Last weekend my sister and I took a trip to Long Island for my cousin’s retirement party. I informed my sister that we would be leaving promptly at 10 am on Saturday morning. Friday I suggested that we take one suitcase for the both of us, and I packed one day ahead of time. My brother-in-law repacked the suitcase, adding my sister’s things and packing the proper way that he has of packing which prevents clothes from wrinkling. I felt bad for him. Poor George must have been cursing as he fiddled with the tiny buttons on my blouses. He has a theory that if the shirts are buttoned, it helps in the wrinkle-free process!

I gassed up the car and arrived at my sister Pam’s promptly at ten. She was ready! But by the time we packed the car up and got on the road, it was 10:23 a.m. I was not stressed yet, partly due to the fact that I was barely awake. We stopped at the mid-point, in Brewster, NY and spent some time browsing for wine at a store there. We’d planned on going back to the hotel after the party, so we bought munchies and wine for those who would join us.

We then went to Subway which was crowded with a bunch of loud teenagers, and I ordered a chicken salad sandwich because it looked good with the grapes and nuts in it and so on. Well, ten minutes later that turned out to be a bad choice as I was driving and the darn chicken salad fell out of the sandwich on to my lap! Pam kept saying “you’ve got lettuce on your shorts!” The stress began. There I was driving with chicken salad on my lap, lettuce on my shorts, and God knows what under my fingernails from picking all that stuff off of me. Pam, however, thoroughly enjoyed her roast beef sandwich.

We arrived at the hotel with less than an hour of time to get ready for the party. First of all, the parking at the Marriott in Melville stinks. I dropped Pam and the luggage off with the bellman while I went to park the car a half mile away, then walked back to the hotel in the 95 degree heat!

We were on the 4th floor and I walked all around the mulberry bush to finally locate the room, which was another half mile away from the elevators! Quickly I ironed my clothes (even George’s wrinkle-free theory hadn’t worked on my outfit) and then decided to change the top and had to iron again. Finally we were ready to go when my sister starting losing it because she couldn’t find the bag with her shoes. Luckily we found them in the car, and they were not left back home as originally thought. Phew!

We arrived at the party just on time, which was a miracle. Visiting with the relatives was fun, and my “niece” and “nephew” (Robbie and Jacqueline) and my cousin Lorraine surprised all by showing up to say “hi” on their way to a wedding reception.

By the end of the party I was feeling quite tired. Pam and I went back to the hotel, but no one else joined us, so we went swimming in the pool. By that time the pool was loaded with kids (mostly teenagers) and HAIR. Everytime I swiped my hands to swim, I’d come up with hair on my hands! I was quite disgusted.

After showering off the chlorine, I finally sat down to have some cheese and crackers. But neither Pam nor I touched the wine. I was exhausted and fell asleep, only to be woken up an hour later. I looked over at Pam, who had fallen asleep with her glasses on and the t.v. showing some infomercial. I had a flashback to the days when I used to take my Dad on trips and I’d go to sleep but he’d still be up watching t.v. But this time instead of saying “Dad, get to bed,” I had to say “Pam, go to bed!”

Then an awful thing happened. I started to cough. It was more like a hacking thing than a cough. Nothing stopped it. I tried drinking water, drinking soda, sitting up and nothing stopped the cough! I was hacking away for over an hour while my sister pleasantly dozed in the other bed. I finally fell asleep again around 2 a.m.

The wake up call came at 7:30, which is earlier than I wake up for work each day! Up and at ‘em and into the shower I went. Pam got ready, we had our fake coffee from the machine in the room. Packed everything up and then made the one half mile trip around the hotel to the elevators. I left Pam with the luggage as I walked another half mile in the blazing heat to get the car from the parking lot.

Finally we headed out and went to the Diner to meet up with my friend Maurya and my cousin Carol (who retired). We had a great breakfast. After a brief stop at my cousin’s, a stop at Kohl’s, and then we were on the road again to Massachusetts.

The weather had been brutally hot and humid. Traffic on the Cross Island Parkway was bumper to bumper. As we were passing a park, I noticed the sky getting darker. Pam was sitting in the back seat elevating her legs and reading her History book for summer college. It started to rain heavily. I looked over at the park and noticed that a few people were having trouble keeping their umbrella’s from folding inside out. The wind had really picked up.

As we approached the Throg’s Neck Bridge, Pam looks out over the water and starts saying “there’s a funnel cloud!” She then calls my brother-in-law back home in Massachusetts and is talking on the cell phone and describing the scene to him “the leaves are turning upside down! Oh my God, there’s a huge funnel cloud!” I don’t know what George was thinking except maybe “better you than me,” but Pam was certain that a tornado was heading towards us.

So I’m trying to navigate in traffic and keep the car on the road over the bridge as the wind and rain were pounding against the car. We made it safely over the bridge and into more bumper to bumper traffic through the Bronx and White Plains until we eventually got to Westchester and the traffic eased up. Pam was still insisting that she saw that funnel cloud.

I said “You’d better call George and let him know we didn’t get swept up in the funnel cloud!” I was joking, but also wondering why George didn’t call us back to make sure we were okay!

After all of that we arrived back home safely. I went home and right to bed. The trip had exhausted me and I had work the next day.

In the morning I checked the news, and sure enough, there were confirmed reports that a tornado had indeed touched down in the Bronx at the time we were driving through there! So Pam was correct, she had indeed seen a funnel cloud and the leaves had turned inside out because of it!

It’s taken me three days and I’m still not fully recuperated from the trip. So it’s off to bed for me now and off to work again tomorrow. The whirlwind weekend including the funnel cloud are over. And now it’s on to more adventures!