Northwest Nightmare vs. Held Hostage by Northwest

I wasn't sure how to title this entry - so I put both on. I am sooooo happy to be in our apt!
I got back last night around 10pm - after my fifth itenerary in two days. It is a long and sad story - I won't bore you with all of it - just the highlights.
I was to fly out of Philly on Sunday - we confirmed the flight in the AM - it was "on". Mark's parents dropped me off in plenty of time it was a breeze at that point. An hour and a half before the flight - it was cancelled - that's when the craziness began. After "securing" my next flight for the next morning - I headed down to get my hotel voucher and luggage back - three hours to wait for my luggage, an hour on the phone to secure another flight for Monday because there was a miscommunication between NW and Delta and I was tired and in bed at the hotel by 10pm.
Got to the airport by 6:20 Monday - only to be told that my flight was again cancelled. The line was horrendous - I called the ticketing agent again and was told that they could get me back to AR the next day (today). At that point I asked him what other airports could I fly out of to get home that day - so, I took the Philly train to Amtrak and took that to Harrisburg - only about an hour south of Mark's parents.
Once I got there - again there was a glitch in the system and I was not booked for the flight that I was told about - I had been booked on another flight that had two Northwest connections after my flight to Cleveland. By this point, I was a wreck, I ended up going with that itenerary with much skepticism.
Thankfully, I arrived at LR at 8pm last night! My luggage, though, didn't make it out of Memphis - so I am waiting on that.
I pondered many things during this process - is it okay to cry (I did apologize to everyone that I broke down in front of - at least I could blame the pregnancy on that), am I making an idol out of wanting to go home, how is God making this work together for my good?
I am thankful for the kindess of strangers and sisters in Christ that I met in those two days - that was a blessing, I'm thankful for the safety that God provided, I'm thankful to have a wonderful, loving husand and family that were ready to do whatever to get me back to AR.

Princeton

Princeton is a nice town - the university area is very nice with lots of great shopping and restaurants. I asked Mark what the enrollment is like here - he said that it might not even be 35,000. If that's the case - Purdue is bigger. It certainly doesn't feel as big as Yale. Yale just seems huge.
I did the domestic thing yesterday - laundry at our hotel.
Pretty uneventful so far - which is fine. Apart from yesterday - and probably tomorrow - I spend my days in the Firestone library - checking e-mail and such and then heading a few back into the study room that has the new releases and best sellers along with several couches. I sit and read, and then around lunch time - I venture out across the street to the restaurants and shops. Mark and I have been heading back to the hotel at 7pm - we are able to take a shuttle from the hotel. We're heading back around 5 tonight.
Mark's parents are planning on driving over on Saturday. They'll spend the night and then take me down to Philly on Sunday to the airport. It'll be nice to spend some extra time with them - knowing that it might be a year or so before we are able to see them again.
I'm ready to get back to see the cats - not necessarily ready to go back to Arkansas or work. Reality.

NYC rundown

Yea! Back to a computer - civilization! The only computers that I could find in the city were pay ones - I refused to pay to check my email.
Anyway, thought I would give a quick rundown of our NYC adventure.

Day 1 - Tuesday - We arrived without any problems (Greyhound - only about $11/person from New Haven!) We dropped off our bags at our inn - Upper West Side - on 107th - between Amsterdam and Broadway. Mark wanted to see Transformers - soooo - we walked down to the theater around Linclon Center and saw it there. I did not enjoy it - but Mark did and that was the point. On a side note - I had an unfortuneate incident at the theater - I leaned over in the bathroom and my sunglasses fell off - right into the toilet - yuck!!!!! Needless to say - I had to throw those away. After the movie, we went to Rosa Mexciana for dinner - it was a good mexican place that was in our guide book. Mark loved it!
We walked back to the inn - and we were hot and tired!

