Adventures With Google Maps

I know I've said it before, but I like Google.  A lot.  Probably more than anyone should.  They know all the sordid secrets of my search history, and could probably own my soul if they so chose.  That's why I find it so frustrating that Google Maps seems to hate me so much, or just plain goes out of its way to make my life far more interesting than it needs to be.

You would think I would learn that Google Maps seems to like to screw with me sometimes, just apparently to amuse itself.  Let's count the ways Google Maps has messed with me so far this year, shall we?

1) I'm still cutting them some slack on the walking directions in New York City, since they are still in beta, but that situation was ridiculous. How could it not keep up with the speed of people walking?  I still think that might be more of a problem with my service than Google itself.

2) They got me again when I needed directions to a park that I have been to many times before, but I was coming from a different area and didn't know how to get there. For whatever reason, Google Maps decided to take me to the back of the park, to an entrance that has been closed for so many years I had no idea it even existed.  I ended up having to follow signs to get around to the actual entrance.

3) I used it on vacation, when my mother and I took my niece and nephew to Great Wolf Lodge in Massachusetts.  It got us close to the destination -- sort of. It just randomly stopped us in an area and told us we had reached our destination.  Ummm, no.  This is like the middle of a freaking forest, not Great Wolf Lodge.  We had to pull into a state park and get new directions to actually reach our destination.  So, I guess it really did get us there, eventually, but just with an interesting scenic drive as a bonus.

On a normal day, Google has no trouble telling me exactly how long it will take to get to work in the morning -- even when I did not ask it, nor tell it where I work.  Kind of unsettling, but they are usually accurate.  Obviously Google knows my location.  Every time I need directions, however, it tells me -- without fail -- that my destination is 3 hours and 42 minutes away, and I need to get on the New York State Thruway.  Why, Google, why?  You know where I live.  Why do you suddenly think I live in New York City or Long Island?  I've learned that I will always have to remind it of my current location.

You might be wondering, "If you have had so many problems using Google Maps, why do you keep going back?  You must be a glutton for punishment."  Maybe I am, or maybe I'm just really stubborn. Maybe I just hope that Google Maps and I can learn and grow together to overcome these issues. Also, I don't have a GPS, so Google Maps is my option.

Which leads us to this weekend's adventure.

I will admit that it may have been kind of stupid to head out on my own to begin with.  My car is still not right. In fact, I just celebrated the 3 month anniversary of driving around with my "Malfunction Indicator Light" on a little while ago.  The car is so loud that it sounds like a damn motorcycle or airplane when I'm driving.  (It does have to get inspected this month, so one way or the other this will have to be addressed at some point. I'm just procrastinating.)  So, maybe not the wisest of ideas to head off into the unknown.  Whatever.  Car seemed to be running fine, so off I went!

My destination:  The Dover Stone Church.  It's only about half an hour drive, so not a terribly big adventure.

Who's riding shotgun with me on this little adventure?  You know it, baby: Google Maps.  One day my blind faith and trust in them will be rewarded, I hope.

The directions looked pretty clear-cut in the brochure (see the link above), but I'm not all that familiar with that part of the county, and I wasn't about to keep my phone open trying to read that brochure while driving.  That way lies accidents.

Everything was going swimmingly until Google Maps told me to take a right onto a street that I was pretty sure hadn't been mentioned in the brochure's directions.  Maybe I do have too much faith in Google, or maybe I am just incredibly stupid, but I made the turn.  Why not?  Granted, my car is a bit dodgy in the maintenance arena at the moment, but I had a full tank of gas and I was on an adventure, so why not?  I thought maybe Google knew a shortcut to my destination.  Why they would know better than the town the destination was located in never crossed my mind at that point.

There we were:  Google Maps and I were on a lovely drive, down a winding country road.  We were travelling past farms and meadows -- a very bucolic and idyllic scene.  We were happily driving along for a while, and I assumed that eventually we were going to come into town.  The brochure said parking was near a pizza place and an elementary school.  At some point we had to be near a more populated area.

And then it happened -- the moment when I knew, once again, that Google Maps had betrayed me and was taking me to some untold destination.  It tells me to take a left onto another road.  WTF? Google, my dear, I don't even see a road to turn onto.

I slowed down to take a better look.  Is that...?  Is that what Google is calling a road?  Honestly, it looked like someone's driveway.  It was a dirt road, with a very faded sign at the end.

No.  Just, no. There is a limit as to how much of an adventure this is going to be, and you have just crossed that line, Google.  This seems like it could be the plot of a horror movie.  Lone female, out in the country, driving down an unfamiliar dirt road.... Blam!  Zombie attack! Serial killer!  Aliens! Pick your poison.

Ignoring my overactive imagination and getting back to reality, there were some very real reasons not to go down that road.

--I know there is an area out here, somewhere, that I don't want to stumble into.  Maybe the urban legends about it are true, maybe they aren't.  Maybe they are just really nice people tired of dealing with other people's bullshit and attitudes.  Either way, I don't have any desire to find out.

--This totally looks like I am going to drive down the road and end up at the front door of a farmhouse.  I do not need to make a random appearance in some poor unsuspecting soul's yard.  My car isn't exactly quiet.  No need to scare the shit out of anyone.

--I am not driving down a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere, in a car that may or may not fall apart completely if banged around too much.  If I actually have a muffler left on the car at this point, I'm sure I won't after bouncing along that road.

Not happening.

So I pulled over to the side of the road, without turning down the dodgy dirt road, and decided to change directions.  I put in the name of the pizza place that was in the brochure as a place that you could park.

