The journey back began on Sunday. My original plan was to weasel (*WEASEL!*) a ride back with Russ Kay, who was originally going to stay an extra night but decided to return early due to the inclement weather. However, Russ decided that the weather in Arlington was simply too bad, and that he was going to stay an extra night (or two) after all, so that option was quickly scratched out.
Option number two was to return on the Greyhound bus with Becky, Ina, and Johnathan. However, after Johnathan's mother heard of a 40 car accident on Interstate 95, we were promptly informed that this option was out of the question.
This finally left us with the options of either staying one more night or taking the Amtrak home. Pretty much everyone, with a notable exception being myself, decided that returning home early was more desireable, so I decided to join the bandwagon. Unfortunately, Johnathan's mother informed us that she had checked the Amtrak website, and that the trip from Washington to Philadelphia, one way, would cost us $130 each, which did not please me at all, but, since I wasn't buying, I decided to go with it anyway.
We contacted the cab company and asked to have them pick us up at the hotel and then drive us to Union Station, and they told us that they'd pick us up in an hour. Two hours later, the cab still hadn't shown up, so we called the company again, and they told us that they had a grand total of two cabs running and that they didn't have the slightest idea of when they'd be able to pick us up. So, we went next door to the Hyatt at 1:30, which, fortunately, had a running shuttle to the closest Metro stop, which we then took.
En route, our shuttle, filled with over a dozen Otaku (for the unitiated, that would be pretty much any fan of Anime) passed a car stuck in the snow with one guy pushing it from behind, and we all agreed to pile out and help push. All the while, Johnathan, in a typical Johnathan-fashion (I'll leave those of you who know him to decide if that's good or bad) shouted "OTAKU POWER!" while he pretty much just watched the rest of us push (granted, there was no more room to push from behind the car itself). We finally got the car moving, and we, quite proud of ourselves, piled back again.
On the way to the Metro, we began a conversation with a guy named Reuven (like "Reuben", but with a "V"). Upon reaching the Metro, he informed us that the Metro's Union Station stop was on the way to his final destination, and that he'd gladly guide us there, which he did extremely well. He even joined us for lunch at Union Station, and we ended up exchanging all related contact information. Perhaps I shall get more into him later, but not now.
So, anywho, I purchased the tickets for all four of us, which ended up being $135, total, instead of $130 a-piece, which was quite a relief.
Unfortunately, our train was supposed to arrive at 4:05, but didn't arrive until 6:00 (and then didn't leave until 7:00, since they workers walking around making sure that literally each and every single seat of the train was filled). While waiting in the Station, I took the liberty of contacting Erik using Ina's cellphone while he was in the middle of writing this entry. Also, being bored as hell, I wrote the following stream of thought on my laptop. If you have no desire to have any idea of what runs through Walbert's head at any given moment, feel free to skip past the following italicized writing; otherwise, read on:
I am bored out of mind so i shall type and type until i have nothing else to do. God knows how long that will take. Maybe it will be long. Maybe it will be short. Maybe it will be in the middle. Maybe all of this is crap. Scratch that, it is crap. No doubt about it. I don’t know why i am choosing to type out a summary of my thoughts. This is my thought stream. I don’t have much battery power left. I am in Union Station. I am bored. Sooooo bored. Amanda Thai writes like that. Many people write like that. I suppose that means that it’s not that big of a deal to draw words out like thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis. Or maybe it is. Or maybe it isn’t. Or maybe it’s crap. No, scratch that, it is crap. No doubt about it. I am so bored, I am becoming redundant. God mother fucking damn it. Then again, so are these announcements concerning my train at Union Station. “Attention, we have an important announcement: your train is still delayed. Sucks for you, you stupid passengers.” Now i have writer’s block. I don’t even know why; it’s not like I’m writing anything important. Bah and humbug. God damn it. This is not enough. Ya soschla s uma.
Gahsgaslfj;aslfjalsjflasjflasjf;lasjflasjflkasj
flasjf;lasdlfkjasfjafjalksjf;lasjf;lasjf;lasjf;lasjdf;lasjf;laskj
dfl;asjf;lasdfj;laskdfj;lasdjf;lasjf;laskjf;laskfj;ljf.
There, now that is out of my system. Okay, so, moving on.
Next item on the agenda:
Yay. Now I am squeaky clean and well shaven. I must thank Ina for reminding me. Thank you, Ina. Ina is now offering people hugs. No, not regular hugs, but chocolate hugs. Ina brought a lot of chocolate on this trip. If it weren’t for her, my cravings would probably be beyond my control right now and I would grow to a disproportionate size and be angry. Kind of like the incredible hulk. The incredible hulk is green. Kind of like broccoli. I like broccoli. I had fried rice for lunch, but it did not have broccoli in it. Hot damn, they just announced my train! Yay!
It's worth noting that after that announcement was made, I turned off my laptop, only to hear Amtrak make another annoucement stating that their announcement was only a false alarm, and that I'd have to wait a bit more. I was too lazy to turn on my laptop again to continue the above stream of thought.
I think it's also worth noting that, while at Union Station, and during the entire day, for that matter, I walked around with a Katana clearly slung over my shoulder, and I made no attempt to hide it from view. I was stopped only once, by two kids together who asked me if it was a real sword on my shoulder, and if they could touch it. ("Yes. No." was my response). I'm not sure if that's good or bad, considering that I was in our nation's capital after they decided to raise the whole terrorist-risk-system from "Elevated/Yellow" to "High/Orange". Plus, my infamous "Filofro" makes me clearly look like a foreign terrorist. Hmm....
Anyway, back to my tale. Amtrak finally started moving, and I pulled into Philadelphia around 9:15. I was supposed to take the local R5 which left for the suburbs around 9:49. Unfortunately, it was horribly, horribly late (I found out around 10:30 that one of the guys there was still waiting for the 6:49 train), and I didn't end up leaving until around 11:30. I arrived in the suburbs at around 12:00. My parents informed me that the roads were unplowed, and, as such, undrivable, so I had to walk home. Normally, the walk from the station to my house would take about 20 minutes, with shortcuts and without snow. However, since my shortcuts were completely unplowed (which resulted in areas with snow up to my waist, compared to snow up to my ankle where streets had been plowed) and since I was carrying so much stuff (a real Katana, a wooden Katana, posters, PSX, N64, DDR pads, Manga, Knives, etc), the walk took me nearly an hour, and I didn't get home until 1:00. I cursed my fate for the entire walk home, but, looking back on it, I must admit that it was quite an experience.
In anycase, I finally walked through the front door of my house, with frozen hair, heavy bags, and a highly caffinated system (I survived this entire weekend on nothing but Cup o' Noodles, cans of Tunafish, and Caffine pills).
It was a good weekend. Perhaps I shall get into the details of it later (no school tomorrow due to the bad roads, which gives me plenty of time to update), but I think I've written enough for now.
So, I bid you all Adieu. TTFN.