Day 2 - Wednesday - It started out rainy, I walked up with Mark up to Columbia U - around 117th St. He got his id and we headed up to Union - another block or two. After I saw his library, I got on the subway at 110th St. I made it down to the Modern Museum of Art (MoMA) without any trouble - it's on 53rd and 5th Ave.
After that I headed down to Rockafeller Plaza and rested a little before heading back up.
Somehow, I ended back up on the E subway instead of the C. I realized that I really was on the wrong one at the last stop before heading into Queens. I was off Manhatten Island. Several prayers later and reminders to myself that I am 38 years old so I shouldn't cry, I got back on the E going back into Manhatten - but, after talking with a nice New Yorker, found out that my subways had been closed down because of flooding - she said that it was due to the rain that morning - but I found out later that it was due to that steam pipe bursting. Yikes. Thank you Lord for safety. She directed me to the right subways and I made it back fine.
That night, Mark I went to a great Thai restaurant - The Lemongrass Grill - I love my chicken pad thai. Mark got the mango chicken and loved that.

Day 3 - Thursday - I decided to make this my "local" day. After walking up with Mark to Union, I walked down to Gap Kids. I knew there was one on Broadway - I didn't realize that it was on 84th, though. I found a great little outfit for our Matthew - all on sale, of course. Mark and I met for lunch at Famous Famiglia - great pizza!! I walked back down and stopped in at our little corner market and bought dinner for me - cherries and yogurt - Mark was eating my leftovers.
I rested in the afternoon. When Mark got back, we ate and then went out for dessert - Tasti D-Lite - lowfat ice cream - yummy.

Day 4 - Friday - This was my food tour day in Greenwich Village and SoHO. I went down early so I could look at some of the stuff that was in my tour book. The tour was great! I highly recommend it! We got a lot of the history of the area and tried 7 or 8 different foods!!
Also, what was fun - Mark and I met up back at MoMA after the tour. I hopped back on the subway and he walked down - crazy guy. Friday nights are free I found out - so we did that.
Dinner was a rip off, we ate at an Irish pub next to the museum - the fish and chips were good - but not as good as Claddaugh's in Indy. We decided to walk back up to our inn. We walked up the West Central Park side. We stopped at Pizzeria Uno's for dessert. Man, were we sore after all of that walking!!!

Day 5 - Saturday - Not a good night's sleep for us - our neighbor all week had a nasty habit of slamming doors - all doors! So, when she went out to party at 11pm - slam - and when she got back at 4am - slam! I was very tired Saturday. But, we pushed on. Mericfully, Mark and I took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum - very nice. After that, we walked through Central Park to get to the West Side. We stopped halfway through the park to rest - I had a hot dog and Mark a pretzel.
I decided not to got in to the American Museum of Natural History. I sat outside and read.
For dinner - we took the subway down to 50th street and walked a few blocks to the Ethiopian restaurant that our cab driver recommended. It was good, I'm glad that we went - but not too crazy about the bread - no utensils - so you had to eat the bread.
We hopped back on the subway and got off at 103rd - right nest to Ben & Jerry's. We got dessert there.

Day 6 - Sunday - Yesterday - Sad - We really liked the city - but had to leave. We spluged on McD's for breakfast and then back to Famous Familiglia for lunch and then took a cab down to Penn Station. We took the train down here to Princeton. The Holiday Inn is in a corporate area - nothing around - a stark contrast to where we had just come from.

As for today - it's raining - so I think I'm just going to hangout in this library on campus - may venture out after lunch if it stops.

Thankfully, most of the nausea is gone - I'm still sensitive to smells at times. My gums are better.

Sorry this was long, I'll post pics when I get back

Last day in New Haven

Ahh, our last day here. I will miss it - New Haven is a great college town!! I'm taking it easy today - knowing that I will be "out" the rest of the week - trying to navigate around NYC.
On a pregnant note - I woke up today with swollen, sore gums - it seems as if it's not one thing it's another. I'm rinsing with salt water a lot and that is helping. Immunosuppression in pregnancy is no small matter, I am learning. I haven't had this many "ailments" in years. I have to remind myself that pregnancy is not a disease - women do this all the time. I just have to keep it all in perspective - and not wonder why I can't be one of those women who felt the best when they were pregnant - who are these women?!
Anyway, Ikea was wonderful yesterday ................. pausing a moment to reflect.
Will see if I can find a place to get on the internet the rest of the week.

