Wild Ride

Last night I arrived at JFK/NY around 11:00 pm. I got to my hotel around midnight. Because I was arriving late, I ordered a town car. It felt somehow safer. I should have stuck with an ordinary NY cab. NY cabbies tend to know how to get to Manhattan. My town car driver, on the other hand, did not seem to know how to get to my destination and spent much of our rainy, dark, ride fiddling with the GPS. The GPS kept alerting the driver he had a "New Message. New Message. New Message." As if paying little attention to the road wasn't disturbing enough, he then began fighting with the credit card machine and punching in my cc number manually. At least 5 times I had to urge "The light is green!" At one point, a few blocks from my hotel, he stopped and pretty much parked on Fifth Avenue. WHAT?! People were honking but he didn't seem to mind. When we finally got to the hotel the doorman graciously opened my door , took my bags out of the trunk and put them in the lobby for me. All while I waited for my spazzy driver to figure out how to charge me for the ride. I sat there, in the back seat, for ten minutes while he mumbled something about my ride number not being right. Finally I said "Can I just sign it and go? I really need to get to bed." He then gave me an incredulous look and handed me the slip to sign. I'll never take a town car again. I'll take a good old fashioned NY cabbie any day.

Now, to be clear, I realize this is a luxurious "problem", but when it's midnight, and you have to meet your co-worker in the lobby at 8:45 am and you're still on West Coast time... it's a drag. Also, since kicking my one week addiction to cough syrup, I haven't had a single decent night of sleep. Another drag. I was so well rested and now I'm back to being a mess.

The good news is that when I finally got to check-in the doorman asked "What took him so long? Was he writing a love letter or what?" I said "I know! And he wasn't even a good driver. I thought I was going to die the entire ride." The guy checking me in said "Sounds like you've had a long day, let me see what I can do for you." He then upgraded me for the week! Sweet!! I'm so unaccustomed to upgrades that I panicked when the bellman opened my door and I couldn't see a bed. I saw a bathroom, a kitchen counter, a desk and a sofa but no bed. I thought 'oh no! I'm not going to have to fold out and make a bed am I?' then I turned around and saw a lovely king sized bed in another room. Can you imagine?! In New York city... another room?! It's unheard of... at least for me.

I did have the good sense to stay in tonight. I begged off dinner plans so I could have an early dinner and get to bed. I'm now in my room watching American Idol. All of NYC awaits but I'm dang tired.

Off to sleep for me.