Boom!  Instant directions, which did not include the dirt road. In fact, they sent me all the way back in the direction I had just come.  I got to the pizza place only to find all sorts of signs saying that the parking was for the restaurant customers only.  (I think maybe the brochure needs to update that fact.) I remembered from the map in the brochure that the entrance to The Stone Church should be just a little ways down the road, and the elementary school -- the other suggested parking location -- should be just on the other side of it.

And it was.  There were several other people walking along who had obviously parked there for the same destination.  Thank you helpful brochure!  I was really getting tired of the driving portion of the adventure at that point.

One turn, Google Maps!

That's right, folks.  The entire trip should have been going straight and making one right turn.  I have no idea where Google Maps was trying to kidnap me to, nor do I care to find out.  Maybe it was taking me to the wrong side of the park once again. Maybe it was lonely and wanted to make our trip special with a scenic drive. Maybe it was luring me out to a shack in the woods to meet my demise.

I don't know, and I don't care.  I sure wasn't going to use it on the way home.  I can handle making a fucking left turn by myself without navigational assistance.

At least the Stone Church was pretty cool, and worth the effort to get there.  I took some pictures.

Marker to explain where you are.

Entrance/Exit path to the park.

The Stone Church, as seen from the trail.

The view in the cave.  There is a waterfall in there, but I couldn't get a decent picture of it.

Looking back out at the entrance and the trail.

Will I be using Google Maps again?  Yes.  I still don't have a GPS, and 90% of the time they are really very accurate.  I still don't understand how it can give me perfect directions to get from here to The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, yet a destination in Dutchess County just boggles its little electronic mind.  

Consider it a lesson not learned, if you must.  Chalk it up to me being an idiot to keep trusting it.  I don't care.  I choose to think it makes my adventures more interesting, and maybe one of these happy little mistakes will lead me to something awesome one of these days.

**Also, as I discovered on the way to work this afternoon, I think my car may really have lost whatever bit of muffler it had still possessed.  It is exponentially louder now, and the whole car freaking vibrates from it.  My neighbors are going to love me!**

The Taylor Swift Concert

**This should really be called The Taylor Swift Concert: With Several Mentions of Heffron Drive.  My niece has fallen in love with them  (particularly with Kendall Schmidt), and everything in the universe gets compared to them.**

I'm terribly overdue with this, I realize.  It's been a month since I surprised my niece by taking her to the Taylor Swift concert at MetLife Stadium, and I'm only just now getting around to discussing it here.  My niece and nephew were here for about 6 weeks visiting, and all of my time went to hanging out with them, as it should.  You, Friends, got put on hold.

First, I totally surprised her!  I did not tell her about it until the night before the concert.  For all of the elaborate plans I tried to come up with, I ended up just giving her a picture from a magazine and telling her it was a clue to her surprise.  Watch the reveal here!  (If you're wondering about the hugging comment, I had already taken her to see and meet Heffron Drive, and Kendall stole her heart.  There's a blog post.)

I had mentioned in a previous post that my friend was also coming to the concert with us.  We headed out to her house, as we had a car take us down to the concert. Honestly, that was probably the best possible way to get there.  I would, no doubt, have gotten lost trying to follow the GPS, and we didn't have to worry about parking.  We just got dropped off and picked up.  It also meant that I only had to do a short drive when we got home around 2:30 am, which was awesome.

The surprise twist to our concert adventure was that my friend was now on crutches.  She was such a freaking trooper through the whole thing!  The staff at the stadium could not have been nicer from the moment we arrived -- they got us a shuttle to the stadium from the drop off so she didn't have to walk, we got an elevator up to our floor in the stadium, they kept offering her a wheelchair -- they really tried to make it as easy on her as possible.

Remember how I was worried that we would be in the nose-bleed section and Lili (my niece) would be disappointed?  We so totally were, but she was too happy to care.  I actually think it was pretty cool.  Granted the stage looked tiny from where we were seated, but they have the big screens to watch.  However, we could pretty much see the entire stadium.  It really gave you the feeling of just how enormous the place is, and how many people were there.  Also, no obstructed views from that height.  We were literally 7 rows from the top of the stadium.

That's right, folks -- seven rows between us and the top!

Beautiful day with a nice view.

I will say this:  I don't know that anyone with a fear of heights would be remotely comfortable sitting up there.  You can kind of tell from the picture of the seats, but it has a pretty steep pitch.  I can see it freaking people out, thinking they would fall over the edge.  The stairs also made things interesting for my friend and her crutches.  She actually had to go back down to the floor before the concert ended as she was worried about negotiating the stairs in the dark with people crowding to get out when the concert ended.  I think that was a wise decision.  

And then the concert finally started!  

First up: 

I tried to get a picture of the stage, but we were way too far away for that to come out clearly.

Lili freaked out, and immediately started messaging her friends.  Apparently one of them loves Shawn Mendes a lot.  He was really good, and Lili was singing along with the songs she knew.  

Next up:

Vance Joy

Lili:  Aunt Tammy, is he going to play Riptide?

Me: I'm sure he will, Lil.  It's a big hit.

......

Lili:  Okay, when is he going to play it?  It's been like 2 songs now!

Me:  Calm yourself.  You should know this song, it's on the radio too.  I'm sure he'll play Riptide at some point.

......

Lili:  *practically spazzing at this point*  What if he doesn't play it?  I love that song!  When is he going to play it?!

Me:  I'm not psychic, Lil.  Just chill out.  He's probably saving it for the last song -- go out with a big finish.

.....

Lili:  Riptide!!  YES!!!!!

At this point, I was kind of floored by the number of seats that were still empty.  

Those are a lot of empty seats, and they weren't cheap.  The whole floor area looked like that, even while Vance Joy was performing.  

Maybe all of those people were coming from work, stuck in traffic or something.  Maybe they were off getting food or souvenirs.  

