(please note that this was a really long day so it kinda spills onto tomorrow's entry.)

home of ralph waldo emerson

this morning we packed up our things and left my mom's friend's house. today is our last day as we flight back home tonight. we've decided to go with local and american history tourism by visiting concord, the site of the start of the revolutionary war, when the colonies broke off from mother england, preventing us from forever being poms, thank god. (again, i hate rule by royalty and then the abolishment of their rule but somehow they still keep their castles and remain as figurehead. good on ya france!) i thought we'd finish that by noon and we'd be able to see a bit of boston. i can't come all this way and not see my grandmother's favorite city. at least maybe do one tour bus type thing or see 2 spots like paul revere's house. again, i'm not really interested in that i've never wanted to see anything specific in this area, i just want to visit all the states and capitol cities.

grave of ralph waldo emerson

concord is close to my mom's friend's home. gps got us there safely. we got there just before several attractions were to open. i wasn't really interested in seeing the inside of these places but thought it was worth taking a photo from the outside. so we stopped by the orchard house, home of the alcotts, as in louisa m. alcott, author of "little women". i never read the book, just watched the old black and white movie as a kid. then to the home of ralph waldo emerson, of whose poetry i did read in high school. i possibly read some of his essays. go transcendentalism. then we stopped short for sleepy hollow cemetery, where all the local authors are burried. this allowed us to see the first settlers cemetery. quite amazing to see graves of people who died in the 18th century. then we went to sleep hollow cemetery, great name. we saw the graves of the 2 previously mentioned authors, henry david thoreau, and nathaniel hawthorne.

minute man national historical park

the next place we went to was just down the road, minute man national historical park. it's where it's claimed that the first shot was fired in the revolutionary war, although no one knows which side shot first. there is an obelisk monument, a minute man statue, a grave for british soldiers, etc. it's really quiet and pretty. the old north bridge is where the battle is said to have taken place. the river underneath it looked shallow and dirty. there were a lot of insects. but somehow it was nice. not nice enough to stay but the pictures are nice. also in the park close to the bridge is the old manse, which is a home built by emerson's father or where he lived. i can't recall the exact details. anyway, hawthorne was there at some point too. they're all connected. we didn't tour the old manse but one could. we browsed the gift shop next to it and there was really nothing of interest. today is my last day and i so wanted to buy something cool and unique but i have found nothing so far. the first gift shopped i looked at was at the house of seven gables in salem and that had the best stuff yet even though it wasn't great stuff.

walden beach, er pond

after that, there was just one last place we had to stop, walden pond. it's now a recreation area. we paid $5 to park and as we walked, i saw a chipmunk and got really excited because i don't think i had ever seen one before, except in cartoons. it was so quick and i don't think i got any clear picture of it worth showing. then we browsed the gift shop, again nothing worth buying. my mom did buy a walden pond water bottle container thing because she lost her kangen water one and didn't want one that said kangen water on it, haha! then we walked down to the actual walden pond. damn, that's a pond? i keep getting surprised at what they call ponds in new england. to me, that's a lake! it's huge. but i guess there must be some technical differences between a pond and a lake. perhaps it's overall water capacity or depth. perhaps it's how much freezes over in winter. i just don't know. i was surprised to see it's where the locals swim. there is a beach section where everyone is swimming.

my mom reads over the shoulder

to appreciate this area, i think you need to go on a hike and we're just not prepared and don't have the time for it. on that note, we didn't hike over to see thoreau's original cabin. instead we walked back up towards the parking lot and viewed the cabin replica and statue of thoreau. i thought it odd that the statue is staring at his hand like he's reading something but there's nothing in his hand. i decided something needed to be done about it so i put the guide to walden pond recreation area that the parking attendant gave us into the statue's hand. it wouldn't stay at first but once it did it looked great! my mom decided to join in on the fun and pose for a picture. then we looked inside the cabin and it was furnished. it even had a guest book because i guess thoreau likes to send thank you cards to his guests. i browsed the page and noticed lots of new england visitors. i didn't see anyone from out west, maybe one family. i thought there should be more but decided not to write my name down because i really don't like guest books. signing the funeral guest book was enough for this trip.

