Guster and Sistew and Ronniw Weekend

Gonna do my best to fully record the trip here. Some is a blur. 

Friday
I got to Long Island so late on Thursday due to flight delays, Lin picked me up, dropped me at the airport, and headed home. 

Sometimes when I travel, I have a really hard time falling asleep, and that night was pretty much a good example of it. I got almost 3000 steps before getting into bed, and falling asleep around 3am. 

I slept in a bit on Friday not too worried about getting the 9am steps. I got up at 9:30 anyway, so, that worked out. I knew Linda had to work, and check out wasn't until noon. 

For breakfast, I got myself a bistro sandwich at the Starbucks in the lobby. It was really good, and I kind of wanted another one but holy shit 24 bucks for a sandwich and a coffee? Nah, son. 

After I ate, I got my stuff organized and I hit the treadmill. I wanted to go super long but, I was watching the time. After my shower, I headed to the lobby. Linz came to get me. 

Fun times were then had - I got to meet their new dog, and play with both of the dogs, Gus & River. Absolute chaos and fun. 

Lin was ready to go after 1:30pm which had me a little nervous. Not because of being late for the show or anything, but neither of us see well to drive in the dark and I knew the weather was going to be a challenge on top of that.

Things went super well until we got rerouted through the back roads in some town in Connecticut (partly the fault of the roads because these bastards do not put "right lane must turn right" signs up and you don't know you're fucked until you get 3 cars back from the light. Thanks Connecticut, ya jerk!) 

But, we were rewarded with a kick ass rainbow and a burningly gorgeous sunset behind us, before, it got dark.

Pictures do not do it justice.

It got really dark. And then it got really stressful. Pouring rain, road construction. Jesus. I was doing my best to watch for any indications of paint on the right side of the car, she was doing her best to not hit any road construction things or invisible in the dark Jersey Barriers. Oh! Left lane? We have to exit to the left? 

Serious death fears for both of us at certain points. Not sure how we survived though!

We got to the hotel which I ... didn't think I reserved. I thought I booked us in East Hartford but when I looked up my reservation, I had us in Downtown. Kind of sketchy area but, the hotel itself was pretty nice and it was a really cool loft room. 

We were impressed and had a good laugh at me being extra forgetful and fucking things up a little, to our advantage! 

We poured glasses of well earned wine. Lin showered, I got dressed, we called an Uber. It was less than a mile away, easy walk and we did have plenty of time to get there, but it was raining too hard and we were ... tired. 

We want to go ENJOY a show, not fall asleep during it, ya know?

No pictures of us together, strangely. But Lin did get one of me here. 

It was so busy saying hi to friends and catching up it was hard to get pictures together. 

My friend Abbey joined us. She hasn't been to a concert in years due to some medical and familyissues. Lin had an extra ticket and I messaged her to see if she wanted to come. I'm so glad she said yes! 

The last time I went to a show with her was, I believe, Guster+Garlin in Boston. We made a point to sit together during intermission and catch up. What a joy to spend time with her. 

There was a wild mix up with tickets for a lot of people. Linda thought she bought tickets about 4 or so rows back, but, we were actually in the front row due to the orchestra pit being covered up by the part of the stage Guster would be on top of - the orchestra was behind them. 

But.

The venue actually sold the tickets that were under the covered part, the "pit" seats. Three or so rows of seats, a couple hundred people. Absolute screw up on their part. 

Folks were a mix of outraged and understanding, depending on the person. Some people absolutely lost their shit in the building and in the fan group. 

The venue did their absolute best to get people 

• Refunds
• Seats
• Comp tickets to a future show

To be honest, I think I would have been mad initially, but, if all those things were offered to me, I'd take them and be alright with it. After all, it is really nice to be in the building in the end. 

The show was amazing. I'm always absolutely impressed with them when they do an orchestra show. 

And seeing friends was so wonderful. 

Always good to have someone with a long arm to do a selfie! 

This is where they did the encore from
 I coulda reached up & untied Brian's shoes, we were that close

After the show, a bunch of people went to East Hartford to a late night mexican restaurant. Funny, had I booked us into the hotel in East Hartford it would have been easy to go out and have someone drop us at the hotel, but fate wouldn't have that. Also, I didn't want to go out there to E. Hartford, and have to find our way back at a very stupid late hour. 

The pizza shop next to the hotel was open until 11 so we got slices, and a piece of cheesecake, and that was a treat. 

Crashed.
Sleepies.
ZZZZ.

Saturday

In the morning I had made plans to meet up with one of my co-workers. She suggested a place for us to get coffee and chat. It was a lovely visit. We are on the same team and maybe see each other once or twice a year. Bonus, she got to meet Linda and I got to meet her husband! Good times! I love her, and I think I convinced her she should come to the holiday party in a few weeks. Let's see if that works out! I absolutely would love it.

Because we didn't want another repeat of we can't see in the dark to drive, Linda was carefully monitoring the traffic. We thought about the ferry, but there were all kinds of indications that Bridgeport was gonna be a shit show with road closures, so we opted to drive through the city and whatnot. 

We hit the road and got home to Linda's just before it was super dark. She can get around in the dark around her house, but it truly was a relief to not have to white-knuckle though traffic! 

We opted to go out to eat with Ronnie when we got back, and picked a restaurant they've been driving past forever. 

One of our friends likes to send us pictures with fancy drinks or craft beers so we took one for him! 

The restaurant is named Shenanigans, so, how appropo, right?

I stayed over with them on Saturday since every single hotel on Long Island was either booked or 900 a night. 

And, their new dog River really really REALLY loved sleeping with me. 

Sunday

We all were up and active around 8:30am. I thought about us going for a walk with the dogs but we wanted coffee, and Linda started making brekkie, and then there was wine, and a 9:30am football game followed by the Giants game. My BIL is a big Giants fan so we had to watch the game, no dog walkies. 

The game finished just in time for me to go to the airport. I usually like getting there a lot sooner, and maybe walking laps or finding a beer, or both. In this case, I did the laps. 

Doug picked me up and we stopped for gas, and there was a Burger King next door. Part of me wanted "nice" restaurant but at 9:30pm, Burger King was sufficient! 

We got home, watched football, and I passed out. 

Travel, man. Wow. Exhausting. 

I took Monday off, so I'll do a whole separate entry for today (I am writing this on Monday) but that, my friends, was the Guster and Sistew and Ronniw Weekend! 

Friday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill at hotel (google health app won't let me see how far)  13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9:30am: 121
xpm: n/a
11pm: 90

food & meds
9:30am: jardiance
11am: starbucks breakfast sandwich w/ bacon, egg, cheese
at some point (not sure when) split 20 mcnuggets w/linda on the road
wine at the hotel. wine at the venue
11pm: slice of pizza, cheesecake w/cherries
wine 

Saturday digits 

exercise: 7/12 hours.  Missed many hours due to being in the car. 5k+ steps by bedtime (lolz, did not even try) 

blood glucose: 

9:30am: 121
xpm: n/a
11:30pm: 71

food & meds
9:30am: jardiance
11:30am: caffe Nero brekkie sandwich, egg, sausage, green goddess dressing, english muffin
2pm: met+glip
6pm: wings, french onion soup; 2 beers
8pm: met+glip

Sunday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. 26 min. walk in the airport. 15 min run on the treadmill at home 1.14 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: (have to backtrack and record)

xam: x
xpm: x
11pm: 175

food & meds
8:30am: jardiance
11:30am: brekkie by linna; grits w/ egg & shrimp; biscuits
wine wine wine
1pm: met+glip
8:45pm: burger king Bacon King; met+glip