I don't get it.  To me, if you are going to a concert, you go to the concert.  The whole thing.  It's fun! You get to hear the music, see all of the performances.  Why the hell would you spend the money and not be there to experience it?  These are pretty big name musicians who get played on the radio all of the time!  Why would you miss out on the opportunity to see them live?

Maybe they only wanted to see Taylor Swift and didn't care about the opening acts.  If that's the case, we obviously do not dwell in the same financial bracket.  My tickets were not cheap -- I can only imagine how much it cost to sit that close to the stage.  If you are willing to drop that much cash and then only show for one act?  I can't relate.  

Also, I think it is kind of rude to the musicians who are performing.  The stadium is huge, and even with all of the visibly empty seats, there were probably hundreds -- if not thousands -- of people there at that point.  (I think the news said later that it sold out to 60,000 people.)  I just think it must be a bit disheartening to go out on stage and see all of those empty chairs.  

Not that it is a remotely comparable situation, but I can remember playing a marching band competition in high school at Giants Stadium.  It was so exciting to know that I was on the same field that I saw on television during football games.  We were always in the last group to go, late at night, as we were one of the biggest (size-wise) bands.  I can remember looking at the stands thinking there was really no one there, and it was disappointing.  I found out later there were a few thousand people there, but it looked like nothing compared to the number of empty seats.  Yeah.  So, not at all the same thing, but it made me feel bad that there were so many empty seats during the first two performances.  I hope they didn't feel that way when they were on stage. It was probably a much different perspective from their point of view.

But I digress.  End of rant.

Next to take the stage:

Haim.

I enjoyed their performance.  I had never heard any of their music before, but they were good.  That didn't seem to be the feeling shared by most of the people in my section.

Lili:  They said it was going to be a jam session.  What's a jam session?

Me:  It's when musicians get together and just rock out, just see where the music takes them.  It's not necessarily individual songs.  

......

After about 10 minutes....

I see Lili getting out her headphones.

Me:  What's up, Lil?  

Lili:  Yeah, I'm not feeling this.  I've got my headphones.  I'm just going to watch and listen to Heffron Drive until Taylor Swift comes out.

Me:  Okay, honey.  Do what you have to do.

There was a little girl with her mother and grandmother sitting in the row in front of us.  She was there as a surprise for her birthday.  (We'd been chatting earlier.)  The girl was sitting on her mother's lap with her hands over her ears.  Many other people were just sitting and talking, taking selfies -- not a lot of people were paying attention to the band.

They were good.  I don't mean to sound like I am bashing Haim at all.  I really enjoyed their performance.  I don't think they were successful with the younger part of the audience.  Their sound is very different from the previous artists.  

On to the main event:

First song of the evening

When we entered the stadium we were given these white bracelets.  We had no idea what they were for, and were joking about them tracking us so no one got lost, and generally wondering what purpose they served.  Turned out to be a really cool purpose.  As you can see in the video, at times the whole audience seems to flash white.  They bracelets were synced up to the concert, and would flash different colors during Taylor Swift's entire performance.  

That's Lili, rocking out with her bracelet all aglow.

Our view of the stage.

She brought out a surprise guest in the middle of her set!  I was excited, and Lili about lost her damn mind.

Yeah, that's right.  Awesome!

Taylor Swift was incredible!  She was on stage for at least 3 hours.  She brought out the Women's National Soccer team, fresh from their parade in NYC that morning!  She had some of her friends from her Bad Blood video on stage during the song -- in the costumes they wore in the video!  Part of the freaking stage spun around at one point.  

Pretty impressive view from our seats!

There was one point in the evening where I got worried for a moment.  When she started to sing Blank Space, people lost their damn minds!  They were jumping around and dancing so much that the entire freaking section we were sitting in was vibrating and shaking -- more so than at any previous point.  I remember thinking, "We are seven rows from the top of this fucking stadium.  This is not going to end well if the damn thing collapses."  I had to remind myself that many other events had taken place here, and everything was fine.  That the stadium was designed and built to handle this kind of thing.   And then my brain, being the slightly warped creature that it is, felt the need to point out that we were only seven rows from the top, and we would be a lot better off than the people below us who would be getting flattened like pancakes.  I'm just a ray of freaking sunshine sometimes.  Obviously, since I am here writing this and there were no reports on the news of a tragedy occurring at the concert, everything was fine.  If you had felt that thing shaking and vibrating like that?  You might have had a moment of doubt, too.

And then it was over.  It was a fantastic experience!  Taylor Swift puts on one hell of a show.  As we made our way back home I tried to get a picture of the NY skyline.  Our driver was so nice, he even pulled over so I could get a better shot.

The view was much better in person.

It was the perfect end to a great night!

We got home around 3am.  Everyone had a good time.  

Lili was thrilled.  She even made a playlist of all the songs from all of the performers at the concert.

I have to say though, as much as she loved it, Heffron Drive was still her favorite concert.  I had bought her an autographed cd at the concert, which she made us listen to any time we rode in the car. She also has it on her iPod.   My nephew, who is 8, now knows the words to all of their songs.  He even has opinions on them, although he is far too smart to say anything that will piss his sister off too badly.  It leads to moments like, "I like Passing Time.  Logan sings it better though, no offense."  Of course Lili got all offended, and I had to point out that Austin (my nephew) was entitled to his opinion too.

The tl;dr version:  Taylor Swift is a hell of a performer.  My niece had a good time.  Did it make me the coolest Aunt ever?  No.  I already managed to do that when I took her to see and meet Heffron Drive.

But I got to have two wonderful experiences with my niece, and that is priceless.

In Which We Go To See Heffron Drive

(aka I May Be the Most Awesome Aunt Ever!)

