14

Worked from home.

I worked from home because Mrin and I had to leave to the airport in the evening. I had the breakfast at the hotel in the morning and it was pretty good, although not complimentary. :D The evening glass of wine was complimentary though. I took food up for Mrin too. She woke up much later and went for a jog. She didn't eat the breakfast I brought up for her. By the time she came back, it was lunch time. We tried to get lunch at the hotel itself, but they didn't serve lunch, so we went to the restaurant right next door instead. They had good food but pathetic quantity. All through lunch I was giving Gapa directions to the driving test place he was headed to in Santa Clara because he was having trouble with his phone, and he didn't have directions. Mrin and I finished eating and we came back.

New York and the hurricane.

I continued working and Mrin took a shower and then packed all her things. We checked the news about hurricane (Irene) in NY, because Adit said that his and Chingu's return buses from NY had been cancelled because of the impending hurricane. So he and Chingu had basically cancelled their trip, and I wouldn't have got to see them. I spoke to Adit and he advised me not to go - his point was also that I didn't want to see New York as a hurricane-hit city the first time I saw it, and Mrin also said it might not be such a good idea to go too. I spoke to Iciri and she said I could come if I want, but I should be prepared to be under house arrest on 2 or 3 days of my 4 days there.

I finished work, chatted with Sas and Lakshman. With Lakshman, I discussed the potential of changing my flights to go see him in case I didn't go to New York. That done, I took a quick shower, and Mrin and I went to the airport. We were driven there by the hotel car - a town car. Super fancy with leather seats and wooden panelling. Very classy. :)

At the airport.

Once we got to the airport, the plan became clear - it was to ditch going to NY, try and get a refund, and book tickets to Cleveland to meet Lakshman. I was going to try to go there with Mrin, and then to Ann Arbor and work from there and come back from there. The flight guys hadn't yet given me a refund though, so I called and told Nee that I might come to her place in case these plans Mrin and I were trying to scrap together didn't work out. I waited on the phone with the JetBlue airline folks for an hour while I was with Mrin, who was getting her boarding pass etc. After a grueling battle, I finally got them to waive the $100 flight cancellation fee and turn the NY ticket money to JetBlue flight credit that I could transfer to someone else. I wasn't able to get tickets for Cleveland that were less than $700 round trip either, and that was too expensive for me, so I didn't spring a last-minute visit on Lakshman either.

No New York or Cleveland! :(

Bye Mrin. :'(

Mrin left :( And so I went to Nee's at 11p.m.. Venky and Nee were almost sleeping off. But thank you soooo much Nee and Venky for letting me stay! I slept off shortly after getting there.