A weekend with RQS in Queens

 

Since we had no plans to see anyone needing for me to be in Mario Mode, I planned to present as Marian all weekend.  So I packed a bag with three changes of clothes (all dresses) and drove to RQS's place for the weekend.

Now, it usually takes roughly 2 hours for me to reach RQS's place from my place.  And this past Friday was more of the same, save that traffic jams (I should say, avoiding traffic jams) kept me on-time.  For example, traffic jams prevented me from shifting to the Hutchinson River Parkway and getting stuck waiting for a draw bridge to reopen.  In short, everything that went wrong ended up helping me. When I reached RQS's place, I got there late in the afternoon, and was lucky to find a parking spot that I did not need to wake up early on a Monday morning to vacate.  Then, I carted my bag to RQS's building, then up the stairs to her apartment. 

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An unfortunate thing about living in RQS's area is that delivery people often screw up deliveries for some unknown reason. RQS lives at an address which should be easy to find, such as "12-34 1234 Street".  Often, the lummox that is doing the delivery will either deliver to the wrong street or the wrong address on her street.  In one case, a post office delivery was made to a house 1/2 mile away.  She was lucky that the person who received her package delivered the package to RQS - even though she didn't have to do so.

Why is this important?

RQS often has expensive things delivered to my place.  But we can't control food delivery.  We ordered some Halal food (I love Chicken and Lamb combos from NYC Halal carts), and it was dropped off at some unknown apartment nearby.  As a result, we ended up having Pizza - something that RQS was not in the mood to eat that day.

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Saturday came, and we ended up going to a movie called "Bad Apples".  It is a story about a teacher and an extremely disruptive young boy.  In the process of trying to get his dad to do the minimum to help his son, the situation escalates to a point where the teacher kidnaps the boy and keeps him imprisoned in her basement, while she (and the rest of her students) blossoms in her classroom.  Do I recommend this film?  Wholeheartedly!  Yet, I'd have made one change - I'd have allowed the movie to have some closure that it doesn't have.  (I'm not giving away the ending, but I'd have cut out the final scene.) 

When we got home from the movie, RQS cooked some salmon.  I wish I could have had more.  But she buys human portions...  

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Sunday was a day doing much of nothing - it was raining out, and the last thing we wanted to do was go out to the bodega down the street in the rain. It was a day where we watched old movies on Amazon Prime, and I introduced her to a pleasant movie I found online - "Saving Grace".  Since I never got dressed, I still had to figure out a way to make sure that my car was parked on the correct side of the street to not be ticketed.  So, I went to Google Maps' Street view and look at the photographed street signs.  And, I was both lucky and right - I could stay parked until Tuesday at 8 am.

It's nice to be able to sleep late when I'm at RQS's place for the weekend.  

Eastern Caribbean Cruise 2025 - Disembarkation Day (12/08/25)

 

I don't have that much to say about leaving the ship today.  The alarms were set to go off at 5:45 am, and I was up even earlier.  Normally, if one is on the starboard side of the cruise ship. one doesn't get a chance to see the Statue of Liberty at sunrise from the safety and comfort of our cabin.  However, our ship was brought in to the pier pointing South. And that meant that the ship would do a U-Turn before going to the pier, allowing me to capture the shot above.

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We got off the ship around 8:30 am or so, and spent the next 30 minutes going through the cruise terminal hunting for RQS's luggage.  (It was placed in a wrong, but nearby area.)  By the time we found it and got outside, we saw the ferry leaving the dock, meaning that we would have to stand outside on the coldest day of the year, waiting for another hour.  Of course, we had no intention of waiting.  But all the cabbies shunned us, and the fare to take us to Central Queens.  After getting frustrated, someone at the pier told us - summon an Uber, as it will be cheaper. So, we did.

When the Uber arrived, we encountered a very nice fellow at the wheel  His GPS took us through a traffic jam I always try to avoid (the section of the BQE that's falling apart and always moving slower than a walk), and then through back roads to RQS's place.  (I knew most of the roads, and it probably was the fastest way there.)  What startled me a little was that the driver was getting his directions in Chinese!  We were at RQS's place before 11:00 am, and the gentleman helped us bring our luggage to the first landing of RQS's apartment.  I made sure to give him a good tip!

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RQS had no food inside her place.  So at noon, we ordered some from a local pizzeria.  We knew we were going to have problems when she had to repeat a phone number and address several times to the fellow on the other side of the line.  At 12:40 pm, we got our first call - where were we?  The delivery person was waiting for us.  (But at the wrong address, as we'd find out when RQS went downstairs.)  After a few fits and starts, the fellow still couldn't find us, and claimed he was in front of our place.  So, when the pizzeria called at 1:00 pm, we were both very upset and told the person we were cancelling the order.  We wanted hot pizza, and after 30 minutes, it would likely be cold in this weather.  After hanging up on the owner, he left me a message telling me to F-Off!  With an attitude like this, and a screwed up delivery, we'll never order from this place again - a sad thing, as this was the best pizza joint in the neighborhood for delivery.

I got home around 4:30 pm, and found that a plumber was doing work downstairs.  What was being done, I don't know.  But I'll find out at our next co-op board meeting.  At least, the work being done did not affect my apartment.