you know, we have the technology now to build higher bridges so we don't have to put up with this shit

after walden pond, our concord tourism was over and it was about noon so we headed to boston. here is where the gps fucked up on us. i don't know what city we were in but it didn't look like boston. the gps instructed us to get off the freeway and go right. then we went around in a big loop. we could've just made a left off the freeway! we went around city streets that had road work and detours. it was really slow going. then we ended up back on a freeway. i don't remember if it was the same one or but surely there must have been a connection from the freeway we were on! why the big detour?! bad gps, bad! once we got to boston, i had forgotten which attraction's address i had punched in. regardless, we searched for parking. we went into a structure and the prices were ridiculous. my family said parking in boston is expensive but i didn't believe it could be this bad. it was too late to turn around. their fee chart started at 0 minutes. i guess that means no in and out. i realized then and there that we would not be able to see any sights, that we would have done better to see the outer cities like concord. fuck. oh well, let's just park here and grab some lunch because we're starving and get the hell out of here paying the minimum fee.

massachusetts state house

so went and got some food and were about to leave when my mom couldn't find the parking ticket. fuck. asian lucille ball strikes again! she didn't put it in her purse or a pocket. she left it on her lap. that's all she remembers. we searched the car, around it, under it. nothing. she talked to a parking attendant that she talked to when we first parked. of course he's not going to let us get away with losing a ticket but she tried. i told her that if we have to pay the maximum fine then we should just stay and see some sights. the parking attendant didn't like that and made big gestures like it's such an ordeal to do that because you have to fill out paperwork and blah blah blah so the attendants helped us search the car. he found it. it fell in the door pocket. we got out of there and had to pay $16 for less than 40 minutes of parking.

streets of boston

my mom said she would drive around and i could eat so that's what we did. she headed away from the city center, just wandering. then she pulled over in front of a mattress shop and suggested we go shopping. it's a mattress store! then she got out of the car and went in search of a restroom because her bladder is the size of a peanut. i was soooooo freakin' pissed off at this point that i had to call someone to vent so i called twiddle thumbs. just get me the fuck out of new england! just let me go home! i decided when my mom got back that we should just drive to the airport and wait for hours. she had suggested that before but i really wanted to see boston. now i don't. fuck you boston. you're a city that requires one be on foot and you don't even give the option for someone to park to see one fucking sight without losing a limb in parking fees. your streets are shit or else you wouldn't have so much construction everywhere. and gps is shit too in this city. the one thing i learned though with all this driving and listening to the radio is that even shitty alternative songs from the 1990s sound good now. i had realized earlier that i feel frustrated with music because i listen to the same old crap i've been listening to since high school and college. i keep listening to 1990s music. i listen to very little 2000s music and this decade is almost over. listening to all the hits i never purchased in the 90s on the radio, i found myself enjoying it and thinking it's not so bad afterall. i guess when you compare it to the shit they put out today... 'music was better in my day'. i'm so old.

streets of boston

we went to return the car and i was following what the signs said. i told my mom to turn and she said no, she saw the lot where she borrowed the car from and was determined to go back there. we got there and cleaned up our shit. after everything looked nice, we went to the office where they informed us you can't return cars there. back to the car we went and drove across the street like the fucking signs said to! the return was super easy. the attendant was outside and had a handheld device. my mom insisted she had to go in the office so she went. they told her she was all done already. onto the shuttle. i was so pissed that i threw our luggage in. my mom said i should be more careful but i think she could tell i was really fucking pissed off. i don't know at one point i called her asian lucy to her face but i don't think she liked that. i was just so fucking sick of everything i didn't like about new england. the slow ass freeways, the constant detours, the fucking accents, so many white people--where's the diversity? 7 shades of beige is not diverse, etc. i don't understand how japanese can live where there are no japanese. i did that for 10 years in santa cruz and i don't think i could do that again. not just yet. i guess i was homesick and wanted some home comfort. or just sorely disappointed in the non-funeral aspects of the trip.