**This is going to be kind of long, and there are pictures.  You've been warned.**

Hey Friends.

So I took my niece to see Heffron Drive at the Studio at Webster Hall last night.  If you need a recap on things leading up to the grand event, see the previous post.  I'm not linking you to it -- you can get your scroll on and find it yourselves, I have faith in you.

The plan for the day -- and I did have one -- was simple:  I go to work for half the day, pick up my niece and hop on the train, walk to the concert, do the Meet & Greet and enjoy the concert, walk back to Grand Central, catch the train home and we are done.  Easy peasy, right?  I thought so, until reality kicked in and all of my planning was for naught.

The morning was the usual.  Had my coffee, work was hectic, but everyone showed up and I got to leave on time.  I was a little worried someone would call in or be late and screw things up, but fortunately that didn't happen.

However, my awesome plan did not really account for all that much time between leaving work and catching the train, and that would be the moment when the flaws in my plan started to arise.

Stupid traffic!  It took me longer than anticipated to get home.  Literally had enough time to feed the cats (because they are the most important -- just ask them), freshen up, grab the tickets and head out.  In my haste, I grabbed my portable charger but neglected to grab the connector to actually hook it up to my phone, which I did not realize at the time.  This will become relevant later on.

We made the train with literally 5 minutes to spare.  I was starving, since I hadn't eaten and my super planning skills had neglected time for that, but whatever.  We should get to Grand Central around 3:45-ish and I can grab something there before we head out.  I'd like to give a big thank you to Metro-North and the Hudson Line for running on time with no delays.  I hate being late, and was still freaking over my poor planning thus far, so that would not have been good.

Lili (my niece) was all kinds of excited about going to New York City and seeing the concert, but was doing her best to reign it in.  Even though we were on an "Express" train, she didn't seem to realize that it was going to take quite so long to get there.  You're going from one end of the commuter line to the other, kid.  That's going to take a while.  She did enjoy the decor of our car.

Apparently it is very important -- to someone -- that no one put their feet on the seats.  Many people ignored that.  Lili also wanted to know why they needed a sign to tell people that they should not assault the train staff.  Good question, Lil.

We got to Grand Central, grabbed some food and headed out, as I figured we could eat while we walked.  I had Google-mapped it (Is that a word?  It is now.) before and it should be about 1.5 miles.  Totally doable.  Me being me, however, I decided that I should pull up Google Maps on my phone and have it going as we walked, just in case.  No way was I going to get us lost and/or axe-murdered as my mother thought.  That would a) suck, and b) lead to the biggest "I Told You So" of all time.

Now, I don't want to blame Google Maps, as the walking directions are in beta, but they failed.  They failed hard.  Maybe it was my phone, I don't know.  I was pretty convinced prior to yesterday that Apple and Sprint are in cahoots to get me to upgrade my phone, but I wasn't expecting this nonsense.  The map on my phone kind of went berserk.  It could not keep up with where we were walking, and kept telling me to turn onto streets we had already passed.  The Meet & Greet started at 5pm, so at 4:20 I declared the walking portion of our adventure over and we took a cab. 

We got to the venue and got in line.  It wasn't that hot out even though we were standing in the sun, but you would think we were on the surface of the sun from the amount of bitching about it being too hot and people's hair getting ruined that was going on around us.  Unfortunately, it must also have been garbage day in the near future, as there were many bags lining the sidewalk.  Let's just say Lili got to experience the smell of New York on a summer's day.  It also killed any thought I had of eating my sandwich, so that just went into the garbage.  I'll eat after the concert, eventually.

We were between two groups of young ladies.  The girls in front of us had apparently been to many, many Meet & Greets, and to listen to them talk they were the experts on such things.  The longer we waited in line past 5pm, the more they hypothesized how it was all going to play out.  They compared it to having met Big Time Rush, One Direction, and a couple of other groups -- one of which had something to do with people arriving on a fire truck?  I don't know.  They were friendly though, and one of them complimented Lili on the James Maslow "Save The Music" t-shirt she was wearing.

Some ladies somewhere behind us in line had apparently met Kendall and Dustin (Heffron Drive, for those who were too lazy to click the link at the beginning of this post) several times before, as we overheard their conversation, and they were analyzing every previous meeting.  I mean, it was an in-depth discussion about where Kendall had put his arm around the one girl each time they had previously met.  The first couple times it was apparently around her waist, but the last time it was around her shoulders.  Did that mean he thought they were friends?  Oh!  Maybe it meant he remembered her and liked her as more than a friend! Same discussion for Dustin's arm placement. We didn't turn around to look and see who was talking, but I raised an eyebrow at that discussion, and Lili just gave me a look.  I'm going to hazard a guess that the gentlemen in question have no freaking clue they are in such an involved relationship with these ladies.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

Finally, blessedly, we got our tickets checked and were given wristbands.  By the time we made it inside it was a little after 6pm.  People were getting antsy since they had been waiting.  Lili was super about the whole thing and never complained once.  My coffee had long since worn off, and I was starting to get a bit tired having been on my feet for the majority of the last 10 hours.  However, inside was fantastic!  Even if we ended up in the back, there was literally not a bad place to be.  No matter where you ended up standing you were going to have an awesome view of the stage.  Lili and I are both relatively tall, and there were a lot of shorter ladies there, so as long as we stood behind some short people we should be golden.

This was taken from the line for the Meet & Greet.  The stage is right there.  Impossible not to have a great view.

