Caterwauling

Said goodbye to Shan today — her plane was to have left for the scenic wilds of Oregon on Monday, but she had to miss it because she still had tons of shit in her condo. They rescheduled for yesterday (at great expense, including a hotel room), but thanks to Enterprise rental cars for being dicks about the truck she rented, she missed the rescheduled flight. She told me that if I ever hear that the Enterprise building burned down, then I will know who was responsible!

But her luggage went on the plane (and the tranquilized cats almost did — the cats were to go as carry-on, but the airline decided to be nice and stick them in cargo, but you can’t put cats on drugs in cargo or they will DIE!). So she had to run around the airport, trying to get her cats back. After that fiasco, Enterprise tried to say her credit card was rejected. This is the card to which the proceeds from her condo sale were posted, so there’s no way in hell that the card should have been rejected. The bottom line? Many arguments and phone calls later, they missed the flight, had no clothes in the city, and stayed at the hotel. And, of course, went shopping for clothes/necessities for their unexpected extra night in D.C.

Because they couldn’t return the truck, they didn’t have a chance to put their cars in storage. So today, she called and asked if I could go with her to drop off the cars and give her a ride back where she needed to go. Which I did, gladly, of course. She offered to pay me for my trouble, but I wouldn’t take a dime. But I appreciated the gesture — nobody ever offered to compensate me like that!

I went by the airport last night and got weepy because I knew they were there. She said, “Yeah, we were there — and then we left. Hooray.”

I picked up the phone today, only to hear her voice. “Guess where I am?” she said. I offered, “Oregon?” She said, “Nope. Fucking Virginia. I am beginning to believe I am never going to get out of this city. Please find me a ledge that I can jump off of!”

In any event, we got to say a real goodbye, as opposed to the past three days of doing it over the phone when we thought she was getting on the plane on whichever day it was. It was quick but painful. I told her I missed her already.

Angie’s best friend left for West Virginia a few days ago. She moved her family there, and it came with equal yet so very different doses of aggravation than Shan experienced. Angie had recommended that I treat it like ripping off a bandage — just do it as quickly as possible. But I think it benefited me to have the slow goodbye — like a long, drawn-out ordeal, it was best to wait to want to just get it overwith. I was fine till I pulled out of the parking lot, and she pulled out in another direction. When her car disappeared from sight in my rearview mirror, I sobbed like my life were ending. And in a way, it was. You spend every single day of your life with someone and know that you were lucky to be loved by this person, and then you realize that, even though your friendship has what it takes to stand the test of time, it’s going to hurt like hell to not have her nearby anymore.

I did what I always do when I’m depressed — I went to Wal-Mart. Thankfully, I only ended up with cat food for the little vomit-and-shit machines. When Angie’s friend left, she ended up at the mall and dropped $200 to ease her pain. She had called me from the mall to tell me that, to warn me what could happen to me. It almost happened — not that I have $200 to drop, but I was picking up things, walking around the store with them and putting them back, just to feel like I was DOING something other than moping.

Anyway, as soon as I dropped her off, she said they were heading to Reagan National AGAIN. I assume she made the flight this time and that the next call will come from three time zones away. *sob*

Angie very nicely did some rituals to send some good ju-ju and tranquility Shan’s way. I also asked her to do something to make sure Alex isn’t climbing the airplane walls — the kid cannot sit still to save her life, and she’s more than happy to express her frustration in no uncertain terms. I was sending Alex vibes last night when I thought they were flying, asking her to be good for Mommy for one little day in her life. I need to amp up those vibes right now. *concentrate*

Damn, I feel lost right now.

On iTunes: Cyndi Lauper, “Shine (Victor Calderone Club Mix)”

Not only is that my favorite Cyndi Lauper song that totally rocked socks live last night, but it’s also the truth.

Angie and I got so freakin’ lost finding Wolf Trap Farm Park out in Bumfuck Egypt Vienna last night, but we quickly tore into the two bottles of wine she had packed for us, and the aggravation became a faded memory. The directions from Crapquest Mapquest blew chunks — it should never take 60 minutes and four cigarettes to go six miles from the Vienna metro stop.

But alas, we had fun. We danced and sang and had no shortage of laughs. We were 11 and 12 again, jumping on our beds in our nightgowns, belting out “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” “All Through the Night” and “Time After Time.” Cyndi played some songs from her new album (who knew?), and our favorite was “Eventually.” I think I need to get that CD post-haste. 🙂

There was some jackass behind us who kept yelling out with his thick Indian accent, “Seet down! Please will you seet down! Thank you for seeting down!” Um, I thought the point of concerts was to go rock out — it’s not like we could see the tiny figure singing on the stage from where we were.

I was pleasantly entertained by opener Taylor Dayne. There was a cute T-Shirt of hers, all black with hot pink letters, but I just couldn’t see myself ever advertising her in public. But girlfriend’s got some pipes, I say. I was one of those assholes who made phone calls to share the concert experience, although I was not one of the obnoxious ones who sticks their phone in the air — my headset picked up the sounds rather well, and I could be covert about it.

Poor Angie suffered some minor injuries — she got a splinter under her finger when she bought her Cyndi Lauper T-shirt, and her shoe broke while we were hiking to the car after the event. Oh, but the pain was not over yet. She dropped me off at the Vienna metro station, only for me to find that the last train left five minutes before I arrived. So she had to come back and drag my ass out to the Van Dorn metro stop, where I had left my car. And we laughed like hyenas when we got on I-66 and saw signs for Wolf Trap — we were lost for an HOUR because we didn’t know how to get there (and there aren’t signs for it on the other highways), yet had we taken 66, we’d have been set. And she barely made it in for the 9 a.m. staff meeting (it’s a long-ass drive). She really did drive all night, like the song says!

The staff meeting was good. We’re going to get 75 percent of our furlough time refunded to us. For those of us who were forced to work on those days, we’re thrilled. For everyone else, it was extra paid vacation time. I personally thanked the CEO for the decision. He said we earned it. I have to agree!

On iTunes: Nova Space, “Time After Time (techno mix)”