lethologica
Smash Rookie
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2005
- Messages
- 11
this story's for unknownforce and those others who attended the NorthEast Smashfest with us on saturday the 5th. it's our story of how we got from MA to the University of RI where the tourney was held and back again. unknown seemed to find it amusing, so maybe you will too. i'm mostly posting this here so that i dont have to post it in the tourney thread.
it's written the way i write my blog because i wrote it there first, so, apologies for no caps and sparse punctuation.
---
hokai, so.
friday, got ben and dan [we know him as koreandj111] over here in a huffed hustle to organize who was going to rhode island and who wasn't
there was talk of orin showing up late but we never got in contact with him
we played smash and ordered a bacon cheeseburger each from union st (my idea) and played more smash
later we played wario ware on dan's ds and some counterstrike before going to bed
woke up at 6something to get ready to go to south station, rushed goodbyes and left
got some mcdonalds for breakfast at the station and went and got tickets for the commuter rail to kingston, which mapquest told us was right next to the university
realized that the times i had internalized were for weekday trains, not saturday
so i looked at the schedule i'd printed and saw we'd have to get off a stop before kingston and cab over
we figure, cab's not a problem, we'd have taken a cab from kingston anyway right, easy
so we went back and exchanged our tickets; the guy was really nice about it, $5.50 per ticket each total
so we board and chill with crosswords and wario ware until halifax, the stop before kingston
we get out and it's rather barren; the occasional car and person came around
so we 411 for a cab and the lady tells ben that there are no cabs in halifax
this scares us... so we tell her thanks anyway and walk a bit to get our bearings
there's a run-down abandoned-looking furniture store across from the station intersection, and homes on either side of the street til out of sight
beneath the sign for the furniture store, i spotted a sign for a limo company, we figure they can hook us up with a taxi company since 411 couldn't
so i call and tell him we're stranded and need a lift to the university of rhode island
he's taken aback, and we ask if he can get us a cab company, and he gets us Pembroke Taxi, which arrives in about 15 minutes
old guy, forest green buick lesabre, no signs i caught of being a taxi outside of gps pda-type thing and a cell phone attached to the dashboard
he asks for the fare up front which is $100, flat rate he said, so we pay up
we stop at a convenience store not far up the street for an atm for ben, and he puts on 104.1 wbcn for us
so we go on our merry way to URI... it's about 9:00 when we leave
at 9:30 i was worried we were going in the wrong direction; i had thought the train schedules had told me it couldnt have been more than a 20 minute cab ride from halifax
but judging from the reactions of the limo and cab guys i figured something about it was wrong and i tried my best to put it behind me
at 10:30 we get into providence... which is, of course, completely the wrong city...
driver has no idea where URI is so he asks around, first guy tells us (accurately) that we're "way off, URI's down by the ocean, past t.f. green [airport]"
so we're all like, "****ing testicles, wtf is going on" "he's a cab driver, isn't he supposed to know where **** is" etc
so we drive around a little more and stop at another guy who tells us there's actually a satellite campus for URI in providence.. so we can't fault the guy completely, i suppose...
we stop at a third guy to ask where a bus station is so he can drop us off, ben asks for a refund and guy says no, flat rate to providence and here you are, cya
so we go into the bus station trying our best not to lash out and kill someone; we approach the info desk, there's one young black lady there
we tell her our story and she goes "uh-uh, can't let that slide" so she 411's for pembroke taxi and talks them down for a while
she told us that she posed as ben's mother and told them she was very angry that they not only "swindled my child" but took us completely in the wrong direction
turns out pembroke taxi's based in massachusetts; i still don't know why a RI-based limo company would refer us to a MA-based cab company
but that explains why he had no idea where he was going
so the lady, whose name is yolanda, gave us the number for pembroke taxi and her cell phone number to call if we needed any info
she said to get ben's mom to call them and be angry at them to get our $100 back, and to let her know how things turned out
she also gave us a bus schedule and told us to grab the 14 toward narragansett (sp? i threw away the map) and cab over from there, knock on wood
the 14 was leaving "any minute now" so she pointed out the bus and we ran over to it and got on
so we have a seat and reflect for a little bit on what just happened... and take a look at the bus schedule and work things out
and it's 11:00. the tournament is starting.
bus is on its way, i map out the direction the bus is going, mentioning narragansett, and the spanish driver tells us that the bus doesn't go to narragansett
and immediately our hearts jump, but then we realize it goes to newport, which is on the opposite side of a fork from narragansett
a guy sitting behind us points a few things out to us about the map and everything's clear
so we decide we'll just get off at the junction and get a taxi (from a phone book this time).
while on the bus we call john c to see how he's doing at the tourney, and it turns out he's at HOME. his ride mysteriously didn't show. sketchy to the max.
