Susan Coll's Blog, page 3

Snowpocalypse!

But first, a correction, because this is a blog of record and we aim for accuracy here at Alternate Sides. Yesterday's introduction to guest blogger Paula Whyman incorrectly identified the site of her apple juice fiasco as the Delta shuttle. The unfortunate incident actually occurred on US Air.
Need some comic relief as you stock your shelves with toilet paper for tomorrow's storm? Who says people in DC can't handle snow? www.snowpocalypsedc.com

The Apple Juice Fiasco

Meet my friend Paula Whyman, the very talented fiction writer and blogger who shares her own amusing Delta shuttle adventure:

I was on the shuttle to NY for an Important Work Event (IWE). Most IWE's involve dressing up. This one did not. At least for dressy events it was easy to figure out what to wear. Something dressy, which I had maybe two of, since most IWE's in my own job are BYOC (bring your own coffee) and require a special dress code of sweatpants. My spouse, however, lives in the ...

Men in Suits

A photograph of a painted elephant glimpsed from the car window en route from Delhi to Jaipur last week. Men in suits. This does not bode well for a logical blog post, but here's my loopy connection: Various people (my mother, my mother) thought that traveling to India for less than a week was kind of an intense thing to do, whereas I would argue that the most intense part of the journey was the 6:30 a.m. Delta shuttle from NY to DC, upon return. I've flown this route countless times, but ne...

Subcontinental Parking

Please excuse my absence from the northeastern corridor these last few days, as I went off grid to the fabulous Jaipur Book Festival. Fog like something from a Conan Doyle novel x 10 wreaked transportation havoc, with canceled flights and trains forcing travelers onto the road. Resultant Delhi to Jaipur gridlock made the New Jersey Turnpike look like a sleepy country lane. All well worth the hassle, however! After lifting briefly to let this blogger fly home, the fog has apparently returned,...

Please excuse my absence from the northeastern corridor t...

Please excuse my absence from the northeastern corridor these last few days, as I went off grid to the fabulous Jaipur Book Festival. Fog like something from a Conan Doyle novel x 10 wreaked transportation havoc, with canceled flights and trains forcing travelers onto the road. Resultant Delhi to Jaipur gridlock made the New Jersey Turnpike look like a sleepy country lane. All well worth the hassle, however! After lifting briefly to let this blogger fly home, the fog has apparently returned,...

Pay by Cell!

This blogger has finally purchased a digital camera (okay, her fourth---ask the kids what happened to the other three), and flaunts her nascent photography skills with this come-hither shot of a parking meter in what is formally know as the Bethesda-Elm Garage 57, in Bethesda, Maryland.

What's up with this sticker plastered below her face, so enthusiastically exclaiming that, instead of scrounging for quarters in the crevices of my purse I can, instead, PAY BY CELL!?

I know this parking lot we...

18 Inches

As with any good list-serv, the one in my DC neighborhood can sometimes get contentious. While it's mostly an enormously useful public service that allows neighbors to share information about babysitters and handymen, or to ponder that weird smell wafting in the air (something in the de-icing solution being sprayed on the roads, was informally determined to be the culprit), things can get testy. In the two-plus years that I've lived here, the hot-button issue has been about development, with ...

Big Yellow Taxis/ A Little More Backstory

Over the last 18 months, as I've increased the frequency with which I shift between NY and DC, I've become obsessed with the best way to get from here to there. If my math skills were better I'd attempt some theory of northeast corridor transport that would involve a formula to calculate the frequency with which Amtrak is late and the Delta shuttle grounded which would then be divided by Lincoln Tunnel delays.

I've also become obsessed with the ability to park, and stay parked, for as lo...

The Reluctant Blogger

Here I go again, my second attempt at blogging. It's not a natural fit, being so reserved (okay, shy), in real life and on-line, that in the one year I've been on facebook I've posted exactly one status update, which was a pledge to post more than once a year. I've failed. Nevertheless, it's a new year, a new decade, time for resolutions, etc. Plus this time I'm inspired, because I want to blog about parking. Yes, parking. It may seem a pretty dull subject, parking. But it's full of rich met...