from the security in CT. They didn’t care to see my watch or camera, but they wanted me to dump the thing I had around my neck with my boarding passes and my driver’s license in a bucket. o.O; The flight from Toledo to Detroit was pretty uneventful. A lot more turbulence than the flight going the other way, but other than that... Didn’t talk to anyone, really, either. We left the airport RIGHT on time, by the minute, and actually arrived ten minutes early. But we didn’t get to deplane until 20 minutes later, because there was a delayed flight stuck at the gate we were trying to get to. XD; See what being early gets you? Nothing. XP Was pretty pleased with myself and how I handled my second time navigating the airport in Detroit, in all honesty. As soon as I got off the first plane, I went to the NWA desk and was like, “Is this still my gate? *hand over boarding pass*” and she was like, “Nope, it’s C-64 now.” So, thinking to myself “N64, N64, N64” to remember the number (YES, I am THAT MUCH of a nerd), I wandered from the A terminal to the C terminal, through the cave, yadda yadda. Found a seat, plopped down, watched planes. Called my parents and Snare to tell them I was at the halfway point. At one point, one of the flight attendants sat down to make a phone call, and a few moments after she got up to go stand at the gate, I noticed a pen lying on the floor next to where she’d been sitting. I hadn’t seen anyone else over there, so I grabbed my stuff and picked up the pen and went over and got her attention. Gave her her pen back; her friend was like, “That was very nice of you.” Now, I would like to mention that at this point there was a guy in a green shirt sitting across from me, and I got the distinct impression that he was not someone I wanted to strike up a conversation with, so I just sat quietly until they called for boarding. I really really need to start relying more on my intuition. The guy turned out to be seated next to me on the plane. I was on the window on the right, he was in the middle, and another guy in blue was on the aisle. Green struck up a conversation with me; he told me his name, I think it started with a D, but I can’t really remember now because I was too busy thinking, “Hmm... chotto...” And he told me how he was going to Hartford on business to do training for Sikorsky, which is a company Kamatics works with. Speaking of Kamatics, just as I was sitting down, I heard a voice: “Hey, do you work at Kamatics Corporation?” I spun around and saw this guy who I didn’t really recognize looking at me. And he elaborated, “Jim ____’s daughter?” and cited my last name. “...Yes...” “My name’s Mike! Second shift; I thought I’d seen you before! Am I going to see you there tomorrow?” “Nope; I’m on vacation!” Apparently he’s seen me standing in line with Dad at the end of the day, punching the time clock. :P Detroit to Hartford was his connecting flight from Chicago; he was at a couple of Red Sox games with his wife and kids. It’s a small world after all. Anyway, Green and I started chatting about college, since he just graduated last May, and Blue joined the conversation, cuz he’s a Junior (I was still the youngest of the three of us; d’oh), and so on. About halfway through the flight, just after the flight attendants went through with drinks, Green handed me a little card that said “SMART CARD” on it. I read it, and it said, “Place your thumb on the center square for 15 seconds; if it turns green, it means you’re a good person!” So I did it, and it didn’t turn green, and I was like, “Well that sucks.” And he said, “Turn it over.” So I did. And started reading Bible-babble. And my brain went, “I KNEW I DIDN’T WANT TO TALK TO THIS GUY!!!” And for the rest of the trip, I got preached to about how Jesus has a Plan for me, but I can only embrace His Plan if I talk to Him myself and on and on, and in my head I was going, “Isis, Osiris, please land this plane before my heathen-pagan self loses the will to be polite to this guy.” ^_~V The ear he was talking into got plugged up by the air pressure upon our descent even though I was wearing earplugs. - . - I have no idea what Blue was doing throughout this convers My favorite part of the conversation, if such a thing could exist, was when he asked me if I’d ever lied before. Me: Yes. But I always fess up to it later. That’s USUALLY true. In fact, I can only think of one thing I have lied to my parents (actually, just Mom, cuz she’s the only person that’s ever asked) about that I never confessed to, and it’s worthy of being on PostSecret.com, because nobody’s Nicole tells me I should have said, “I’m lying to you right now.” *snerk* Finally, we got off the plane and both had to head to baggage claim, so I was chanting to myself, “Mommy and Daddy please be there, Mommy and Daddy please be there,” and they were, and I rejoiced. And the first thing I said when I got in the car was, “Oh. My. GOD. WHOOPS, I used God’s name in vain. My goddamn ear’s plugged up. OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN!” >DDD I’m such a bitch. I so don’t care. When I got home, Mommy made me grilled cheese. ; . ; Then we tried several unsuccessful things to try to pop my ear, including: -Opening and closing the car door several times XD; That last one kind of worked; I could at least hear out of it again by the next morning. I remain convinced that it plugged because of Bible Guy And now it’s back to my stress-filled life of “I’m going to Japan in six weeks! :D” Ugh. Also, I have new contacts (again). We’ll see how these ones go. I’m starting to regret the decision to get them BEFORE Japan instead of after. x . x; It’s just adding to the stress. BUT! ConnectiCon starts tomorrow, and I get to see cosplayers and the guy who writes Ansem Retort and see BLOB PEOPLES YAY! :DDD And so. I will probably, after this weekend, do an update of pictures from both this trip and the Con, since this thing is already way too damn long WITHOUT pictures, and it’s too close to midnight for me to be arsed uploading things to photobucket. SO. G’night everybody. XD;
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