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April 17, 2014 - 9:51 p.m.
"nyc court day"

Hey Journal!

This morning I got up at 6:30am to get ready for our big day in court in the city!! It was ridiculously early, but for some reason I'm not all that tired! It was a pretty good day. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if it were warmer!

I left at 6:45 and headed to the Ronkonkoma train station. I had to park far away since the parking lot was really packed! I got my ticket and then got on the train. It left at 7:19 and it was an express to Penn Station. It only stopped at Central Islip and then it was a straight shot in!

I took the A train to Canal Street and then walked to the court. It was a short walk, but at first I was walking in the wrong direction. Once I got my bearings figured out, I was good to go!

I arrived, went through the metal detectors, and then took the elevator to the 7th floor. I found the courtroom and there were a ton of people sitting outside waiting for them to open the door. At about 9:30, they let everyone in. Unlike in Hauppauge where the did a roll call to see who was present, the clerk guy told everyone to find the person they are suing and come up to his desk. I had to call out the lady's name and SHE WAS THERE! Yikes!

We went up to the desk and the man asked some preliminary questions and then told us that we should meet with an arbitrator before having a trial. We went out of the courtroom and around the hall where the arbitrator introduced himself and then started asking us questions about the case. He was a nice guy, and I didn't have to say too much because after I started telling the story, the crazy woman jumped in and started babbling about the money she owes us and everything. She doesn't dispute anything, and completely acknowledges that she owes us for the event!

She then started whipping out paper after paper of bills from ConEd, NYSIF, and other venues showing how much money she owes to EVERYONE and telling us how she has no money. She said when she started this business 20 years ago they had a hard time and recently it's gotten even worse. She said that she owes all these country clubs and event venues all of this money because she just keeps holding fundraising events in hopes that she'll make enough money to start paying some of her bills but she never does. She's an absolute mess.

The arbitrator asked her if she could make any payment today and she said no because she claims to have only $20 to her name. She said she is selling her apartment for 750,000 and that when it's sold (in less than a month) she'll pay us in full! The arbitrator asked if I was okay with that arrangement, and I told him that in theory we don't mind waiting a month because really...what choice do we have... but she's made promises before about having fundraisers and selling her car and always says we'll have our money in a couple of weeks, but then when the deadline comes, she does nothing.

For whatever reason she REALLY wanted to avoid having a judgement against her in the courts, so she said she would have the full amount paid by May 29th. I agreed because the court wrote up a document that said she would pay in full with a bank check by the date or else she automatically gets the judgement against her. In the best case scenario, the looming judgement would put some pressure on her to get it paid. In the worst case, she doesn't pay it.... and even if we had gotten the judgement today by having a trial.... she wouldn't have paid it anyway because she claims not to have the money now...so it was the best possible outcome.

After we signed the agreement we had to bring it to the judge to be approved and then we were done!

My phone was running low on battery so I wanted to charge it up at a Starbucks. I went to one, but the only outlet in the entire place was taken and there were people sitting right by it, so I left to find another. At the second Starbucks, there were no outlets to be found anywhere. Finally, at the third I spotted an outlet. I put my jacket down on the seat next to it and went to buy a hot chocolate! I got it, and then returned. I plugged my phone in... and would you believe it... IT WOULDN'T CHARGE!!! The outlet was sooo loose. It would only work if I HELD the plug tilted at an angle! UGH!!

I got up and looked for another, and I found one next to a girl who was nice but had a severe case of bitch face! I asked her if she minded if I plugged my phone in and left it next to her to charge. She said it was no problem, so I set it up and then sat on the other side of the aisle but close enough to keep an eye on my phone! I ate my bagel and had my hot chocolate, and then after about 30 minutes of this, I realized that there was an outlet directly under where I was sitting!!!! How embarrassing... and from where she was sitting, she could see that the whole time!!

I switched to the closer outlet and hung out for a little while longer to get sufficiently charged up. When I left, I went across the street to Chipotle for lunch! I got my steak and rice bowl and then went to the bathroom. It all worked out very conveniently because I had to pick up a package that was supposed to be delivered to me, but had a problem.

I ordered a shirt from Urban Outfitters and they sent it by some weird courier called LaserShip. I got word from them earlier this week that they don't deliver to our area...which was pretty strange. They told me they would have to send it back to the shipper, OR... I could come pick it up in Queens. Since I was planning on going to the city for work today... I told them to hold it for pickup.

So, back to the convenient part... The subway station nearest the Chipotle was a 6 train and I took that uptown to Grand Central Station and switched to a 7 train to Queens. I got there in no time! It was great. I got off about 1 block from LaserShip, walked to their location, and got my package. It was a little weird at first because I couldn't' find anyone in their building and it wasn't clearly labeled! It was a little awkward. Finally, someone in a truck told me to go around to a weird little door where some people were sitting in an office. All the people in the office were really nice and they got my package for me.

Next, I walked back to the subway platform and took it further to Woodside where I was able to pick up the LIRR! The LIRR train to Ronkonkoma was at 1:25 and I knew I had to make it there in time because I didn't want to have to wait ANOTHER hour!! I missed one train at the subway area while I was buying tickets so I had to wait another 5 minutes or so and was really nervous I'd miss the one home! Luckily, I got there with a few minutes to spare... bought my ticket, and off I went!

It all worked out perfectly! I got home around 3:00 and cleaned up a little around the basement. I wanted to get things in order and try to clean up some of the clutter in the bedroom.

I contemplated taking a nap, and I was tried... but I just never got around to the nap. I was tried, but not THAT bad.

Dan was out tonight because he had a softball game for work, so I watched World News and just hung around.

Re got a NEW CAR today.... she went to some more dealerships this afternoon with her dad and they found one she liked. It was a Nissan Rogue. It was much cheaper than the Jeep and Honda we had looked at yesterday and it's a really nice one! She texted me to let me know that she was signing all the paperwork and then around 8:00 she came by to show us!

I came out to see it and Dan arrived home right as we were checking it out! We decided to go to Panera for dinner, so Dan brought his stuff inside and then we headed off for our first ride in the new automobile!

We had dinner, and then headed back home. I'm starting to get pretty tired now so we're gonna get to sleep! I'm happy tomorrow's Friday but we're headed back to the city tomorrow afternoon for Julio's party! Two days in a row?! That's insane!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)