Neither of us had ever been to a Meet & Greet before, so we had no clue what to expect. We had already bought autographed copies of the cd at the merchandise table while in line.  I had a copy of Happy Mistakes Unplugged already, and had brought it with me just in case.  Lili realized people were getting autographs as well as pictures, so I gave her the poster from my cd to  get signed.  I opted not to get anything signed.  Yeah.  I get super-awkward and shy at the least opportune moments, a point which will come up again!  This would also be the time when I realized my phone was at about 20% of its battery, went to use my handy charger and realized that I forgot the connector.  Shit.

Lili went first when it was our turn to meet them.  The kid is made of awesome, and she just bounded on up there -- even kicking her foot up in the air when she hugged them..  She got the poster autographed, and her picture?  Totally precious!

I know I'm biased, but she's freaking adorable!  Kendall and Dustin are pretty darn adorable as well.

And then it was my turn.  I had hoped to be charming, witty, humorous, or at least calm and normal about it all.  Remember how I said I get awkward at inopportune moments?  Yeah, that happened.  I introduced myself to each of them when I got a hug, cause it seemed kind of weird (at least in my head) not to do so.  And then, because it is me, the woman taking the pictures said my picture came out orange. Say what?  It totally did.  I think she was willing to try again, and the guys seemed like they were willing to pose for another photo....and instead I said something about it being okay and I could fix it with a filter on Instagram. Yeah.  That happened.  Kendall was really sweet and said it looked like it had a Soap Opera filter, and I mumbled something about having to find my niece.  Told you the awkwardness would be back.  I really didn't want to impose and take up too much of their time.  I knew there was still a long line of people waiting, some of them being really excited about it, and I didn't want to lose my niece in the crowd.

Here's my picture,  Not quite as adorable as my niece, and this is after trying to remove the orangeness.  Soap Opera filter it is.

Lili, and several other people,  sat on the floor while we waited for the concert to begin, after we picked out our spots.  I didn't.  I just wanted to make sure no one stepped on her.

The concert was fantastic!  I only wanted a few pictures, and luckily managed to get them in before my phone died completely.

Janet Devlin, the opening act.  She was really good.

Heffron Drive

Lili took more pictures and a few videos during her favorite songs. Nothing crazy.

Some of the other people?  Never put their freaking phones down.  At all.  I don't get this particular phenomenon.  I kept glancing at one of the girls in front of me a bit, as she seemed to be watching the majority of the concert through the view of her phone.  I understand you want to record your memory of the concert, document it for all posterity, but I really don't get it.  The view is much better if you actually look away from your phone and look at the stage.  Maybe she was just really into filming it and making sure things stayed focused properly -- I don't know. You are at the concert.  They are mere feet away from you.  Why watch it on a tiny screen rather than raise your eyes?  

After the concert we took a cab back to Grand Central.  My phone was dead.  As we had failed to navigate our way there in the daylight I did not even want to attempt it in the dark. I had also lost part of the ability to hear in my right ear, as the chick next me was screaming the entire concert at some inhuman frequency. We arrived to discover that we had missed one train by about 2 minutes.  Now we had about an hour to kill.

I decided that it was time to finally get something to eat.  Not a lot of options left at 10pm, at least that weren't super busy with long lines.  We could not risk missing our train, as it was literally going to be the last one going back to Poughkeepsie that night.  Camping out in Grand Central was not going to happen.  We had pretzels.  That was my awesome, and only, meal of the day.  I got a coffee around 10:30, and Lili wanted a cannoli.  Sure thing, kid!  We've got about an hour and a half train ride ahead of us, so getting wired on sugar isn't going to be a problem. 

Sitting on the floor, waiting for our train.  I was so done with the day by this point.

We finally got on the train and headed for home.  I feel the need to specify that we were not in a quiet car.  Everyone was just relaxing and chatting amongst themselves.  There was a family with a bunch of kids/teenagers sitting in the front of our car.  They weren't being loud, just talking and being excited.  This woman on the other side of the car yells at them to shut the f@*k up.  One of the teens yells back to watch her language, and that they weren't being loud.  The woman yelled back, other passengers yelled at her to shut up.  I really thought Lili was going to get a first-hand demo of why there were signs up about not assaulting the staff.  Luckily the woman shut up.

We chatted the whole way back, while Lili posted to Instagram and texted her friends.  She had a fantastic time!  It came up that I had never seen Big Time Rush on television, and had only heard of them because of her.  She informed me that it was, "really funny, and we can probably find it On Demand, or Netflix, or Hulu.  You'll like it!"  So I have a feeling that a viewing is in my near future.

But the best part?  She told me, complete with a little smile, that Kendall had always been her favorite, and she can't believe she got to meet him and hear him sing.

And that moment?  That made the whole thing -- complete with all of my awkwardness -- worth it.  I'm relatively sure Heffron Drive is now her favorite band in the universe, and Kendall has stolen her heart.  

My mother informed me (my niece and nephew are staying at my parents' house, not at my place since I have to work) that any time they were in the car today Lili played her new Heffron Drive cd for them.   I was just happy to wake up with my hearing back in my right ear before dragging myself off to work.  

I still haven't told Lili that she gets to go see Taylor Swift in concert.  No offense to T-Swift, but I don't think it is going to be nearly as memorable as Heffron Drive.  

**Edited to add:  Video Lili shot of the concert, which she allowed me to post on Twitter since she doesn't have an account.**

@HeffronDrive From Webster Hall 7/1/15 pic.twitter.com/0BwsWkbbE9

— Tammy Myers (@tammyshampoo) July 6, 2015

Different Perspectives, One Concert

Hey, Friends.  So remember that surprise I was planning for my niece?  (Probably not, but I'm going to pretend that you do if you are reading this. It works much better than realizing I am, for the most part, talking to myself here.)  Well, I still haven't told her about it, but in the meantime a second surprise has come along for her -- and I am so excited about it!