but we enlist his help getting the cell number of the guy who's running the tournament; he had posted it on a forum thread relating to the tournament
so he gets us the number and we call it, and nobody answers; turns out he turned off his cell when the tourney started
we call again later and someone picks up, a very deep, gravely, almost inhuman voice, and says it's the wrong number... sketchyyyyy.
at around 11:30, we're still on the bus, and everything's worked out with john, and we all exhale deeply.. and then a car crash happens in front of us.
a magenta dodge caravan tried to pass a turning car and scraped off the front of an aqua ford windstar that was pulling out of an adjacent parking lot.
it was of no consequence to our bus except to worry us three a little bit more.
so at about 11:50 we arrive at our stop and get off. there's a hess gas station and a pizza place (half of which is a boarded up former ice cream shop).
we go into the hess with a phone book in mind, and they said they didn't have one. so we go to the pizza place. only guy there's got a heavy accent from.. somewhere.
we ask for a phone book and he says he lent his one out and never got it back, so we exited pondering 411.
across the street is a sprawling, abandoned-looking, purple wooden stucco sided, graffiti-laden, boarded-up house, and we joke about finding assistance in there.
we realize we don't have any bearings to give a potential cab, so we go back to the pizza place to get some
there's the guy inside looking through a <i>phone book</i> for a cab. so he calls one for us and at 12:20 it comes.
old bearded hippie-looking guy pulls up in a stationwagon clearly labeled with taxi-esque decoration: the light atop, cab logo on the side, fare meter, etc. a lot less sketchy.
so we pile in and call him a lifesaver and tell him our story, and he laughs with us. he's a really fun, funny guy. we joke about microsoft, and he quotes us wise adages, and we have a great time.
12:45ish we pull up to the URI campus center and tip him, and exit jovially from the cab. we enter the building and look around for a bit, and lo and behold,
a giant auditorium with tvs and projector screens all proudly purposed for smash bustles with one set of double doors propped open.
we go in and approach the guys at a laptop, who are the tournament directors; turns out doubles are just ending, but singles had yet to start
so we wouldn't get to use our team name wang jung... oh well
so we take up an empty projector and start playing. people all around are playing pickup games, meeting new people, and having fun.
looking around i realized that there was something to those advanced techniques dan was toting
i mean i knew i was a novice already, but if the way these people played were sex, i was in the best porno i could ever imagine
i did learn some things beyond just those techniques, so it was hardly all bad for me in terms of the game
tied for 9th in singles with three other people, including dan... most of the people there didn't enter in the tournament, including ben
at 8:30pm, ben reminds me that the train is at 9:25 and we better leave, since we'd miss the final match anyway
so the tournament director guy (whose cell phone was off earlier) hooks us up with a ride from a spectator and we make it to the train station
this station, kingston station, is on the national register of historic places; one of those olde-tyme stations.
a post-it note on the ticket window said be back 9:15, so we waited alone in the old station, making idle conversation about jinxes and the potential for further mishaps...
at 9:15 the guys get back, one old and scruffy looking, the other old and more prim, and we get tickets
he (the prim one) asks for photo id; i thought it was strange but didn't let it stop me one bit. he typed in our names and quoted us a price, which we expected to be $18 (commuter rail price)
he told us $50.40 and we stood in shock. we didnt know if we even had that much at that point. we go wtf, and he says this aint commuter rail, this is amtrak, the commuter rail's 2 hours away.
turns out we had about $65, and we sat down and seriously considered walking back to the university and asking for some shelter for the night instead, and a ride to the CR in the morning.
so clearly we were out of our minds... i called mom at 9:25 and she didnt even say hello, she said "you missed the train, you missed the train" in her stern but not yelling sort of way.
so i tell her what's up and she says well you're getting on that train, what other option is there. i tell her about walking back and she says no four times, each closer to yelling than the next.
so i rush a goodbye (again) and go purchase my ticket, the others followed suit. maybe it was a good thing that we didnt actually take the commuter rail to kingston, it would have been the wrong station anyway.
we waited til 10 for the train; the attendant who was on the door of the train said "boo" to us as her door went by.
that was very refreshing for me: to know that there are still people who can be humorous and light-hearted, especially after that barren train station.
so we get on the train to find very comfortable seating. we reflect on the day and play some wario ware and do crosswords and basically wind down.
we get to south station at 11:15 and find dad pulling up to pick us up, and go home.
exhausted, i emptied myself of my belongings and prepared for bed, not bothering to set my ipod to play on the sleep timer like i usually do.
sunday, we went out, to my dismay, although only to staples for leah; i picked up a smaller binder and looked for those pens that i like but didn't find any.
woke up tired today, and felt the novelty of having spent saturday away fade quickly as i fell quickly into routine again.
i'm still waiting to see the videos of the matches get uploaded to the dc++ hub.
and wednesday's a half day, so then and tuesday dan's going to be having people over to practice
but until then, we're going to dinner tonight at a wrap-type place, which will prove interesting..
it's written the way i write my blog because i wrote it there first, so, apologies for no caps and sparse punctuation.
