HeyChristine.com

Sunday, December 31st

4:00 a.m.

The alarm rang. I jumped out of bed. Three hours rest yet again. I packed, checked email, and said goodbye to Mom who was too tired to send me off. Dad took me to the airport to catch my 6 a.m. flight. He didn't say much until we got to the gate, and then we had a conversation:

Dad: "You have TOO many bags. Too many!"

Me: "No I don't Dad..."

Dad: "What time do you arrive in D.C.?"

Me: "Around twelve thirty I guess..."

Dad: "Twelve thirty?! Why so LATE?"

Me: "Because I have to route through Cincinnati..."

Dad: "CincinNATI?!"

Me: "I used one of those discount travel sites, had no choice, Delta..."

Dad: "So dumb! How much was your ticket?!"

Me: "Two hundred dollars I guess, something like that..."

Dad: "Two hundred dollars from HERE?! You paid too MUCH!"

Me: "Errr... Dad? I'm going to get some coffee, want some?"

9:30 a.m.

I walked around the Cincinnati airport like a zombie, bought myself a McD's breakfast and sat down to watch CNN. My favorite channel. Yay. Had three hours to kill. Slept sideways on the chairs.

12:30 p.m.

I got off the plane at National and was racing through the airport to get to the Metro to get to the Amtrak station to catch the 2:10 train to New York when I ran into... guess who. Uncle Rex. Mom's youngest brother. He was catching a flight back to Georgia. Neither of us had any idea we'd both be there at the same time. YO. Take a picture with me. Thanks! Gotta run! Bye!

1:30 p.m.

I purchased my train tickets through the automated machines, got to the designated track, stood in line praying that I'll get a seat and felt like passing out when the guy in front of me turned to me before I had a chance to breathe and gasped, "You won't believe what happened to me today!!" His name was Allan, a junior at Syracuse.

Allan:

"I was coming back from a cruise in San Juan with my friend and his family and we had heard that all the airports in New York were closed so we wanted to get back early but because there were only two seats left on the next flight I took it since I figured the family would rather stay together, so as we're flying towards Newark the pilot announces that we have to turn back due to the storm and go to Raleigh instead but later announced that we were going to D.C. so since I had friends in the area I figured I could stay with them but then I wasn't about to get up the next morning to catch a 5 a.m. flight NO WAY so I figured I'd take Amtrak but when I got here this afternoon one of the employees told me that the trains would be packed from the spillover and that I'd have a better chance if I took the bus so I RAN to Greyhound and bought a ticket departing 1:30 p.m., only to realize after I've already stood in line for 40 minutes that the bus had a two hour stopover in Philadelphia and that I wouldn't get home until NINE-THIRTY TONIGHT so I was like FORGET THAT and wasn't even going to bother to try and get a refund for the ticket and ran back here with all this STUFF! Oh man!"

And I was to hear him tell that story two more times before we separated. Allan and I sat together on the train and talked for a while. Eventually we both passed out. When we came to the next stop, Allan all of a sudden SPAZZED OUT which scared the HECK out of me, grabbed his things, ran for the door JUST as the train starting moving again and then CRASHED into the Amtrak guy. The Amtrak guy is now freaking out and yelled, "Where are you going, man?!" Turns out that we weren't even close to his stop. So Allan told his whole story again. And all the while I couldn't stop smiling. Allan's cute.

5:30 p.m.

We pulled into Penn Station. I came out on 7th Avenue, and there was a line for taxis that wrapped around the street curb. I thought I was going to die. I came to the U.S. with a light jacket and was now wearing my brother's ski jacket (he's twice my size) and my mom's gloves and later Jenny's scarf. I still thought I was going to die.

7:00 p.m.

I finally made it to Jenny and Pascal's place, gave everyone a quick hug and then exclaimed, "I need to borrow your computer ASAP because it's almost 9 a.m. Monday morning Taipei time and I need to publish the weekly newsletter NOW!"

She said, "Christine this is so typical of you, first thing you do is use my computer..." and I'm like "JENNY I'm just trying to accommodate to our DINNER reservations because I know we have to GO!" She rolled her eyes and laughed. Thank God for old friends. The EBs go out without a problem. Amazing. Jenny and I start babbling.

8:00 p.m.

