There's no place like home (wherever that may be)

I never quite know what to say when people ask me where "home" is. My heart considers Portland to be home, while my address and physical presence consider Rochester to be home.

Either way, I'm not at home.

Where am I? Oh, well THANKS for asking, because I was just going to tell you! Currently, I'm sitting in Penn Station in NYC.

My intended route was a flight from Portland at 7:20am, with a 3:30pm connection in Newark, ending in Rochester (and back with my love) at 5:45pm. Mother Nature didn't like that plan.

Everything was fine when I left Newark. By the time I got to Newark, all flights out to Toronto, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Boston, Albany, Portland Maine, and probably others were cancelled. They rebooked me for:

TUESDAY (keep in mind it was 4pm on Sunday)

Bryan the wonder finance (insert superhero music here) got his brain a-thinkin'. Renting a car wasn't an option due to cost and weather conditions. He found a train ticket that left from the airport at 6am Monday. Not the best, but better than Tuesday. Then he found out that Greyhound had a bus leaving at 6pm. The catch was that I had to get a cab and go to the bus station (which is also the train station), because they don't reserve seats (huh?). So I go. Turns out that the people he spoke to on the phone were morons, because the bus had been canceled to western NY.

So now I'm in Newark's Penn Station. To say it was scary is an understatement. Rampant poverty and homelessness, beggars, and a confusing, overwhelming system of trains and buses that only a native understands. But I put on my cute "help-me-even-though-I'm-dirty-and-smelly" face, and the very kind woman at the train took pity on me and walked me through buying a ticket to get to NYC ("you don't want to stay here overnight honey - no way") where I would need to wait 13 hours to get the 7:15am Amtrak to Rochester (an $85 ticket). She was so kind in a time when I really needed someone to be nice to me, lest I break down in tears in the big scary city. She had me come back near the time my NYC train was to depart and walked me to the right "line" or "platform" or whatever it was I had to stand on to catch my train to Hogwarts...er...NYC.

While sitting there a nice (yet scary-looking) African American man struck up a conversation with me, called me "mama," said that I was nuts to stay overnight in th NYC train station (a scary thought coming from him), and said I "looked like a woman with money....I know them braces ain't cheap." But he helped me get on the train, so I'll give him a thumbs up.

So now I sit at the NYC station (which is right at Madison Square Garden...cool if I wasn't so terrified to venture outside of the train station and get lost, plus it's cold). I'm 5 hours into my 13 hours. Thankfully they have internet (at 9.95, but totally worth it) to keep my occupied, and I bought some cheap headphones so I can watch some online T.V. I'm trying to stay under the radar because for some reason, even though I have a ticket and I'm in the special Amtrak area, you can only sit here for 2 hours. They have chased one sketchy looking guy out already, but I think as a descent (although yucky) looking woman, they will leave me alone.

What an adventure I would rather have not had! So overall I'm $105 and a day in the negative, but I should be home tomorrow afternoon (oh, it's today now!). Who knew that THIS would be my first time in NYC?