---
hokai, so.
friday, got ben and dan [we know him as koreandj111] over here in a huffed hustle to organize who was going to rhode island and who wasn't
there was talk of orin showing up late but we never got in contact with him
we played smash and ordered a bacon cheeseburger each from union st (my idea) and played more smash
later we played wario ware on dan's ds and some counterstrike before going to bed
woke up at 6something to get ready to go to south station, rushed goodbyes and left
got some mcdonalds for breakfast at the station and went and got tickets for the commuter rail to kingston, which mapquest told us was right next to the university
realized that the times i had internalized were for weekday trains, not saturday
so i looked at the schedule i'd printed and saw we'd have to get off a stop before kingston and cab over
we figure, cab's not a problem, we'd have taken a cab from kingston anyway right, easy
so we went back and exchanged our tickets; the guy was really nice about it, $5.50 per ticket each total
so we board and chill with crosswords and wario ware until halifax, the stop before kingston
we get out and it's rather barren; the occasional car and person came around
so we 411 for a cab and the lady tells ben that there are no cabs in halifax
this scares us... so we tell her thanks anyway and walk a bit to get our bearings
there's a run-down abandoned-looking furniture store across from the station intersection, and homes on either side of the street til out of sight
beneath the sign for the furniture store, i spotted a sign for a limo company, we figure they can hook us up with a taxi company since 411 couldn't
so i call and tell him we're stranded and need a lift to the university of rhode island
he's taken aback, and we ask if he can get us a cab company, and he gets us Pembroke Taxi, which arrives in about 15 minutes
old guy, forest green buick lesabre, no signs i caught of being a taxi outside of gps pda-type thing and a cell phone attached to the dashboard
he asks for the fare up front which is $100, flat rate he said, so we pay up
we stop at a convenience store not far up the street for an atm for ben, and he puts on 104.1 wbcn for us
so we go on our merry way to URI... it's about 9:00 when we leave
at 9:30 i was worried we were going in the wrong direction; i had thought the train schedules had told me it couldnt have been more than a 20 minute cab ride from halifax
but judging from the reactions of the limo and cab guys i figured something about it was wrong and i tried my best to put it behind me
at 10:30 we get into providence... which is, of course, completely the wrong city...
driver has no idea where URI is so he asks around, first guy tells us (accurately) that we're "way off, URI's down by the ocean, past t.f. green [airport]"
so we're all like, "****ing testicles, wtf is going on" "he's a cab driver, isn't he supposed to know where **** is" etc
so we drive around a little more and stop at another guy who tells us there's actually a satellite campus for URI in providence.. so we can't fault the guy completely, i suppose...
we stop at a third guy to ask where a bus station is so he can drop us off, ben asks for a refund and guy says no, flat rate to providence and here you are, cya
so we go into the bus station trying our best not to lash out and kill someone; we approach the info desk, there's one young black lady there
we tell her our story and she goes "uh-uh, can't let that slide" so she 411's for pembroke taxi and talks them down for a while
she told us that she posed as ben's mother and told them she was very angry that they not only "swindled my child" but took us completely in the wrong direction
turns out pembroke taxi's based in massachusetts; i still don't know why a RI-based limo company would refer us to a MA-based cab company
but that explains why he had no idea where he was going
so the lady, whose name is yolanda, gave us the number for pembroke taxi and her cell phone number to call if we needed any info
she said to get ben's mom to call them and be angry at them to get our $100 back, and to let her know how things turned out
she also gave us a bus schedule and told us to grab the 14 toward narragansett (sp? i threw away the map) and cab over from there, knock on wood
the 14 was leaving "any minute now" so she pointed out the bus and we ran over to it and got on
so we have a seat and reflect for a little bit on what just happened... and take a look at the bus schedule and work things out
and it's 11:00. the tournament is starting.
bus is on its way, i map out the direction the bus is going, mentioning narragansett, and the spanish driver tells us that the bus doesn't go to narragansett
and immediately our hearts jump, but then we realize it goes to newport, which is on the opposite side of a fork from narragansett
a guy sitting behind us points a few things out to us about the map and everything's clear
so we decide we'll just get off at the junction and get a taxi (from a phone book this time).
while on the bus we call john c to see how he's doing at the tourney, and it turns out he's at HOME. his ride mysteriously didn't show. sketchy to the max.
but we enlist his help getting the cell number of the guy who's running the tournament; he had posted it on a forum thread relating to the tournament
so he gets us the number and we call it, and nobody answers; turns out he turned off his cell when the tourney started
we call again later and someone picks up, a very deep, gravely, almost inhuman voice, and says it's the wrong number... sketchyyyyy.
