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December 08, 2015 - 10:20 p.m.
"the philly trek"

Hey Journal!

Well, today I've been to Philadelphia and back! It's such a whirlwind doing this trip. I got up at 5:30am... maybe a little before that because I woke up on my own and wasn't able to get back to sleep.

I got dressed and ready and my mom and my grandparents arrived here at 5:40 or so. I finished getting ready, got my bag of supplies, and then I got in the car and we headed off on our journey! Our actual departure time was 5:50am.

We made fairly good time getting to the Jersey Turnpike but we did hit a little traffic in the city. It cost us about 15 minutes or so, but once we were on the Turnpike it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. We only made one stop at the Vince Lombardi Service Area.... my Grandma said she needed to go to the bathroom and she jumped out of the car before we were parked. My Grandpa and I made our way in more slowly.

We arrived at the eye hospital at 9:10, so that was a travel time of 3 hours and 20 minutes. We parked on the roof and this was the first time we had done that! Every other time the roof has been closed. I think one time they were doing construction, another time it was raining, and another time it was too icy to park up there! It's much more convenient parking on the roof because you don't have to take the elevator down to the lobby and then back up again -- you can just go right up.

My Grandma checked my Grandpa in and then we found a spot to sit in the waiting room. I had a good view of the TV but they had CNN on and the ONLY thing they talked about the entire time was Donald Trump.

Instead, I listened to today's Chris Moyles Show. I put my earphones in and got through the whole show (skipping the music, of course!)

I tried to take a little nap but I don't think I actually fell asleep. I just kept my eyes closed and reseted up for the drive home. Other times we've done this trip I've taken a walk to one of the nearby Philly landmarks and tried to keep myself occupied but I wasn't really feeling it today. I had already done the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall so I just hung out the whole time.

The appointment usually takes about 3 hours and they call you in several times. It's weird -- when they call you for the actual appointment they say your name followed by "second hallway." It's so strange.

Today, I guess they were either running slow or they needed to do more tests because we were there for just under 4 hours. My Grandma came out a little before 1:00 and and were leaving the parking garage at 1.

We had an excellent trip home - there was no traffic whatsoever. It was smooth sailing. We took the Betsy Ross Bridge home instead of the Ben Franklin. I don't know why but I was just following my Google Maps orders. Google Maps was great and they've really improved it a lot in recent updates. It's much better at finding faster routes when you're already in progress.

When Dan drives places I always check the route and see what's coming up but since I was the driver, I just went with it. It was a little scary, I like to see what's going on, but it all worked out well.

We stopped at the first rest stop on the Turnpike... the Thomas Edison service area. I had to call work because I saw that I had missed several calls and texts from Dan's dad. So typical that I can never have a day of peace when I'm not at work.

We made it home just a few minutes before 4:00 and I dropped myself off. My Grandma and Grandpa headed home. I wasn't as tired as I remember being after other trips but I did take it easy and spent some time setting up the wedding pictures so we could view them.

My mac and pc were both unable to open the photos. It was terrible... I don't know what the problem is. I was able to get them to work on the laptop but only after downloading Picasa. Even that took a while... it took about an hour to import all the photos and another hour to "refine" them so we could page through them quickly. I know they're big files but wow!

On my drive home I got a call from Nicky the electrician. I had called him on Saturday while we were doing the refrigerator stuff to come look at the outlet and that random wire. He said he was finishing a job in Queens but would head over afterwards. I told him I was on the Throgs Neck Bridge, so we'd probably get there around the same time!

He actually came around 5:00 and he checked everything out pretty quickly. First, the wire that was coming out of the wall was a phone line -- as I had suspected. I thought that's what it was when I went to touch it in the first place and he said there was a sharp piece of dried paint on the size. That poked me and I was afraid it was a shock. I didn't want to touch it again to find out.

Anyway, he said he COULD move the electrical outlet behind the fridge but he measured and said there's no way it would fit. Dan and I missed one critical piece of information -- yet, it may have fit back into the corner where the old one was BUT with the radiator you wouldn't be able to open the freezer drawer! Ugh! Such a disaster!

Before he left, I asked him to check out this random wire that was hanging in our basement ceiling. It was an electrical cable and it was just dangling there with wires exposed. I was afraid to touch it because I didn't know if it was live. He tested it with his tester equipment and told me it's dead. He taped it off anyway.

I asked him how much we owed him, but he said not to worry about it! That was very nice of him and much appreciated. Free is my favorite word. He was only over for about 10 minutes but it was a great help to have those questions answered. Now we can proceed with whatever we're going to do knowing what the deal is with everything.

When Dan got home he went right to the gym. I took a shower and then ordered Dominos for Dan to pick up on his way home. I love using our Target Domino's gift certificates.

Dan got home, showered up, and then we ate while watching World News. Next we had to catch up on Blood and Oil from Sunday. The show is still good but it's starting to get a little ridiculous. There are only one or two episodes left this season and then it's uncertain if the show will ever come back!

Next up, we watched SHIELD. It was another "Winter Finale." It won't be back for a while but they will have Agent Carter on in the meantime. I love this show so much. I love the characters, and I thought tonight's episode was very good. I hope this show continues to be amazing!

Anyway, I'm pretty tired now from my long day of traveling! Time for bed. Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)