once we were at the airport, my mom was able to use the self check-in no problem. then it was my turn. problems. i tried 4 different ways and my name was not coming up, just my mom's. a worker asked if i needed help and i told her i've tried 4 fucking different ways and i'm not coming up. said fuck in front of my mom and she didn't slap me or tell me to watch my mouth. that's how enraged i was but i didn't want to fuck with the workers because they have the power to get me home or leave me stranded in new england. they would see what they could do on their end. they couldn't find me by first name or last name nor by credit card that i used to pay for the flight. then i brought out my confirmation page from expedia. (that's what my mom said to use to book the flight.) nothing. the supervisor said that expedia didn't book the flight for me but they could sell me a seat to las vegas but the connecting flight to los angeles is booked. NO! i am now in airline hell. i recalled the story my aunt just told me during this trip of one of her airline hell incidents. she often flies to texas for her job and once her flight was changed and she had to call in to find out what was going on. the guy said he could get her a flight to las vegas. nothing more. "and?" that was it apparently. she explained she was going to texas, not vegas. he didn't seem to care. once you cross the mississippi, they don't give a fuck. i did not want to be stranded in new england with 1 suitcase in which i was to make a new life!

i asked if this had happened before with expedia customers and if there was a number they could call because i had already paid for a flight so i'm not going to buy another ticket. they told me to look online. i said, "this is the airport, it's not like there's laptops walking around!" "i know" they replied. then why fucking suggest that? idiots! i called twiddle thumbs and told her to get me expedia's number. turns out i didn't even have to think about it, one of those easy 800-businessname type numbers. after weaving through the automated system, i spoke with a live person, at least i think they were alive. they sounded so much like the automated system that i was hesistant to speak at first. they gave me the airline confirmation # which the workers could use to find my reservation. i asked if there was a number they could call in case it didn't work. the helpful expedia employee said she'd stay on the line while i sorted things out, thank you! the # she gave worked and they found me so i hung up. then the employee said she couldn't print my boarding pass nor check-in my luggage. fuck. then she went to speak to another supervisor. after they came back, they pointed out to me what was wrong: my flight was for tomorrow. WHAT!??!?! HOW IN THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN!??!! i wanted to cry or die. i really made such a stupid mistake? i must be more distraught then i thought. or i can't think first thing in the morning and my mouse slipped and picked the wrong day. anywa, there's no way i'm staying the night in boston or the airport. please, what can i do to get on this flight?! they said i could get on for $100. fine, i'll take it! my mom felt so bad for me i guess that she immediately offered to pay for it. i got my boarding passes. now time to sit for a couple of hours until boarding time.

we went over to the gate and browsed the shop there, sat down and read, etc. really not much to do. in order to lighten the situation, though my mood had much improved once i got the boarding tickets in hand, i taught my mom a stupid phrase. i taught her "making a deposit" in regards to going to the bathroom. she said she had heard of it before but i used it several times in order to reinforce the meaning of the phrase to her. the plane was late in boarding us and then late in taking off. overall, 2 hours late in departing. this was due to weather in new hampshire. but we're in fucking boston going to vegas?! such is airline flights. such is this trip and my shitty airline flight day. we finally took off and i decided to sleep on the plane for most of the way. who know if we'll make our connecting flight. a lot of people are going to miss their connecting flights too. while we were delayed, several people started putting in phone calls to get another flight. once we reached vegas, there were attendants directing people about their connecting flights. some had missed their flights and had to go down to the desk. some had not taken off yet and they had to hurry to the gate. that was us! to LA had not departed yet but we had to hurry. first though i had to wait for my mom to get off the plane and tell her the news. i waited. and waited. she was the last one off the flight! we ran to the other side of the airport where our gate was. it's really hard to run after your legs have been immobile for hours. we got to the gate and the employees told us we missed the flight. NO! i had to know, by how many minutes? they said it just left. FUCK! we now had to go down to the desk too...