So I currently have no internet access and no way to actually post this on the blog (but hopefully if you are reading this [and by you, I mean not me] then at least one problem has been remedied).

I hate for Mondays to be "train" update days, but the more annoyed I am with the train, than the more likely it is that y'all gotta read about it. Let's back up to last Wednesday. Miraculously after posting my open letter on Monday, the Wednesday train was only about 5 minutes late. 5 minutes late isn't bad, but it does mean that we arrive at the station with just enough time to watch the transfer train pulling away. Amazingly, super assertive lady (I've seen her on the trains before) complained to the conductor about the trains being late (she apparently does this on a nearly daily basis) and this time the conductor was sympathetic and called ahead and asked them to old the transfer! So I (and all of the others) made it to campus at the earlier time that we should all make if the damn 8:45 train was consistently on time. On Friday, the train is only 3 minutes late. I get on thinking, "wow, we'll make the transfer with no problems." Well, don't you know I jinxed it. About 5 minutes outside of the stop, the train decides it needs a rest. So it stops, completely, for NO GOOD REASON!!! No other trains had to pass, there were no cows on the tracks. Just random stopping. And as you can guess, we all missed the transfer. To top off the ridiculousness of the whole thing, less assertive lady (who I hadn't seen before) asks the ticket collector lady why they don't hold the transfer when the train is late, especially because it was on a few mintues late. The ticket lady said that every day the 8:45 is late. They have no idea why it is late, but it is always late. None of the other morning trains are late, just that one. In a logical world, you'd think that they'd change the scheduled time of the 8:45 train to be more in line with when it realistically shows up, but no, NJT does not use logic. Now this morning, I got to the platform at my usual time about 10 minutes before the scheduled time when the train would come. Almost immediately, they are making announcements about all of the trains being "significantly" late. Other announcements suggest the train I want is about 15 minutes late (in reality it was 30 minutes late, which sucks when it is too chilly to knit). The announcement about significant delays does attempt to explain why, but the woman making the announcement has zero ability to enunicate. To me it sounds like, "the trespassers are on strike". Once I got to my office and had a moment of internet access, I found out that what I heard was at least partially correct. On the NJT website there is a brief and vague message about delays because of a trespasser. Well, doesn't that make me happy that because some moron decided to walk on the train tracks, I got to freeze for 40 minutes and arrive late to work.

Maybe Bitter Girl would be a better title than Sour Girl (but I was listening to that song this morning and it is now stuck in my head).

Or maybe cranky girl, this weekend was a bit too sleepless for me to be functioning happily.

Friday evening we drove to upstate NY for Kevin's cousin's wedding. We didn't leave until around 7pm and so didn't make it to his parents until 1am. While I did snooze a bit in the car, it was a late night. Saturday we had to get up and get ready to go to the wedding. It was a nice wedding, but we got a lot of ideas of things we don't want to do. 1. Catholic church ceremony... waaaaaaaay too long and boring. 2. Sit-down dinner... food was more fancy than edible and took very long for everyone to get served. 3. DJ... loud and annoying (although he did play every song I requested! Shakira, Bon Jovi, N'Sync). 4. Wedding cake... blech! But I don't want to sound like the wedding wasn't fun, because it was certainly very fun. We had a great time dancing and chatting with Kevin's immediate and extended family members who we don't get to see very often. We had a great time dancing to a lot of fun songs. I got to impress everyone with my Justin Timberlake "Bye Bye Bye" dancing. After the reception, we went out to a local bar with Kevin's siblings and their girlfriends. Mandy and I actually sang "You Give Love a Bad Name" since it was karaoke night at the bar. Afterward I realized that I only sing karaoke with people named Mandy and to Bon Jovi songs (last karaoke was with grad student Mandy and "Bad Medicine").

Sunday after a late breakfast, we headed back to NJ. As we passed the NY State Fairgrounds they were flashing a sign for a big Alpaca festival and we passed two trucks pulling trailers that were labeled "Alpacas"! So all you Rhinebeckers, I'm dying to hear how it was and what y'all got!