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Diane's DiaryApril 15, 2004 Thursday I was in Caracas yesterday by myself. Larry had left at 4am yesterday morning for his flight. I couldn't get a flight the same day and since I was going to NY and he to CA, it really didn't matter too much. But this morning I too was leaving for the US. My flight was at noon but I still wanted to get to the airport early as traffic jams in Caracas are notorious and I didn't want to miss my flight. The trip is 30 minutes without traffic but usually takes 45 minutes to an hour. I was up at 7am, took a shower and ate some cheese I had put in the refrigerator in the room. I left the hotel shortly before 8am and got to the airport before 9am - almost 3 hours before my flight. I had an uneventful flight from Caracas to Miami to NY and arrived in NY about 8pm. My parents had made a reservation for a new car service and they were much better than anything we have previously taken. It was definitely strange to be back and culture shock doesn't even adequately express it. It's like going through a time warp. For example, I had bought 3 bottles of water at the Caracas airport for less than $1USD for all 3 bottles and noticed in Miami it was way over $1 for just one small bottle. Welcome back to the US and sticker price shock. Don't know if we could ever afford to live back in the US- things are just so expensive. Or maybe we are just to use to things being much cheaper in Venezuela. Anyway, when I got to my parents I called Larry and some of my friends. It was nice hearing everyone's voices again. One of the first things I noticed was the price of gas- $2 a gallon for regular unleaded! Ouch! I have never paid that high a price ever in my life! April 16-May 2 -NY 4/16 and 17 Friday and Saturday I went up to Hartford Ct on Friday to pick up our car at Joe's house. I had to take the LIRR into NYC, walk to Grand Central and go up to New Haven on the Metro North. All this and I had been in the US for less than 24 hours! I stayed at Joe's house overnight, as I was reluctant to drive back at night especially since I had not driven in almost a year. The next day I had all sorts of problems with the car- the gas station said it was something serious but it turned out all it needed was 2 new tires. I guess it had sat in 1 spot for so long the tires took on strange shapes. Anyway, I was glad to hear that was all over with! I had wanted to stop at our storage unit on Sat. but didn't have time since I spent so much time in the repair shop and didn't want to drive at night the very first time I got back behind the wheel. Anyway, Cinnamon wasn't here this year and it was the first time since we have come back that he hasn't been around for us. I really miss my old cat and still think about him a lot. I wish he were still here with us. But I know he's still thinking about us! 4/18 Sunday - I went out to breakfast with my parents and Aunt. After breakfast, I went to see my brother and the kids. It was really great seeing all of them again as I had really missed everyone. 4/19 Monday - I took Mom shopping to Price Club, Best Buy and Target and treated her to lunch at Red Lobster. I went to my college roommate Linda's house at night and we went out for dinner to a pizza place. It was great seeing her again. Linda is one of my best friends and we have always been able to tell each other everything. I really enjoyed catching up with her and all my friends again. 4/20 Tuesday - I made some phone calls in the AM, met my college friends Dianne and Karen for lunch and met my high school girlfriend Mary for dinner. I wanted to see them all again before Larry came in as once he did I knew we would be doing his shopping and seeing his friends. 4/21 Wednesday - I picked up Larry from the airport at 1pm- he had not slept in over 24 hours as he had taken a red eye flight. We didn't do anything the rest of the day since he was so tired but we did stop at a dive shop on our way home from the airport. 4/22 Thursday - Larry slept late since he was still jet lagged and was still on CA time - 3 hours behind NY. In the pm, we went to West Marine, the boat store and Larry spent almost 4 hours there and still wasn't finished! I was very bored as I can only take a short while in a boat store. We stopped at Aunt Mary's for a few minutes and then went to Mc Arthur Park for dinner. 4/23 Friday - We left around 11am and drove up to our old car mechanic in White Plains to have him look the car over. Turns out it was good we brought the car up there. The brand new tires I just bought in CT are not the exact same ones that we had so it could ruin the all wheel drive! They need to be replaced and Penny suggested I call them back and tell them they need to replace them! I did and they agreed to replace them so we will do it probably when we go to drop the car off. Anyway, we were going to stop at the White Plains library to go on the Internet only to find out the computers in the library were closed today. We didn't leave the mechanic till almost 5pm so since we were going to hit rush hour just decided to have dinner before we left. Anyway, we went to