Our older cat, Harry, has had a cracked tooth for some time now. However, it is a miraculous, self-healing tooth - every time we've taken him to the vet because the tooth is looking iffy, the vet says it looks like it keeps itself clean and abcess-free. Up until last night, at least. We were eating dinner, and I looked at Harry to see if he had finished the salmon bite we had given him, and I saw dried blood down the side of his mouth. Adam tried to wash the blood off, but Harry would have none of that. We rushed him to the vet, and not only is the tooth infected, but he may now have a TUMOR in his jaw. The operative word is "may," though, and they won't know anything for sure until they can x-ray him on Friday. Until then, let's send good, happy thoughts to Harry, and karma away his potential tumor.

The New York trip was cursed!

On Thursday night/early Friday morning, Adam got really sick - puking, fever, and chills. We decided not to get on the Vamoose bus,* but since our hotel had a 48 hour cancellation policy, Adam still really wanted to go to the city. We got some more sleep, and then left via car for NYC around noon. The drive was long, but driving in the city was not the horror that I thought it would be - plus, parking cost less than the bus would have (not counting tolls and gas...).

We stayed at the super Hotel Chelsea, which has a lot of grungy charm and crazy artwork by former and current residents.


We tried to go see "Wicked" on Friday night, but after waiting in the cancellation line a bit, Adam started to feel sick, so we went back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. On Saturday morning, we walked around Chelsea, and then caught the "Wicked" matinee. We got really amazing orchestra seats, and had a really great time.


After the show ended, we went back to the hotel because Adam started feeling sick again. He ended up having a fever of 103, and without internet, I didn't know what to do, besides coating him in cold, wet towels (which actually worked). I went out for dinner with my friend Damian, and then called it a night. On Sunday I woke up sick, and I'm still sick. On the bright side, Adam's getting better.

*side note - after all the nonsense about their no confirmation = cancellation crap, when I tried to go online and cancel the tickets, it said I had to e-mail or call TO CANCEL the tickets. Since they didn't have my credit card information or anything, I just did nothing. Jerks.

Back in November, Adam and I decided to plan a fun NYC weekend. I wanted to stay at the Hotel Chelsea, so we reserved a room for this coming weekend. Our friend David recommended that we take the Vamoose bus up, since it's budget-friendly and cleaner than the Chinatown buses. So I reserved us 2 seats on a bus set to leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am.

Yesterday I received an email from the Vamoose bus people reminding me of my reservation, and telling me to let them know if I wanted to cancel the reservation. The email explicitly said "there is no need to contact us if you still plan to use your reservation." I thought, how nice that they send you a reminder email. The crappy old Chinatown bus doesn't!

So tonight (Thursday), I checked my voice mail, and got a message from the Vamoose people "confirming my reservation." Again, how nice! They want you to remember you've got a trip planned. That's some customer service!

While Adam and I were eating dinner, I heard my phone ring. I ignored it, since we were eating dinner, and it's rude to call people at dinner time. After we finished eating, I saw that I had missed a call from a New York number. I thought that was strange, since I don't know anyone in New York. I certainly didn't think it was a call from the Vamoose bus people - their earlier message had come from a D.C. number. I check the message, and it's a rather snotty Vamoose bus man informing me that they tried "numerous times" to confirm my reservation, but that they just couldn't get a hold of me, and there were a lot of people who wanted my seats, so they were canceling my reservation. Oh, hell no.

I called the number on their website immediately. No answer. I call the New York number, and a surly woman answers. I explain the situation to her - that I received an email saying that there was no need to contact them to keep my reservation, and yet that my reservation had been cancelled because I hadn't contacted them. The conversation proceeded as follows (imagine surly woman having have vaguely New York/Middle Eastern accent, and my voice trembling with barely-contained rage):

Surly: "We send that email to everyone, as a mass email. But then we call and follow up, and we couldn't get a hold of you."
Me: "Well, I don't always have access to my voice mail, and besides, I made the reservation online, not over the phone, and relied on the email telling me that I didn't need to do anything to confirm my reservation."
Surly: "Yes, I just explained to you, that email was just a mass email. Then we call. We called you ten times, left ten messages, you couldn't be bothered to call us back. Then we call and say you're cancelled, suddenly you can call us."
Me: "I just told you, I don't always have access to my voice mail, and anyway I only got one message."
Surly: "Last weekend was a holiday weekend, we sold 400 tickets and only 200 people showed up. It looks like you booked a month in advance - those are the people least likely to bother showing up for their reservation. It's not my problem you don't check your messages."
Me: "Well it's not MY problem that people don't show up; you can't send an email to someone telling them they don't have to do anything to confirm their reservation, and then tell them they haven't confirmed!"
Surly: "Oh yes, we absolutely can. I don't know why you keep referring to the email, and I'm not going to explain the email to you again."
Me: "Because when people do business online, they use email and rely on email! If you want to do business by phone, make people make reservations on the phone."
Surly: "We don't make reservations over the phone. Look, you called to confirm, I've reinstated your tickets."
Me: "What?"

Surly: (hangs up the phone)

Adam called a few minutes later, and confirmed that our tickets were reinstated. So...good? I don't know. These are some very sketchy business tactics, and I'm still not entirely sure they're going to let us on the bus tomorrow morning, nor do I know how else we'll get up to NYC if they don't. Amtrak is $200 per person each way, and the Chinatown bus is full all day. Grrrrrrr.