June 21, 2012: Back in New York

After over a month in Europe it feels pretty weird to suddenly be back home in Upstate New York.  Almost surreal.  To think that yesterday morning I was in Lisbon, then was in London, then in New York City, drove past by house there that I haven’t seen in years but still own and then drove all the way to my childhood home where I am now.

It was a short night for all of us.  And we are fighting jet lag as we readjust to Eastern time.

We got up this morning and headed up to Geneseo for breakfast at the Omega.  I only get two days at home so we have to make the most of them.  The Omega has a new thing on the menu, a Veggie Bennie, which Dominica recommended that I try.  I am not sure how she knew about it but I gave it a try and it was pretty good.  It was similar to eggs Benedict, but vegetarian obviously, but not quite.  And instead of English muffins it was more like toasted flat-bread. A little odd but tasty.

After we were done with breakfast we went back to dad’s house and dropped off everyone and Danielle came up to help me to take the car back to Avis.  It was probably nine thirty when Danielle came up.  She drove the Acadia and I drove the awful rental and we went up to Marketplace Mall where there is an Avis in the Sears Autocenter right inside of the mall.  We had no idea that that was there.  Quite convenient for people coming from the Rochester southern area.  Much nicer than having to drive all of the way up to the airport which is normally what people do.

After dropping off the car we had to run to the Verizon store to get a replacement for Dominica’s phone, her HTC Incredible 2 Android phone having been smashed on the flight from London to New York.  This will be Dominica’s third phone in seven weeks.  She is going to be pretty tired of switching phones after this!

They are not cheap but we got Dominica an Apple iPhone 4S – that is one model up from mine which is an iPhone 4, this one having the faster processor and the ability to be used internationally.  There were not any problems getting the phone but, for some reason, they had all kinds of computer problems so it ended up taking about an hour and a half to actually do it.  In theory getting a mobile phone probably should not take that long.  But they had coffee, water or whatever we needed while we were waiting.

Verizon got Dominica’s new phone all set up and her stuff transferred.  We also bought an external battery that we can use for either of our iPhones which is good because without an interchangeable battery you do get stuck with a dead phone from time to time and there is very little that you can do about it.

Dominica told Danielle and I that she wanted a pink case for the iPhone and that she trusted our judgement.  Luckily for her we did some searching around and what the guy at the store did not show us, but we found anyway, was a pink Vera Bradley case for the phone!  Not only did we get it but it was the only one in the store.  So she is really lucky that it even existed.

We also got my iPhone turned back on while we were there.  So if you need to reach me, I get phone calls and texts again.  Actually this was a great example of how texting doesn’t work and should be avoided.  For the last month and a half any texts sent to me just vanished.  I’ll never know that they were sent.  Emails, however, would have reached me.  Texting is a fragile technology, email is robust.  This impacts anyone who has regularly changing phone numbers, international travelers, etc.  Many people function in a world of unstable mobile phones, or none at all, and using text instead of email means that those people have poor, or possibly no, means of communication.

From the Verizon store it was straight back to dad’s house to check in and to drop off Dominica’s new phone.  She was, indeed, quite excited to learn that we had found a Vera Bradley case, and in pink no less.  She had no idea that Vera Bradley was making iPhone cases now.  This is absolutely the very case that she would have wanted given the choice of any case ever.  So total score for me today.

After dropping off the phone Danielle and I drove down to Perry to deal with some banking there.  As we passed by the new coffee shop there we stopped for coffee, of course.

From Perry it was over to Pavilion to open a new bank account there.  The bank office in Pavilion is the old office of the Pavilion State Bank, the first bank that I ever used.  My first savings account was opened there was I was just five years old.  I still remember it well.  I remember getting my first deposit book and learning how to fill it out.  Learning how to use deposit and withdrawal slips.

We opened the account in Pavilion.  It is funny, after all of these years going back there and still everyone at the bank knows me.  It has been well over a decade, easily two decades, since I have banked there.  Just stepping inside brought back a lot of memories.

After the bank we ran across the square (yes, Pavilion has something of a square, it is quite odd) and picked up a pizza that was waiting for us.  We delivered the pizza back up the hill to my family waiting at dad’s.  Danielle returned home and I had lunch with the family.

A little less than an hour later I went down to the Ralstons’ to work for a little while out of Danielle’s office.  This is actually my first time, ever, seeing her office which is kind of weird if you think about it.

We probably worked for several hours.  I logged into the office from there as there is a workstation for me there that is handy.  We didn’t exactly get a lot of work done but it was effective time.  I managed to arrange a meet up with Dell in Nashville on Monday so that solidifies my travel plans.  Now I am going to be leaving Sunday morning from dad’s, as we always anticipated, but will definitely only be going to Nashville.  This was probably going to be necessary anyway as I am far more exhausted than I normally am before embarking on a drive of this magnitude and will not be any more rested by Sunday morning between the wedding stuff, work stuff, running around here at home, missing Oreo, jet lag and getting up early Sunday morning to hit the road.  I will be fine, but not thoroughly rested or anything of the sort.  I am dragging today very heavily.  My father is very glad that I know that I am breaking up the trip ahead of time.

Danielle also asked me to talk to someone either by phone or email at some point but I realized that he was in Nashville so I emailed him and made plans to meet up on Sunday night.  Suddenly I am being very productive indeed.

This evening was our time at the house as a family.  But we were off to bed very early.  We are exhausted.

 

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