  So yesterday started off a little rough and it ended about the same. After work, I walked the 1 block to the train station, swiped my card, hopped onto the N train that had just pulled into the station when an announcement came over the system: “Due to an earlier stalled train, the N and W trains may or may not be running into Queens. We won’t know anything until we pull into 57th Street. To get to Astoria, Queens, take the downtown train to 42nd Street/Times Square and take the 7 train to Queensboro Plaza and then transfer to the N or W train.” Ok, all well and good except that we sat there for about 10 minutes before everyone started going upstairs, crossed the street, back downstairs to wait on the downtown train platform. I, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to do a little shopping, as I needed to find a pair of pants for our company holiday party. So I did my thing and walked away with 1 pair of black pants with a nice ribbon detail and 1 glittery pink shirt that I’ll probably exchange as I now have pink glitter all over me, still. After my shopping, I went back to the train station on the downtown side. No train. I then walked to Times Square (about 8 blocks) and took the 7 train to Queens.
I got to Queensboro Plaza and they announced that all trains were arriving and departing from the upper level to go back into Astoria. Happy, happy, yeah, yeah as I was already on the upper level. Then, to everyone’s chagrin, a train pulled into the lower level and an announcement came over the system, “The train on the lower level will be going back into Astoria.” So hundreds of people were trying to make their way downstairs to get onto the Astoria bound train only to have the train conductor then tell everyone that the next stop on that train was Lexington & 59th Street in Manhattan.
Well, F**k that!! Since there were no other trains in sight, I walked home from there, which took me about 10 minutes in my boots. Finally! Home at last!! OK, then it was time to get on the phone with Verizon’s tech support to try to figure out why we haven’t been able to get online since Saturday.
Well, 45 minutes into the call and catching a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, I got a beep on my phone. It’s Chris, so I flipped over to let him know that I was working with Verizon on our little problem. Oops! I hung up on both Chris and Verizon!!! Son of a B**tch! So I called Verizon back and 30 minutes later, we had Internet!! It was all the router’s fault. Damn router. And scene. There is a story on MSNBC.com about an order from the Pentagon barring those nations that were opposed to the Iraq war from bidding on reconstruction contracts in Iraq. I must say that I can both sides of the argument. On the one hand, why should those countries who adamantly opposed the war and who did everything they could to stop it be awarded contracts when they haven’t done the prep work that enables them to safely go into Iraq to rebuild.
However, on the other hand, the US doesn’t own Iraq. Who’s to say the Pentagon should get to decide which countries are allowed to bid on contracts. Shouldn’t an order like this technically come from the UN? I’m afraid it all comes down to greed. Luckily, I don’t have to deal directly with this stuff, so I can keep my petty little comments in my blog and the world will be a happier place indeed. For those of you with a little time on your hands and you’d like to browse some gadgets, click urlLink here . 