Friday

Well, it's Friday. It's a little cooler now - less humid.
I didn't do much yesterday - I think from all of the walking (it's probably a mile down from our housing to the main campus- half of it down hill)I got a little tendonitis. I mainly rested. It feels much better today.
I walked down to the Peabody-Whitney Natural History Museum - interesting. I had to take a picture of the big turtle skeleton for Mark. Thankfully, I got there before the bus loads of school kids started arriving.
Today, Mark is happy because he is getting some good information.
I am typing this in the Divinity School library, today - right next door to our housing.
We'll go to the Yale Art Gallery tomorrow and then Ikea on Sunday.
The great thing is that the Natural History Museum is the only thing that I've had to pay for - everything else is free!!

Yale

I'm sitting in one of the libraries at Yale - it's amazing! I took some pictures! It's a beautiful campus! I'm sorry I can't upload pictures along with entries!!
It's a little cooler today - mid 80's.
We're "canceling" plans to head up to Boston - just too crazy. Instead - we're going to head down to Ikea on Saturday :o) That's fine with me!
I'm wandering around campus - actually the outskirts. Our furnished apt is nice - right next to the Divinity Scool where Mark is doing research - it's a long haul up from the main campus. Definitely good exercise!!
Signing off for now - I only have a 20 minute limit on the computer.

Z-pack

We are in conneticut. I am at the Southbury library - trying not to cough every minute and annoy everyone. Mark is interviewing the guy who knew and worked with the people he is researching. Very interesting couple - both in their 90's - lots of experiences. He was a prisoner of war in WWII from the Battle of the Bulge for six months.
We head down to New Haven this afternoon - and give up our rental car - a cute little Corolla. We'll be here until next Tuesday. Hopefully I'll be healthy by New York. At least we're here long enough that I don't feel like I have to cram the museums in every day.
Friday evening I started noticing a bit of a sore throat. Saturday morning, I had a major sore throat. I called my doctor and he called in a z-pack for me. Needless to say - the past couple of days have been miserable, I've still got the nausea and vomiting,too. Anyway, I woke up feeling a little better today - all of the yuck is migrating south - to my chest. So, I'm trying to drink lots of water and got cough drops.
Enough of me, though.
It's really beautiful here. Kind of idyllic - how I pictured the houses in my head. More mountainous than what I thought, also, lots of Italian names on businesses - I wasn't expecting that, either. The weather is hot here, too. In the 90's. Supposed to cool down a bit this weekend.

Bloomsburg, PA

We arrived safely in Philly as planned on the fourth. The weather has been wonderful!!!! (We haven't seen the 70's during the day for a couple of months now.)
We saw Grandma at the nursing home yesterday - will probably go Saturday, too. We're eating at all the usual favorites - May's Drive-in for lunch, Grotto pizza - we have a few more days to get other favorites in - Terrapin (Mexican) and another pizza place.
It is really a beautiful area, lots of history.
We leave on Sunday for CT.
I purchased my ticket on-line for a food tour in NYC on the 20th - that should be fun. I am a little leary of travelling the subway by myself, though.
We're having a great time - apart from the persistent nausea(it just won't go away) - it's so nice to see family again

We have a Matthew

Mark and I are thankful for the report from the ultrasound yesterday. All of the measurements are normal at this point. We saw him moving all around, though the doctor mentioned several times that he was uncooperative as far as positioning for the test. He also put my due date in early December. By his calculations, it's December 10th. Our original date is December 9th.
Hearing all of that was a great relief to us. Thanks so much for your prayers!

On a side note, we leave for the East tomorrow morning, so I don't know how often I'll be able to get to a computer for blogging or e-mail.