at around 11:30, we're still on the bus, and everything's worked out with john, and we all exhale deeply.. and then a car crash happens in front of us.
a magenta dodge caravan tried to pass a turning car and scraped off the front of an aqua ford windstar that was pulling out of an adjacent parking lot.
it was of no consequence to our bus except to worry us three a little bit more.
so at about 11:50 we arrive at our stop and get off. there's a hess gas station and a pizza place (half of which is a boarded up former ice cream shop).
we go into the hess with a phone book in mind, and they said they didn't have one. so we go to the pizza place. only guy there's got a heavy accent from.. somewhere.
we ask for a phone book and he says he lent his one out and never got it back, so we exited pondering 411.
across the street is a sprawling, abandoned-looking, purple wooden stucco sided, graffiti-laden, boarded-up house, and we joke about finding assistance in there.
we realize we don't have any bearings to give a potential cab, so we go back to the pizza place to get some
there's the guy inside looking through a <i>phone book</i> for a cab. so he calls one for us and at 12:20 it comes.
old bearded hippie-looking guy pulls up in a stationwagon clearly labeled with taxi-esque decoration: the light atop, cab logo on the side, fare meter, etc. a lot less sketchy.
so we pile in and call him a lifesaver and tell him our story, and he laughs with us. he's a really fun, funny guy. we joke about microsoft, and he quotes us wise adages, and we have a great time.
12:45ish we pull up to the URI campus center and tip him, and exit jovially from the cab. we enter the building and look around for a bit, and lo and behold,
a giant auditorium with tvs and projector screens all proudly purposed for smash bustles with one set of double doors propped open.
we go in and approach the guys at a laptop, who are the tournament directors; turns out doubles are just ending, but singles had yet to start
so we wouldn't get to use our team name wang jung... oh well
so we take up an empty projector and start playing. people all around are playing pickup games, meeting new people, and having fun.
looking around i realized that there was something to those advanced techniques dan was toting
i mean i knew i was a novice already, but if the way these people played were sex, i was in the best porno i could ever imagine
i did learn some things beyond just those techniques, so it was hardly all bad for me in terms of the game
tied for 9th in singles with three other people, including dan... most of the people there didn't enter in the tournament, including ben
at 8:30pm, ben reminds me that the train is at 9:25 and we better leave, since we'd miss the final match anyway
so the tournament director guy (whose cell phone was off earlier) hooks us up with a ride from a spectator and we make it to the train station
this station, kingston station, is on the national register of historic places; one of those olde-tyme stations.
a post-it note on the ticket window said be back 9:15, so we waited alone in the old station, making idle conversation about jinxes and the potential for further mishaps...
at 9:15 the guys get back, one old and scruffy looking, the other old and more prim, and we get tickets
he (the prim one) asks for photo id; i thought it was strange but didn't let it stop me one bit. he typed in our names and quoted us a price, which we expected to be $18 (commuter rail price)
he told us $50.40 and we stood in shock. we didnt know if we even had that much at that point. we go wtf, and he says this aint commuter rail, this is amtrak, the commuter rail's 2 hours away.
turns out we had about $65, and we sat down and seriously considered walking back to the university and asking for some shelter for the night instead, and a ride to the CR in the morning.
so clearly we were out of our minds... i called mom at 9:25 and she didnt even say hello, she said "you missed the train, you missed the train" in her stern but not yelling sort of way.
so i tell her what's up and she says well you're getting on that train, what other option is there. i tell her about walking back and she says no four times, each closer to yelling than the next.
so i rush a goodbye (again) and go purchase my ticket, the others followed suit. maybe it was a good thing that we didnt actually take the commuter rail to kingston, it would have been the wrong station anyway.
we waited til 10 for the train; the attendant who was on the door of the train said "boo" to us as her door went by.
that was very refreshing for me: to know that there are still people who can be humorous and light-hearted, especially after that barren train station.
so we get on the train to find very comfortable seating. we reflect on the day and play some wario ware and do crosswords and basically wind down.
we get to south station at 11:15 and find dad pulling up to pick us up, and go home.
exhausted, i emptied myself of my belongings and prepared for bed, not bothering to set my ipod to play on the sleep timer like i usually do.
sunday, we went out, to my dismay, although only to staples for leah; i picked up a smaller binder and looked for those pens that i like but didn't find any.
woke up tired today, and felt the novelty of having spent saturday away fade quickly as i fell quickly into routine again.
i'm still waiting to see the videos of the matches get uploaded to the dc++ hub.
and wednesday's a half day, so then and tuesday dan's going to be having people over to practice
but until then, we're going to dinner tonight at a wrap-type place, which will prove interesting..