dinner near our old co-op in an Italian restaurant we used to go too. It used to be cheap but they redid the whole strip mall and the bill was $40 for both of us and we didn't have hardly anything to drink. Ouch! Plus, the food was only fair. 4/24 Saturday We made some phone calls in the AM and got to speak to some of our old cruising friends. Larry went to use the computer at Justin's. Then we took the 12:48pm train into NYC. We wanted to stop at a dive shop and than were going to meet Heidi for dinner. Unfortunately, the dive shop was closed as they are Hasidic Jews and close on Fri and Sat. Larry did not call the store in advance to find out the location or store hours. We walked around a street fair at 14th street. It was a beautiful spring day and a perfect day to be walking around NYC. We went to Heidi's apartment at 4pm, she wasn't there so we just waited and she came shortly. We talked in her apartment for a while and than went to dinner followed by dessert at Viniero's- a wonderful Italian dessert place. We had had their pastries a lot in the past but it was the first time we were ever in the store. Heidi gave me a bunch of new books that I will bring back with me. Thanks Heidi- I know I will definitely enjoy them! We had a good time visiting with her again. 4/25 Sunday We made some phone calls in the morning- got to speak to some old cruising friends- Joe from Motu and Driftwood. At 12:30pm we left to go up to Westchester to see my college friend Rod and then went to Joe and Gayle's where we went out for dinner. Nice to see them all again. They all seem to want to go out for meals but don't seem to understand we don't have the money we used to and going out for meals is very expensive for us. 4/26 Monday We made lots more phone calls in the am this morning. We don't have the luxury of having a phone aboard Destiny so it's a pleasure to be able to use one so easily. We went to Home Depot around 1 pm- another one of Larry's favorite stores but another one I am not thrilled about. I went shopping at the local supermarket. We left around 3:15pm as we were supposed to be at Linda and Mark's at 1pm. I had called and told them we were going to Home Depot first. I had seen Linda already but Larry and Mark hadn't seen each other in a few years. They didn't say anything about dinner so we left around 6pm and just went back to my parent's house to eat. Meals are definitely awkward here, as you don't want to just invite yourself to stay. We feel if our friends want us to come for a meal they would ask. But most of them don't want to be bothered to cook anymore - they are too busy with their lives. Eating out for them is routine but with us we don't want to spend the extra money to eat out. This trip is costing us a lot of money as it is already. Plus, we have to buy a new windlass so that will be several thousand dollars in unanticipated expenses. So, no, we would rather keep our expenses as low as possible and not go out to eat so much but we also don't want to inconvenience anyone while we are here. We went to the RVC library at night to use the Internet. April 27 Tuesday Happy Birthday Larry Made some more phone calls in the AM. We had had a crack in our windshield but it got worse when we left it during the past year. Fortunately, we had full glass coverage on our insurance policy so we were able to get a new one for free. They came to replace it this morning. We were glad we had the insurance coverage as replacing a new windshield is expensive. Anyway, after the windshield was repaired, we went over to Aunt Mary's house so Larry could look at her computer. She thinks the disk is full so Larry helped her get rid of some files on it. We went to TGIF to celebrate Larry's birthday. After lunch, we went to 2 used bookstores in RVC. Those books may be old to the bookstores but most are new for us and are cheaper than buying books from the bookstore. We also went to the bank and Radio Shack. We drove over to the Sears in Garden City but they didn't have the part Larry wanted. I'll try to get it when I drive up to Yorktown, as there is a big Sears store in the mall. Anyway, we went back to my parent's house where we treated for Chinese food for Larry's birthday. Aunt Mary came over also and I had ordered a cake from Front St. Bakery to celebrate. My parents picked up the cake and I think Larry was surprised about it. He loves their baked goods so I knew he would enjoy the cake. April 28 Wednesday I took some Benadryl last night as I have been having some allergy problems since I arrived in the US. I got the first good night sleep in a long time, as I haven't been sleeping too well here in the US. Anyway, we left the house shortly after 10am to do what else? More shopping! We went to Price Club, Home Depot and stopped at a hose store in Hempstead. They had the part Larry needed in another store and promised to get it by tomorrow. Larry was going out to dinner with his friend Tony up in the Bronx so he needed to leave RVC by 4pm so we had to cut our shopping short. He drove me to downtown RVC where I got off and went to the pharmacy and Post Office before walking back to my parent's house. |