I don't know about you, but I have a pretty wide range of music that I like.  If I'm being completely honest, Country is about the only type I really just can't get too excited about.  It's okay, but I have never once felt the overwhelming urge to just turn on a Country station and listen.  I like a few songs, but I really can't get into it -- that's just me.  I'm willing to give pretty much anything a shot, though. When suggestions of bands I might like pop up on Spotify or Twitter, for example, I'm game to check them out.  I've found a few bands I really like that way, although I would be hard-pressed now to tell you exactly when, where, or how I first stumbled across them.

One such band that I found in this manner is Heffron Drive.  I fell in love with their music immediately.  You should check them out if you haven't yet had the pleasure of listening to their albums.  I also started following them on Twitter, to keep up with concert announcements, new music -- you know how it works.

What does this have to do with my niece and a surprise?  I'm getting to it, but it's a round-about story.

Back to how I like to explore the "suggested" bands that pop up.  A few months ago I noticed on Spotify that it kept suggesting that I might also like Big Time Rush.  I liked their music when I gave it a listen.   I had no idea who they were, although the name sounded vaguely familiar and I couldn't place why.  I had to Google it, of course.

And then I felt silly.  Of course they sounded vaguely familiar -- my niece had mentioned them before. I had no clue that it had been a huge television show/band hybrid thing on Nickelodeon.  One of these days I will have to catch an episode of the show to check it out.  I'm kind of intrigued to see how the music and the show fit together.

Which brings us back to the recent past.  I had seen on Twitter that Heffron Drive was going to be playing a concert in New York City.  Hell yeah!  I am so there.  I don't give a rat's ass if I have to go by myself, I will be going to that concert.  Music is music.  If you like it, then go support the artists so they can keep making it.

And then I had a stroke of brilliance.

My brother, my niece, and my nephew just arrived here on Friday for vacation.  Maybe my niece would like to go with me.  I brought the idea up with my brother.

Me: Does Lili still like Big Time Rush?
Brother: You mean BTR?
Me: I take it that's a yes.

He was cool with the plan for her to go to the concert with me.  My niece was all kinds of excited for going, especially once I told her that I had gotten tickets that included the Meet & Greet.  She knows BTR, but she is only now becoming familiar with Heffron Drive since I told her she was going to the concert.

My mother?  Not happy with these plans.  She is convinced I am going to get us completely lost or get her granddaughter axe-murdered by taking her to New York City.  Some highlights from the conversation:

"Your brother is okay with this?"
"What if you get lost?"
"Do you know what kind of a nervous wreck I am going to be?"
"I'm not worried about you getting there -- I'm worried about you wandering around in the dark afterward."

Seriously?  I'm slightly offended.  I'm a responsible adult.  I have a job, I own a home.  Most importantly, I would f$%king die before I let anything happen to my niece.  Of course, this is also the woman who would not let my brother and I ride a Ferris Wheel -- ever -- when we were little because she had read a news article about one that fell apart at a fair somewhere.  She was slightly more perturbed when my father also had no problem with this plan.

I had to swear that I would have my best friend, who has worked in the city for years, on speed dial in case we have a problem.  My friend found the situation amusing, and even said that I should tell my mother that she said we would be completely fine.  Don't think it made much of a difference.

Long story short: this is happening. Surprise #2 for my niece this summer will be happening on Wednesday. I'm stoked to see Heffron Drive perform, and my niece is excited about getting to see Kendall from Big Time Rush.  Two different perspectives on the same concert.  I'm sure it will be awesome!

Phone Notes

It occurred to me earlier today that I should really clear a lot of the flotsam off of my phone -- apps I never use, tons of photos that have already gone to live on Instagram, etc.  Might explain why my phone seems so sluggish at times.  What else could I clear out?  All of the notes -- probably don't need most of them any more, either.

Honestly, I did not realize how much drivel I had saved as a note at some point. Some were obvious, like the ones with the time, date, and a police officer's name:  incident reports at work.  I don't call the police that often, so I know why I had made those notes.  I'm talking about the rest of it.  Two years worth of random sentences, jots of thoughts I think I probably meant to write about here but then never actually got around to fleshing out, partial grocery lists, my brother's last two addresses -- a really weird assembly of things.

So I decided, before just purging the stuff off of my phone, I might as well post some of it here, since I obviously thought it was interesting and/or amusing enough to document at the time.  Why not let you, Friends, see the nonsense that goes on in my head before it goes through the process of landing here?  Yes, there is a process.  I do actually make an effort here, although I don't know if that makes it better or worse.  Guess that  depends on whether you like reading my blathering or not.

I digress.

Onto the notes.  I'll start with the one that I can actually explain and give you background on, as you sort of know about it already, although you don't know that you know.

1) Ridiculous One Direction Phone Poll:  You already know about this because I did actually write about it here, but then I deleted it later.  I got a phone poll, and it was all about One Direction and Zayn leaving and went on forever, rarely changing topics.  The tl;dr recap:  I felt bad for the dude as he has been under public scrutiny for years and hoped he was okay, I could really not care less about One Direction, I know exactly one of their songs, I don't care if the band breaks up, and I was horrified that the chick giving the poll didn't seem to know who the Beastie Boys are.  (That still irks me.)

"But why delete it?" you might be wondering.  Well, I rarely get get comments actually posted to my blog -- most people respond on Facebook.  That one I actually got an anonymous comment on, explaining how some people were actually really upset about it all, and it hurt their feelings that I was kind of making fun of them -- you get the drift.

