expensive tequila and fires

I've become convinced that there is a link between my visiting people from my new company and things going horribly awry at Penn Station.

Last night, my company threw itself a little party for closing a new deal at a funky Mexican restaurant in Soho. (The party was in Soho. The deal was actually in Mexico, hence the funky Mexican restaurant theme.) They invited me to come, since I'm on contract as an employee now (though I don't start until July). It was a lot of fun, actually. I really like the people I'm going to be working with. My boss is even a big They Might Be Giants fan, which is coincidental and nifty. I got to meet pretty much everyone at the company, although I can't remember all their names. I was talked into trying a shot of expensive tequila. (Apparently it was 100% tequila, whereas most tequila is significantly watered down. Or something. I don't know anything about tequila, beyond that it's made from agave.)

Anyway, the Penn Station link comes in when I tried to leave. When I came home from my last interview with them, there was a combination of smoke in the tunnels and a broken down Amtrak train on the switching tracks that led to the LIRR and most of NJ transit getting shut down because they couldn't get anything in or out of the station. It was a total zoo. Last night, apparently the bridge caught fire. Which meant that no southbound trains at all could leave the station. Fortunately, I was already planning to stay with chuckro in Jersey City, and the PATH trains were unaffected. Kindly, PATH offered to honor any Amtrak or NJ Transit tickets and get people as far as Newark, which was far enough south that the trains were still running and people could get to wherever they were going. Of course, this meant that PATH was a zoo this time. I ended up playing shepherd to a bunch of very confused and lost looking people who had intended to be riding other trains, and the entire crew of an Amtrak train as well, all of whom had never used the PATH trains before. I ended up explaining how to get on a Journal Square train, and then get off at Grove Street or Journal Square to make the Newark connection, and making sure they all got off at the right stop and knew what to do next. One guy said if he'd had any money left, he would have offered to tip me. It was kind of nice to be able to help a bunch of people - good deed for the day. Still, I wish that I didn't have a curse that made Penn Station go havoc-y every time I try to go south after meeting with people from my new job.

More questions

This time from hyouneko.

1. Did you draw that icon yourself? Yes, actually, I did. It's not perfect, but it's decent.

2. How did you decide to start singing with the 'Cats? I went to an arch with chuckro to hear katertoticus in the fall of my sophomore year. They sang "Secure Yourself". I fell in love. I'd forgotten how much I missed singing (I did a lot of it in high school). Which brought me to a dilemma, because I had intended to run for conductor in the band that fall. And it just wasn't possible to have that kind of commitment to both. I dithered a lot, and didn't audition that semester. When I got closer to band elections, I finally decided to take the risk and not run, so as to be free to audition for the 'Cats in the spring. (I thought Dan was going to kill me.) So I auditioned in my last eligible semester, and made it, and that was that.

3. What was your first impression of me? (This really is fun question to ask of friends) Loud. But fun. My first memory of you is of you and elliewhit taking all the band frosh to Wu for dinner after the first rehearsal and indoctrinating us in band lore. You told us about being banned from Lafayette. And about the Stanford band being banned from the state of Oregon and an airline. You told us many stories. Much of my initial knowledge in band lore and understanding of the band itself came from you. Good job!

4. Knowing your previous boyfriend, what OS would you use if you could only use one? Urrgh. Yuck. Nasty question. I'm not sure. Honestly, there's so much that sucks about Windows that I cannot begin to say. But I've also had a lot of trouble with Linux, and I've found that sometimes I've had an easier time fixing the Windows problems. I think Linux really is the better system, and if I had a computer whose soundcard played nice with it, and all the tools I need (including Allegro), and I knew a little more so I was better at system maintenance, I'd chose Linux. But I'm probably going to be defaulting to Windows more and more for convenience reasons.

5. Favorite Band song? To listen to, probably Robin Hood, when we have full instrumentation. Gives me goosebumps. To play? Either Centerfold or You Can Call Me Al, but only if we do the full version with the piccolo solo (for very obvious reasons).