Hoping to End This Month on a Good Note

So, if you read my previous post, I’ve not come into 2018 with a fabulous start. Yes, I know that I didn’t have another body part get cut into. Yes, I know I haven’t lost anyone close to me. Yes, I know I need to reframe my outlook because being crabby isn’t going to make things better. I know all of that. But I am allowed to be human and engage in a small, tiny, mini pity party for myself every once in a while, right?

I went to New York last week for work. I generally love being in New York City. There’s something about the energy in the town that really speaks to that sophisticated urbanite that lives way down in me. (She’s apparently richer and thinner than I am…) I had purchased a ticket to go see a hockey game in Madison Square Garden and cross off an arena on my bucket list. Alas, this winter’s awful weather conspired to delay my flight just long enough that I missed the game. Yay me, because honestly, the way this year’s been going, it wasn’t a tremendous surprise I would be thwarted in my plans. And it was freaking, bone-chilling, teeth-chatteringly cold in the city. So, I did little more than scurry to the office, briskly walk to dinner with my work peeps, and then go get attitude from the bartenders in my hotel bar (so terribly sorry I’m not a supermodel but could you please bring me a drink before I jump over the bar and pour it myself?)… So, my experience wasn’t as satisfying as last time. I’m not sure if it’s my horrific crabby mood, the fact that it was colder than hell freezing over, the hotel I was in, or a combination of all of the above. I think I need to go back to NYC in the spring time and reevaluate.

The one good thing is that I was able to take Amtrak from Penn Station to Wilmington, Delaware for a day trip. Yes readers, I crossed off my 49th state!! The train takes about 2.5 hours or so for the journey and I sat next to the window on both legs so I could sightsee the lovely and not-so-lovely scenery along the way. Honestly, Amtrak was comfortable, had free wifi, and got me city center-to-city center pretty easily. The train ride was a winner.

Wilmington was not quite what I expected though. I got off the train and went into the downtown area for lunch. There were adorable brick sidewalks and it felt very cozy and charming, albeit a bit hollowed out. But then I made the mistake of trying to see a historic church. Walking to it, I walked straight through the ghetto. The entire time I was thinking to myself, “this is really not a good idea to be walking solo through this neighborhood”. And then I got to the church and it was only open by appointment in January and February (because of course) so I walked risking life and limb for nothing (and the exterior was covered in construction scaffolding so I couldn’t even get a charming photo for Instagram because “see my life the past few weeks”). So, me in my brilliance looked at the map and decided to walk what I think are main streets back to the train station. Well, if I thought I was walking through sketch-ville before, Wilmington was like “hold my beer”… I will say this right now, I am usually a very astute traveller but I have been known to walk through some dicey areas in big, bad urban cities. I’m not a neophyte when it comes to being in a city. But I walked into a scene from one of those horrible 70s crime movies. You should have seen me put on my bitch face and walk confidently down the street lined with freaking abandoned warehouses on the way back to the train station like I was someone not to be trifled with. I am positive some of the cars that drove by me were thinking “hey, that looks like an easy mark, wait, who the hell is that crazy woman? Is she repossessing a car or something?”… Thankfully, I got back to the train station in one piece; but I was actually nervous for awhile thinking that I was for sure going to be on an episode of Dateline or something.

So then I tried to change my train ticket to get me back up to NYC earlier and the fee to do so was more than my actual ticket. So, I had another 2.5 hours to try to kill before I could head back. I decided to walk to the riverfront park across the street from the station to find an open park bench and then said, “what the hell, I’ll press my luck. What’s on the other side of that bridge?” Wilmington has their own version of a riverwalk, this one along the Christina River. It was a pleasant surprise after the tour of the not-so-nice part of town. At the beginning of the walk, closest to downtown and the train station, there’s a bunch of new apartments and condos and office space. Further you go, there are a few scattered restaurants and a children’s museum. And then way down at the end, there is a relatively new shopping complex that is abandoned (hello serial killer hunting grounds) and really was a bit jarring to say the least. I can’t figure out what happened there. Did they think the Riverwalk was going to pull more foot traffic and built this shopping complex speculatively? Are they still in the process of trying to make this work and the Armed Forces Recruiting Center and the two restaurants just got the jump on other businesses moving in? The whole thing was creepy and Wilmington had already given me enough creepiness for the day. I walked back to the train station and loitered for about 45 minutes before getting on my train to go home.

While I was really happy to be able to get my 49th state crossed off the list, I was left with the feeling that I wouldn’t be putting Delaware on my “must return to” list. Apologies to any of my readers in Delaware as I’m sure the beaches are awesome in the summer. But there’s a lot of beach areas in the world that I would like to see first.

Speaking of beaches, I’m heading back to Florida next week to resume my Adam Ant midlife concert tour that got so rudely interrupted by Hurricane Irma. Readers of the blog may remember that aborted trip… I’m looking forward to seeing the shows and am hoping that Adam Ant and the rest of the band put on some great shows and let me just have some fun for a bit. It would be a nice way to end a fairly challenging month…