My intention here isn't to hurt anyone's feelings or make them feel bad.  Also, I kind of already had a run-in with the insanity that is the 1D fandom on Twitter, and that was more than enough for me.  I watched them perform on Saturday Night Live once, and I posted something on Twitter about it -- I forget my exact words, it was something like, "They weren't as bad as I thought they might be." I was pleasantly surprised, was the gist.  I know I absolutely did NOT tag One Direction in it, and the 1D fans somehow found me anyways.  They were all very nice and polite -- I'm not saying otherwise.  It was a little startling though to suddenly have a shit-ton of attention headed my way, with people recommending YouTube clips of concerts I should watch, thanking me for giving them a chance, telling me how awesome they are, etc.  My point is, I did not need one anonymous person to send out into the fandom that I was in some way making fun of them, ending up with a One Direction shit-storm headed my way.  So I deleted it.

Now onto the other notes that I have no real frame of reference to give you, although some seem pretty clear on their own.

2) "Store -- get weird beers and spiders."  Thankfully, the date-stamp on this one is from October 2013, so I'm guessing Halloween. Not my usual shopping list.   I don't generally buy spider-related anything, as I hate them.  HATE THEM!!

3) "Super long red light.  Is it broken?  Did I unwittingly just participate in a performance art piece on the virtue of patience?"

4) "That moment when the alarm goes off & you wake up & go to put on your glasses but they aren't where you always leave them.  Feeling around blindly, half asleep in the dark & feeling like something would totally reach out from under the bed and grab your hand if this was a horror movie. Stumble blindly to bathroom and jam contacts into bleary eyes.  Try to describe what a pain in the ass it is to someone later, and they say 'Didn't you just look for them?'  Yeah.  If I could f*$king see well enough to look for them then I wouldn't need them in the first place. Just agree that it sucks next time."

5) "12:53 am  The internet tells me that my left ear ringing at this time means that a loved one is thinking about me.  Pretty sure all my loved ones are asleep, unless I have a secret admirer in another time zone.  The internet should tell me to go to sleep & not surf random nonsense at this hour."

6) "Handicap parking vs. bathroom stalls.  Why make parking spots so close, then put stalls all the way at the far end of the bathroom?  Why not put handicap stalls first?  Seems rude."

7) "Rhode Island".  *I really have no idea.

I think we shall end this here.  Consider this the Best of the Notes on My Phone.  The rest is really not worth anyone having to read.  Maybe we will do this again in a few months, kids.  Maybe not.  I don't know how much you really need to know about the thoughts that flitter through my head.

Adventures in Car Repair

First and foremost, Friends, you need to understand that I am not a car person.  I cannot tell you the make or model of a car just by looking at it, save for the Volkswagen Beetle.  I define things as: car, truck, SUV, or motorcycle.  If you need a better description than, say, "blue car" you best hope I was close enough to read the model written on the car.  I have no problem admiring pretty cars or old cars, but I don't have a real interest in them.  It's not one of my passions.

The tl;dr version: as long as it can get me from Point A to Point B reliably I am happy.  I honestly do not care beyond that.

So imagine my level of consternation when I saw this happen on my way back to work Wednesday afternoon:

No, no, NOOO!!!

I was not a happy camper when my "check engine" light popped on while I was driving. What new fresh hell was this little light about to introduce into my world?

Not being a car person, I decided I needed to go straight to the source for information.  No, not Google.  I broke out my trusty Owner's Manual, which I always keep in the glove compartment because I am that big a geek.  

All the latest technology, kids!  It even has a broken cassette player, meaning I have to listen to the actual radio.  The horror!

So I turn to the glossary looking for "check engine light".  Nothing.  Seriously?  Now I have to spend time flipping through all the nonsense in the beginning to find the picture of the panel to find out what they are calling this freaking light.  Apparently it is not called the check engine light, but the "Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL)".   You couldn't just go with the one car term I know?  Fine, be that way.

I flip to page 1-49 to find out what they have to say about the ominous Malfunction Indicator Light:

Malfunction Indicator Light:  

This light illuminates when there is a malfunction of an exhaust gas related component, and the system is not functioning properly so that the exhaust gas regulation values are not satisfied.  This light will also illuminate when the ignition key is turned to the "ON" position, and will go out in a few seconds. If it illuminates while driving, or does not illuminate when the ignition key is turned to the "ON" position, take your car to your nearest authorized Hyundai dealer and have the system checked.

Not helpful.  All it tells me is there is a problem with the exhaust system and to take it in.  No helpful "Here's How to Fix It Yourself" tips.

Screw that.  I'm not driving this thing all the way to the dealership if there is a chance I could fix it myself.  First of all, my dealership is like a 45 minute drive away down major roads.  What if the thing decides it wants to explode or something?  I don't want to drive it that far, and I really don't want to play a rousing edition of "Which Major Roadway Would Be The Best For The Car To Break Down?  Bonus Round: How Many Drivers Can You Piss Off In The Process When You Block Traffic?"  

As an extra special twist, this had to happen while my parents are out of town.  If the car won't start after work I am going to have to impose on a friend to get home.  I really don't want to have to do that.

Maybe it was hubris, or the bliss of ignorance, but I decided that if the car actually started after work I would head to Walgreens and buy every conceivable car fluid that my trusty Owner's Manual said could be easily checked as maintenance on the car.  Friends, I know you must be thinking, "Um, hello?  Why not go to AutoZone or the like?"  Yeah.  There's no point in that.  I might be delusional thinking I could find a quick fix to this problem, but even I know that I have no clue what 99% of the stuff in a store like that is for and wouldn't be able to do anything with it.  We are talking very small-scale dreams of fixing this problem.

Car fluid haul from Walgreens.  Let's do this thing!

Armed with my car fluids and my trusty Owner's Manual I decided to give it my best shot.  I wish I could say I jumped right in there and did something awesome, but I totally started by refilling the wiper fluid.  Yeah, I know that had zero relevance to the problem at hand, but it is the one thing I already knew how to do, and I needed the auto-maintenance confidence boost.

