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AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S A PROBLEM?
We got in the cab and if my blood pressure wasn’t high enough to start another nose bleed then, I’m fit to climb Mt Everest! I was fuming. I just couldn’t understand going over the damn Verrazano Bridge – the most expensive crossing in The City. We were on the road 3 minutes and we were in traffic as far as the eye could see. Here’s the visual: Sunday night in August on the Garden State returning from the shore, the Bourne Bridge on Friday night in July, the Long Island Expressway two hours before sunset on Passover, in other words a frigging nightmare!
The driver is in the right lane and backseat driver that I am, I’m watching which cars are passing us on the left. We are literally inching along and as we approach the Goethals Bridge, I swear two more lanes merge in.
We have already missed our flight and connecting flight to Rome so we won’t be there on time to pick up the car I ordered. The car that I called about 3 times demanding I must have either the Fiat 500L or VW Gulf. So now in the taxi at about 8pm I am calling Kemwell the middle man car rental company in Maine to ask them to change the time of pick up. Of course they can’t reach Rome now because the time difference is 7 hours ahead and I won’t know if we are confirmed because just maybe I will be in the air!
The driver told us it would take an hour; I guess that would be at 2:00am because now we are approaching the hour mark and we see our first sign of approaching the bridge. Giving credit where due and also he knew he had a crazy woman sitting behind him, the cab driver really put the pedal to the metal whenever he could and began to weave around cars to gain ground. I have been sending prayers of intercession to St Jude constantly during the trip- well in between cursing the trip.
As soon as we got close to airport he asked what terminal and that’s when I sprung the surprise stop on him. CITI-MED!! Supposedly located in Bldg 75 in JFK on North Hangar Rd. I tell him I have to pick up something. He puts the address in WAZE and says it’s the exit BEYOND the airport. See it IS part of the airport but the part where there are buildings and cargo offices. Way off in the distance you can see the lights of the terminals. Look at a map and JFK airport is probably larger than the village we are in! It’s left, right, right, left meantime we seem to be very far from real airport. There is Building 75 ALL CLOSED up by appearances. We drive around one side and back, there is one light on for a shipping company (it is 9:30 on a Sunday). I jump out of the cab and rush in asking is there a CITI-MED here? Go to the next door upstairs.
I raced out, waved to Peter in cab and found elevator. It opens and I am in a lunch room. I am so frantic, I am crazy. I find their telephone number and call and say where are you? I am in Bldg 75 and need to find you. Why? do you need a doctor? Yes I had a nosebleed and need.. Oh you need to go to the emergency room. No it stopped I need a release to get on my flight. Oh OK where are you? I don’t know in a room with a soda machine.. OK turn left and left again room 204. With phone still in my ear I turn left then right and say where are you I can’t find your room! Hold on I will come and find you. I quickly backtrack and see a woman at the end of the other hall. I rush to her talking a mile a minute telling her what happened and she was aghast that we took a cab from Newark Airport to JFK. Don’t worry I’ll give you the release, you’ll make your flight, sign here. Bless you bless you thank you! Look Peter I got it.
I am not in the taxi one minute and my other nostril starts to bleed. OMG OMG please God not now we can’t miss 2 flights. I am pinching my nose so hard all the way to the terminal. I am not looking down or picking up any luggage -it stopped.
We get to to desk to check in. The counter staff sees that our luggage is all tagged from Newark and says the manager will take care of us. We wait. He looks at our tickets and says he is aware of our situation. I hand him the medical release. He says there is a problem. Oh no don’t tell me there’s a problem now, what? He explains that although Newark called us in for this 11:30 departure, they did not book us into the connecting flight from Lisbon to Rome which is fully booked. Well what followed in an interchange between the manager who stayed calm and me who became increasingly agitated will be hard to report but here is some of what I said not in any order now; I didn’t miss my flight, they made me miss my flight. If the TAP staff in Newark made a mistake, you must fix it. Do you think we would have paid $150. (Driver wanted more$$ for second stop) to get from Newark to here if we didn’t expect to be on a flight thru to Rome? I am not leaving this counter till we straighten this out. Do you have any idea of the domino effect of changing flights? I have paid for lodging, a rental car, etc. We are not going back to Manhattan. THEN he says, hold on I may be able to work something out. AND WE ARE BOOKED on a connecting flight that leaves within an hour after we land in Lisbon and we will be able to get to the car rental on time.
To e continued…
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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