Hello from Downingtown, Philadelphia!
I've had quite a weekend, and it's not over yet, although you won't be reading this until Monday afternoon at the earliest.
First off, testing is going good in the hospitals. I was commended for my work in leading my team at Morristown last week. We have started a contest to see which team (mine or Ned's) will accurately complete the most units from now until the end of the project. Winning team will receive $125 to share. Should be interesting and it looks like we'll finish before our April 30th deadline. That means I get to go home early--woo hoo! I am hoping, however, that we get one more weekend on the East Coast…but that deserves a paragraph of its own.
My weekend plan was to catch the Mets game Saturday afternoon and then take a train to Pennsylvania to visit some family friends there. To make a long story short, we never made it to the ballgame…er, well, we made it, but we didn’t get to actually see any of it. We left at 1:00 for a 1:40 game and took a very scenic route that gave us a rather intimidating tour of Brooklyn, Long Island, and Queens. By the time we finally found Shea Stadium (two hours later), the game was tied up in the bottom of the sixth. We tried to sneak in an exit door only to be rudely ushered out by NYPD. Oops. I got a few pics though, and I managed to snag a forgotten seat cushion (it was seat cushion day, sponsored by Bob’s Stores) to prove I was there. By the way, the Mets ended up winning 3-2.
Having at least found Shea stadium, I had Mauricio and Sergio drop me off at Penn station. Of course we hit traffic and the trip lasted about an hour, leaving me at the station with just enough time to miss the last Amtrak train to Downingtown. No problem, I bought a ticket to Philadelphia instead (departing an hour later) and called Liz to inform her of the change in plans. She politely informed me that Downingtown was an hour away from Philadelphia. Oops. No problem, the South East Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) would save the day.
After waiting an hour for my train to Philly, I made the uneventful trek and found the SEPTA tracks. I only had to wait another hour for this train—no problem, I ate my dinner (I ordered a sandwich to go at lunch) and called Liz again to advise her and Bill of my status. I have attached a picture of Downingtown “station” where I was left by the train an hour later. Please keep in mind that it was dark, about 11:00, not a soul around, and you’ll notice there’s no phone. Luckily Bill & Liz arrived about 5 minutes after I did…a good thing since my next plan included panicking.
After my Saturday excursions I was happy to finally be somewhere! I am having a lovely time at the Wolfram residence (where I am writing this from) and I will be riding back to Springfield tomorrow with Bill on his way to Manhattan. Today I saw downtown Philly including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Valley Forge. And for lunch…a cheese-steak sandwich from Pat’s of course! (For those not in the loop, Pat’s is to the cheese-steak sandwich what San Francisco’s Buena Vista is to Irish Coffee). Thanks to Liz and our tour guide Bill (a.k.a. Jeeves) for the great hospitality. I’m glad I was finally able to visit on behalf of the Genovese fam! They don’t know what they’re missing :-)
That about does it for now. I’m working on getting all the updates uploaded to the web site. I should have one more weekend here on the East coast before going back to CA. I’m hoping to make it to D.C.
TTYL,
-Sean