A series of unfortunate Foibles

AND, for the latest edition of Emily and Jerry hiccups, please read below:

This past weekend we participated in a gaming convention in Long Island, NY. This is actually our favorite venue for a con we’ve ever participated in. It’s at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, really close to Hofstra (where I actually could have gone to college but didn’t – small world) and it’s full of NASA and other aviation history. It’s really cool to see parts of actual rockets and full size aircrafts hanging from the ceiling.

This was our second time being a vendor at the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. We took a hiatus last year and in that time this event has EXPLODED. The turnout was amazing! We are so grateful to have been included.

Leading up to these events is always a lot of work. Unfortunately, Jerry and I are perfectionists and that tends to lead to procrastination. See if something can’t be done exactly the “right way” then we can’t do it. We keep pushing it off.

INSTEAD, we should just get it done and improve as we can. Not hold ourselves back.

So, as with every other convention we’ve participated in we were less than a week away from the event and still had a huge workload ahead of us. Jerry spent a few hours each night working on the inventory and I helped clean consoles and other items but it was soon Friday, the day we were to leave for LI, and we were still working.

In the chaos we completely forgot to arrange a sitter for our rescue pit bull, Jayda. She’s an honest sweetheart but has anxiety and isn’t great with new people or new situations so getting her a sitter is a challenge. We normally ask our old roommates who are essentially her uncles now but they were already committed to dog sitting another dog and Jayda needs more time to warm up to that.

Hoping my matron of honor could watch her (she and her husband have had pits and are great with dogs and she and her daughter have actually gotten to know Jayda really well) I asked frantically the day before we were to leave.

Thankfully she agreed and all seemed well! Except, I forgot to mention her anxiety when people she doesn’t know well come in through a door into her space and unfortunately – much like my own first sleepover at my cousin’s house – I eventually had to run back and bring her home.

She just wasn’t ready for all of that.

As we were still hours from being able to leave – it worked out well enough. We asked Jerry’s parents who’ve watched her many times and get along with her well to please come visit while we were away. Jerry’s parents have a German Shepherd who used to be friends with Jayda in Brooklyn but got into one too many fights for everyone’s liking. Bringing Jayda to their house just didn’t seem like the best idea given she was already so anxious, especially.

So, we finally hit the road at midnight.

I was very tired and so was J. But we paid for two nights in the hotel and I didn’t see why we couldn’t just get there and sleep a few hours and keep some semblance of our original plan.

I completely underestimated my fatigue. I was forced to stop at 2 or 3, or 4 (I can’t remember) rest stops along the NJ Turnpike. The entire drive should not have taken more than 3 hours but I was so tired. I couldn’t drive straight through as I had thought.

By 4AM we were finally 10 minutes away from the hotel. I was already picturing myself cozy under the sheets. We had made it!

It was then that I saw the flashing lights behind me. I was getting pulled over.

I was getting pulled over.

Wait, WHAT? Why was I getting pulled over??

I know I was not speeding – so what the hell?

I shook J awake in the passenger seat and told him I was getting pulled over but I didn’t know why. He groggily still asked, “What happened?”

I had nowhere to actually pull over so, I had to drive a little bit until I reached an exit ramp where there was room for us to both park. The officer approached the passenger side since I was still pretty close to the parkway. The officer asked for my license and the rental agreement but of course, for some reason, J had packed the rental paperwork in the back of the cargo van.

“That’s fine, just your license then,” said the officer.

Apparently, there are no commercial vehicles allowed on NY state parkways.

1. I had no idea this was the law/rule
2. I barely even realized I was on a parkway (again exhausted, been driving for hours, and it was 4AM!!)
3. I was completely unaware I was driving a “commercial vehicle”
4. I was following my GPS so I honestly didn’t even know how else to get to our hotel

Apportioned is NOT commercial…but it’s still all really confusing.

None of that mattered apparently because I got 2 tickets for the violation which I won’t know the cost of until I make my plea.

It’s confusing, on the UHaul website it specifically states, ” U-Haul trucks are not classified as commercial vehicles. If a customer receives a ticket for a commercial vehicle, they can attempt to dispute it with the jurisdiction.”

Seems NY jurisdiction overrules? People are telling us to fight it but I don’t know.

When we looked up the violation, tickets can be anywhere from $400-$600 EACH. Yikes. This whole thing really sucks.

Jerry wanted to quit – and I honestly couldn’t blame him. Part of me wanted to also. But, we had come so far. Why would we turn back now. Everything would be for nothing. Also, I knew once we were at the convention everything else would fade away. I just knew it.

The cop told us about an app we could download to find directions to the hotel that did not include the parkway (this says so much about the world we live in today) and after an additional 40 minutes or so we finally, FINALLY made it to the hotel.

We checked in and practically ran to our room – flopped in the bed and cherished the couple hours of sleep we would have before we had to leave for the convention. We were supposed to be there for 7AM.

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Should we fight the tickets?

Have you ever had a similar series of unfortunate events that you know were also partly your own fault?

What was the most confusing thing you’ve ever gotten a ticket or arrested for?