I checked all the levels, consulting my Owner's Manual.  Oohh -- the coolant is low!  I totally bought coolant!  I can do this!  So I follow the instructions, hoping that when I start the car the Malfunction Indicator Light will magically go out.

Nope.  

And every other fluid was exactly where it was supposed to be.  

Shit.  A quick fix is obviously not in the stars.

So I text my parents to tell them the news.  They are due back in town the next day, and then my Dad will come over to my house to check it out.  He knows cars.  If he can't figure out the problem then I am screwed and the car will have to go to the car doctor.

And then I texted my friend who literally has the exact same car in a different color, except everything seems to break on his car first.  It's like I get a preview of all the problems that are headed my way.  Had he had the "Malfunction Indicator Light" randomly pop on while he was driving?  Of course he had!  It was a problem with the alternator.  F&*king perfect.

I took part of the next afternoon off, as I really didn't want to drive the car any more than I had to with the stupid light on. I don't have  a good track record with cars.  My first car died a painful death in my parents' driveway on a cold winter's afternoon.  It got me home from work with its last gasp of life, and when I turned it off smoke billowed from beneath the hood and green goo oozed down the driveway.  It was toast.  Repairing it would cost more than the car was worth.  The car that replaced that one?  Almost had it paid off when a tree fell on it while it was parked in a driveway.  Totaled it.  That's how I got to my current car, and as it is a well-aged model I was afraid this was the end of the road.

My Dad came over the next afternoon to check out my baby.  He couldn't find anything wrong with.  It was driving perfectly fine.  Then he went to check and make sure the gas cap was on all of the way.  Seriously?  I'm kind of insulted, but I am more than willing to be utterly humiliated if that solves the problem.  Gas cap was on nice and tight so at least I was spared that moment.

Then he said we were going to trade vehicles, and he would take my car to his friend's garage the next day and have him look at it.  No biggie, right?  Wrong!  He drives a truck.  A truck that is only a few months old and still has "new car smell" in it.  

My new ride, for approximately 24 hours

My Dad has always had trucks.  I've driven them before, and the other models were even bigger than this one -- one even had 2 gas tanks.  However, driving a truck is still a lot different from driving my little car around.

You want to be a paranoid wreck?  Drive someone else's new vehicle around. You will realize exactly how terrifyingly bad some of the other people actually are on the road.  Right of way?  Just an idea!  Driving while holding the phone to one ear and drinking coffee?  Sure -- steering is optional, right?  It was an eye-opening experience to be driving at a higher vantage point, able see what other people were actually doing when they were supposed to be focused on operating a motor vehicle.  I only drove that bad boy to and from work and that was it.  I was not venturing out any further than I had to, convinced that would be the day some asshole decided to hit me.

This morning I got my car back, safe and sound.  Do you know what was wrong with it?  Nothing.  NOTHING!!!  I spent the better part of the last 72 hours worrying about a car that had absolutely nothing wrong it.  The indicator light is now off, and the guy said not to worry about it unless it kicked on again, then bring it back in.

I'm happy, Friends.  Really, I am.  I didn't want my car to be badly broken, or beyond repair. I didn't want to have to pay for expensive repairs.   I'm so glad Shelly (Yes, I named my car. Keep your comments to yourself.) is home again.  But I kind of wish there had been a tiny, cheap, easily fixable something wrong to make all of the worry -- and the in convenience to my Dad -- worth all of the trouble.

And you best believe I am going to be watching that Malfunction Indicator Light like a hawk, at least for a little while.  My track record with cars makes this feel way too good to be true.

*But I'm still really happy my car is back, safe and sound.

Just a Moment

It was Wednesday when the realization hit me: I had the next day off, and the weather was supposed to be beautiful.  I knew I had to work the next eight days straight after that.I had the overwhelming urge need to get away from it all for a bit.  I found myself desperately wanting to go see a waterfall.

I think that sometimes you just need to drop everything and take some time for yourself.  I know I do. Turn off the phone.  Forget about all the "stuff" you have to do -- the daily obligations and minutiae that suck up all of your time.  Leave the work-related stress at work, not hanging over your head. Just turn off the rest of the world and get some perspective on things.  Recharge your soul a bit.

Find someplace where you can just relax and be.  I'm not saying you need to run off to the mountains and act like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music, frolicking about on the mountain top and singing your heart out.  (Unless that's your thing -- then by all means, do it.)  Go to the beach and just listen to the ocean waves for a while.  Sit in the park and people watch.  Get a cup of coffee and just sit and enjoy it without doing twelve other things or being glued to your phone the entire time.

Stop and smell the damn flowers.

Thursday I headed for the mountains -- more specifically, Minnewaska State Park.  I knew there were several waterfalls there, and I just wanted to hang out by one of them for a while, clear my mind and get away from it all.  Plus, it's always relaxing to hike in the mountains, breathe in the fresh air,  get away from all the noise of daily life.

Was there other "stuff" I should have been doing?  Absolutely.  It's taken me a long time to realize that sometimes I just need to chuck it all by the wayside and do something for myself, that all of the "stuff" will still be there later.  I'm still not very good at it.  I'll totally cop to checking my work email constantly.  I work from home when I'm not on the clock.  I might be a tiny bit of a workaholic, but I don't like doing a half-assed job at anything.  I'm trying to get better at not doing that.

The waterfall adventure worked its magic.  I felt much better, refreshed, before I headed off to work today.  I don't mean to sound like some kind of New Age guru or the like, but I highly recommend it.
The world is a big and beautiful place.

Take minute for yourself to take it all in and just enjoy it.