My 1st Day in Indiana……….SUCKS!

(This is a posting that should be dated for 8/7/07)

Day one of my two-day drive wasn’t so bad. I left CT at 7:30 and made it into Stow, OH at 5. The stretch through route 80 was soooooooo long and there was nothing to see except for trees and corn. BORING! There was a bunch of construction too where there were long stretches of cones lined up AND NO ONE WORKING!!!!

I had a place to stay in OH...Mikey rocks. I went to watch him play vb while babysitting some woman's two kids. Then, we went to dinner and then a bar, watched TV...simple but fun. Catching up with an old friend can be odd--sometimes you pick up where you left off and other times you feel slightly out of place. For us, it went both ways, but I hope it gets us to talking more.

Now day two…here is where the fun begins! Mike and I went to breakfast and there was a torrential downpour in OH. Driving was FUN in the rain. Then along my trip, I called the electric company to turn on the electricity for my apartment only to be told that I’m 88 on my credit report. !#$!# So, I have to fix that and I won’t have electricity. Then, I call the landlords to the apt since I wouldn’t get into West Lafayette in time. They were nice enough to leave the keys for me…Sweet----until you read on.

So, there aren’t any highways going West from Akron, OH to West Lafayette, IN unless you go 45 miles DIRECTLY North or DIRECTLY South when I want to go DIRECTLY WEST! So, I took the scenic route. That was a mistake. It took me forever to get through some of the towns since it was only 35mph or I was stuck behind a big truck. And my map, while useful most of the way, did not help me in Indiana since none of the roads are marked! I had to guess if I was on the right road. The roads sucked in IN too. They have all these roads that go straight but really become some other road and the road I need to be on was 20 miles back. All the hassle might have been prevented if INDIANA HAD MARKED ROADS. There was only one major mistake on the map. Here’s what the map looks like.

Here is what it should have looked like.

Once in Indiana, I was sweating my balls off. The sun was out and it was humid. When I stood up, I looked like I peed my shorts. GROSS! Finally, I made it to West Lafayette at 5:30. When I went to go check out my apartment from the outside, I was really disappointed. It was next to two frat houses. I’m pissed the landlady lied to me and told me it was a quiet area. So I wanted to get the key but I couldn’t remember the address so I called Matt to get the house number. He was on the road so to kill time, I went hunting for a Starbucks. I failed. I couldn’t find a single one. Finally, Matt gave called me with the address and since I was across town, I asked for the Starbucks addresses too. There were 3 in the area and I still couldn’t find any of them so I just went back to pick up my key to my apt.

I get to the door of the apt, put the key in and couldn’t open the door. The door was really wedged and I needed to put some real muscle to get it to even open. I get upstairs and I’m so mad. The place was cleaned but it was in awful shape. AND they already cashed my $300 dollar deposit!

I griped about my apartment issue to a bunch of people and decided to go hunting for Starbucks again. So I finally found one near campus only to be rejected with no parking space near by. So I drove further and found the Hilton Garden Inn and though, well, I need a place to stay…and rejected again since they were all booked. Ahhhh…

So I needed gas and went hunting for a gas station, found a hotel to call and called.

Me: Do you have rooms available? And do you have internet access?
Lady at the Front Desk: Yes.

So I get to the hotel and it’s $80 bucks a night. Okay, I don’t mind spending but it better be nice—it’s INDIANA. I am on the 3rd floor and this is the first view.

Then I get to my door and this is the second view.

Here is the sign.


Why am I paying $80? I guess the inside of the place was okay.

So I check out all the other floors and notice that they are doing construction on all hallways except for the main floor but work is being done on all the rooms on the main floor. It was a little creepy to walk on the main floor since all the doors were open but no lights. I felt like I was in the Shining.

The down button doesn’t work.

Finally, the other elevator doesn’t work very well either. I go in, press the button to my floor and I’m standing for 30 seconds but the doors never close. So I walk out and turn the corner and hear the door close. Bah, I’m back—safe in my room…ah, roach in my room.


Side note: With all the corn being grown in PA, OH and IN, how is it possible that we’re having a shortage of corn?!?