I Hate JFK Airport

So, a week ago I lose my driver's license, and now this happens (I promise my next post will be the story of election night, since at least I thought it was interesting, but I need to get this out there first):

I get to the airport in the cab, but the cab thingy rejects my debit card. Mind you, I bought lunch with the same card earlier in the day so I am not expecting this. I do not have any cash. I start freaking out and try the card a couple more times. No luck. The cab driver starts freaking out at me and yelling that he has to call the police because I'm trying to rob him. I start crying. I get out 50 Scottish pounds from my wallet, which I have from the Edinburgh trip over a year ago and have kept in case of emergency. I tell the cab driver that I need to go inside to exchange the money, but I will leave him my passport as collateral. He does not understand this, despite the fact that he is the first American cab driver I have had in New York since pretty much the first cab ride I ever took in New York. He starts yelling that I am going to run away and not pay the fare, so he has to get the police. I try to explain to him that I have the money, I just need to exchange it and I will leave my passport with him. Again, he seems to fail to understand that we're at an airport and I cannot travel without my passport, so obviously I will have to come back. By this point I am hyperventilating. The cab driver yells to a security guard/possibly sky cap guy to get the police. The guy is really really nice and takes me to go get the money exchanged. He tries to comfort me, telling me that some people just want to make you feel shitty (not in those exact words, of course). I say "I thought I still had American money" to him, implying that I was traveling to Scotland, so he doesn't think I'm a giant freak. I don't know why I'm compelled to lie like this all the time, since the situation was pretty much out of my control from the beginning. I pay the $45 fare and even tip the guy $5 because it's what you do in New York. Even though that's less than the normal tip (15% is standard), I wish I hadn't given him anything at all because he made me so upest. I go through airport security in tears, and go into a bathroom near my gate and start completely bawling because I'm so worked up at that point.

My plane is delayed leaving, and then we're delayed on the runway as well. I finally get to Boston but take the wrong shuttle bus so I have to double back to get the bus that will take me to the Red Line to Harvard. The Boston subway system is so much less sketchy than the New York subway system. The stations and trains are much nicer and cleaner, and I felt completely safe taking the subway even though it was midnight, which is NOT true in New York.

I stayed with Siena, and it was good to see her and her roommates at Harvard are really nice. The leaves are still changing and falling and it was beautiful. It was also a little rainy, and the smell of wet fallen leaves reminds me of being 1-4 years old living in Bronxville. I met with Jack Megan, head of the Office for the Arts, and he was really nice. Then Siena's mom took us to lunch and I had my first hamburger in over a month.

After that Siena and I ended up hanging out in her dorm for a little while just catching up and relaxing. Then I took the T (Boston code for public transportation, mostly the subway) to Carolyn at Tufts, and she took me for hot chocolate and we caught up and it was really nice because I always love hanging out with Carolyn. She's in two shows at Tufts right now as supporting leads, of course since she's really talented, and I wish I could go up to see her production of "Urinetown," but it goes up on a weekend I'll be in L.A.

Despite the horrendous start, it was a pretty pleasant trip overall, and at work right now I'm working on some research for Barry and his Education task force he's part of at The Public, which is SO much more exciting than the scanning project, (although some of the scripts I'm working on are really interesting), but I still can't wait to go home next weekend.