Strike!

Anybody have a good suggestion how I can get to JFK on Wednesday afternoon? I have a flight to catch.

Seriously, I have to say that except for the anticipated difficulty I'll be having tomorrow getting out to JFK, I wouldn't be suffering much as a result of this "crippling strike" that has "gripped New York". That's assuming I wasn't getting out of Dodge. I'm one of those New Yorkers that has basically seen to it that all my needs can be met within a 10 block radius of the apartment. I have food, liquor, laundry, movies and music all in walking distance. My therapist and doctor are a brisk 1/2 hour walk across town. The fact that I use a phrase like "my therapist" should be a clue as to how entrenched I've become. Theoretically, there's an Upper West Side. I haven't seen it in years. My nose bleeds from the altitude above 57th st. I could always dial up a hooker for delivery. I've always wanted to try and time it so the hooker and pizza would arrive at the same time. I've only come close.

I spent the day finishing up last minute preparations for my holiday visit back to Buffalo. I had a therapy session that dredged up more questions than it answered. More on that later. I plan on spending my Christmas vacation relaxing and pondering my next move. I'll have lots of time to work things out and share my thoughts if you find that sort of thing interesting.

I filled out an application for unemployment. My employment history these past 10 years has alternated between legitimate and sketchy but The Ex seems to think I may have put in enough "real" time to be eligible. That would be sweet. It would mean I could take a few weeks to find a new job I actually gave a rat's ass about.

I watered the plants and did a load of laundry. Nothing sucks more than coming home from a trip to a giant pile of laundry. And dead greenery. I took a few minutes and put password protection on my desktop and laptop. Normally, I wouldn't bother but I've been feeling anxious about being away from the apartment for so long. I'm hoping that the boundary challenged people I live with will resist straying into my room and rifling through my computer files, but I ultimately lost that battle to paranoia (or common sense) and locked down everything. I pre-paid the credit card bills and I charged up all my gadgets. Cellphone, Palm and digital cam all in working order and ready to record those precious holiday memories. That's if I can get the fuck out of this city.

As I said, I'll have a lot of downtime, spending the next six days (holy fuck!) along the banks of Lake Erie, but I will be using Mom's dial-up PC to update so there will be precious little in the way of pictures. See you again at the end of my travels!

Update #1: As suggested, the plan is to make my way to Penn Station and take the LIRR to Jamaica, Queens and the AirTrain. However, news coverage from yesterday saw the LIRR stations a complete cluster fuck. So far, it seems they've worked things out today. I'll be leaving my apartment at 1:30 pm to try and catch a flight out of JFK at 5:30. Check back to see how I fare.