Welcome to the “if anything can go wrong, it will” NYC trip.
I sent an e-mail to an intermediary in contact with nocturnal_tick letting him know that we’d be there today around noon. Never heard back…hmmm…
Just before leaving, I went to grab my camera. Crap! I left it on when I last used it two days ago, and now it’s completely lost its charge! (No battery option…it must be charged up to work). :: Sigh :: Oh well…have to grab our old, kinda crappy backup camera.
Got to the train station…boarded the train…and realized I left the backup camera in the station. :smack: The conductor was a great help, though…he called in to the station, and the camera will be waiting for me when I go pick it up tomorrow. Still, no pics for the day.
Now, since I had mentioned in my e-mail to tick that NJ Transit trains were very reliable and we’d certainly be on time, the train lost power. Twice. That added about a half-hour to our ride time, so we knew we’d be late, and we had no way of communicating that to tick.
We finally get to the city, hop a subway to get close to his hostel, and walk the last few blocks. We get there, and I was hoping tick would be waiting in the lobby, but no dice. I talk to the desk clerk, when it hits me…I pretty much only know him as “noctural_tick”! Other than that, I only have a first name to tell this guy.
It takes awhile, but the first name, along with the English accent, narrow it down. He remembers tick, and even that he had been asking about getting a phone number for someone living Jersey, so the desk guy gives me his room number. No dice…tick is gone. :: sigh again ::
The lobby has a web terminal, so I check my e-mail…hey, a message from tick! Unfortuantely, the message makes it obvious that he never got my message telling him that we’d be there today. Oh well…since he now has this terminal to get e-mail, I send him a message letting him know that we’re in the city, and to call my cell if he gets this message.
Well, not much to do now…I guess I’ll call the folks who e-mailed me their phone numbers after reading this thread and see if we can’t get an impromptu get-together going. Crap!! Where’s the damn paper with the phone numbers?!? :: sigh x3 ::
So, any and all mini-fest ideas were shot to hell…but, wife and I did spend a nice afternoon walking around Central Park and going to the zoo there.
On the train ride home, tick called, but it was shortly after the train pulled away, so we were under the Hudson River where there is no cell service. I got a voice mail from him, but it was obviously just a bit too late.
Ah well…sorry about that, tick! Have to catch you whenever we finally get over to England…