We met Gabe at the restaurant and had a WONDERFUL time. Gabe is our friend from the Loveboat whom I haven't seen since the trip. He was also in town for the holidays and MAN has he done a lot over the years. A very accomplished surgeon. I ordered a swa-zee-ay salad with tuna, eggs and tomatoes and thought that it was one of the best swa-zee-ay salads I've ever had. Food in New York is the BEST in the world.

10:45 p.m.

Jenny and Pascal headed back to their place. Gabe and I took a cab to Bowery where Ray and his friends were throwing a house party. As we were crossing the street and plowing through the dirty snow, I thought for sure that I was going to pass out. Ray let us in, we exchanged greetings, and then I said, "Ray. I need to sleep. ASAP."

He didn't bother to complain about the fact that I didn't even ask how he was doing, lead me to the bedroom, and left me there. I called Mark who was at another party, told him I'd call him back to meet up after the countdown but never did (forgot, oops), and crashed.

11:15 p.m.

Ray entered the room, turned on the lights, and boomed, "Christine. Get up. It's almost midnight." I mumbled from under the covers, "Okay Ray. Fifteen more minutes, okay?" OKAY said Ray.

11:30 p.m.

Ray entered the room, turned on the lights, and boomed, "Christine. Get up. It's almost midnight." I mumbled from under the covers, "Okay Ray. Fifteen more minutes, okay?" OKAY said Ray.

11:45 p.m.

Ray entered the room, turned on the lights, and boomed, "Christine. Get up. It's almost midnight." I mumbled from under the covers, "Okay Ray. Fifteen more minutes, okay?" OKAY said Ray.

And somehow, after he shut the door, I miraculously got up and went out to join the party. I couldn't even see clearly, but I knew that I had to participate. I finally woke UP and met tons of people, including Sondra WuDunn who was one of the original founders of CAPT, with Larry. That was way too cool. I had heard so much about her and didn't know that she was going to be at the party too. I also met a Sal, a Jack, a Charles, and a Diane, who asked if they could also be in my show. I said sure, so here they are:

2:30 a.m.

I was very ready to go home. Charles (third person from the left), who was kind enough to hold a tray of potato chips for me while I pigged out, had a car and offered to drive his friend Cindy and myself home. I thought that was nice.

3:00 a.m.

I stood downstairs with concierge at Jenny's place, concerned about having to wake her up at this hour to open the door for me since I knew she'd be asleep. To my surprise, she was wide awake, smiled cheerfully at me, let me in and said, "Your friend Mark just called!"

I said: "Mark. Who's Mark."

She said: "Mark! The guy you were just with!"

I'm thinking, wasn't that guy's name CHARLES? Perhaps I've met too many people tonight... I AM sort of tired... but I know I didn't give Jenny's number to Charles/Mark, so how could he have called? You mean he called back to Ray's place to find out Jenny's number to let Jenny know that I was coming up? WOW. How sweet! If he's trying to impress me, that's pretty dang impressive!

I said: "Which Mark?"

She said: "Mark! Your friend!"

I said: "Jenny. What did you say to Mark. And what exactly did HE say to YOU?"

We both sat on the couch, in the dark, faced each other and acted like two very serious detectives trying to solve a murder case. Apparently her cell phone rang five minutes earlier but she missed the call. Thinking that it had to be me or Ray calling at this hour, she hit "redial" and said "Happy New Year!" The voice on the other end said "Happy New Year" right back. It was Mark. Mark with the deep voice. Mark and Jenny have never met before.

When she realized that it wasn't Ray, she said, "This is Jenny, can I speak to Christine?" Mark insisted that I wasn't there. Jenny started to get annoyed because she could hear a woman laughing whom she thought for sure was me. Mark just kept repeating himself until she finally said, "If Christine's not with YOU, then where is she?!" Five minutes later I buzz up from downstairs. Jenny thought I just left Mark to come home.

It took us forever but we finally figured it out, and by the time we did, we were both giggling like crazy. Mark was totally wasted when he called, Jenny was half-awake, I was half-asleep when I came home, at which point Jenny convinces me that there were two Marks and no Charles and that one of the Marks just brought me home and had gone out of his way to impress me by calling her first to let her know.

HOW VERY FUNNY.

4:00 a.m.

I went to bed.
Aside from a power nap on the train and at Ray's party... I had been up exactly 24 hours.

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