Before we get into the real blog for today, I wanted to update you. If you follow me on Twitter you know I had foot surgery on Monday. For arthritis in the joint of the big toe. Same surgery I had five years ago. It’s been pretty painful, but there’s my FYI. And a photo.
MY VIEW LOOKING STRAIGHT AHEAD: 
AND NOW ONTO THE REAL BLOG:
So you thought my travel woes only extended to airplanes. You thought wrong. Last week, my oldest daughter (17), myself and my parents went to the Yankee / Red Sox Game. Now this is an event in my family since my mother is a die hard Yankee fan and my daughter and I are Red Sox fans. (My husband is from Boston, if that helps you understand how this crazy circumstance came about). We live about 30 minutes from the stadium, no traffic. During a game? Crazy traffic. So we decided to take the train. 
Nothing against trains, but we are not train people. We are spoiled, drive by car kinda people. But everyone said the train now goes straight from our station to the NEW Yankee Stadium stop. So off we go. Getting there was no problem despite one little hitch – we had to switch trains at 125th Street in Harlem. It was so simple we couldn’t believe how lucky we were. Get off one train, walk two feet across the way, get on another train. Boom. Arrive at Yankee Stadium. 
OK so it was too easy. We should have KNOWN it was too easy. But we are silly, deluded people. For those wondering, this was Friday night. Pitchers duel. A pitchers duel is a fun thing – in the last innings. BORING to sit through during the first 9 endless, no score innings of a game. So we got bored. Quickly. And by the 7th inning, we were ready to leave. So fine. Off we go. Planning to take the train back to 125th Street. We walk to the station, the empty station (smart people are still in the stadium watching the game).
Now comes the big question. WHICH TRACK? Left side, 2/4. Right side, 1/3. Nobody to ask. According to the signs, we want the # 4 track. DOWN 3 SETS OF ENDLESS STAIRS. Now keep in mind, my father has a heart condition, my mother has 2 bad knees, and my daughter had knee surgery last year but her kneecap keeps popping out and no she did NOT wear her brace that night. So. Down the stairs. Laughing, cursing, yelling at each other, bitching and moaning. We get there. No place to sit. We plop our butts down on the bottom step.
We’re watching the board and we notice – we just missed the 9:18 train. The 9:38 train is 25 minutes late. The 10:08 train is 6 minutes late. You do the math – which yes, we also argued about – so it’s a 10:03 (the 25 minute late train) or a 10:16 train (the 6 minute late train). Of course as stupid as it sounds, the 25 minute late train sounds so much worse. But it’s earlier and we realize that the 10:03 train is on THE OTHER TRACK.
UP the long, 3 flight of stairs, cross the lobby and down the 3 flights of stairs to the other track. Laughing, cursing, yelling at each other, bitching and moaning. This time there are seats. So we settle in to wait. Dad takes my daughter’s magazine – COSMOPOLITAN – to read. I kid you not. And Mom takes my iPhone so she can neurotically keep up with the score of the 0 – 0 pitchers duel game. A man comes down and informs us that they switched tracks for this train. Nope, not kidding folks. This time we notice AN ELEVATOR. We hit the button and get in. Laughing, cursing, yelling at each other, bitching and moaning. We cross the lobby, walk to the next elevator we missed the first time and head back DOWN to the track where we started.
A train pulls up. We think, maybe this is it even though it’s early and we get on. Alone. We sit down, the four of us. Alone. And now we’re laughing. What if this doesn’t take us home. Well at least we’re together. Should we call my husband to come get us? From where? Yankee Stadium? Or 125th Street? And how will he find us? No, we veto that. Then we look at the train schedule. AND WE REALIZE – if we get the 10:39 train at 125th Street, we pull into our stop at 11 PM. We can live with that. BUT IF WE MISS THAT TRAIN – we end up on a 10:42 LOCAL – stopping 10 times and get into our stop at 11:30 PM. Now we all want to kill each other. And ourselves.
But there’s another option! We can GET OFF this train which is still sitting in the station and wait for the game to end – and then the trains run DIRECT to us, no stopping at 125th Street. Thank GOD my mother, who knows her games, said this game could go on and on, and we could be in the station for hours. So we sat, waiting for this train to leave for 125th.
Now I debated adding this to the story because it’s so embarrassing and public, but what the hell. At this point, I have to go to the bathroom. “Go on the train,” they tell me. I was afraid they’d leave without me. Not really but I knew I’d be too nervous worrying to be able to go. So I sit. Eventually the train pulls out, and we end up at 125th Street. And we’re thinking it will be just like the earlier train, that we’ll get off, cross two feet and get on the other train.
GUESS WHAT? We get off the train, and the track for our train is THE OTHER TRACK. Do we have time for an elevator? The people around us are suddenly running for the stairs. But remember my father has a heart condition, my mother has 2 bad knees, and my daughter had knee surgery last year but her kneecap keeps popping out and no she did NOT wear her brace that night. So. we wait for the elevator. In a panic. Laughing, cursing, yelling at each other, bitching and moaning. UP THE ELEVATOR across the lobby and DOWN THE NEXT ELEVATOR to the train. Which finally comes. We get on. The EXPRESS. Thank Goodness! And I STILL have to go to the bathroom.
My mother keeps asking me to check my iPhone for the MLB.com scores. Of a 0 -0 pitchers duel game now in the 11th inning. Can you imagine if we’d waited for the AFTER game Express train? We finally arrive at the station and now we have to take a cab home. Mom and Dad live a mile down the road from me. BUT I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. So we run – DOWN THE DOUBLE FLIGHT OF STAIRS – to the street to the line of waiting cabs. At which point I wave goodnight, say I LOVE YOU, grab my daughter and hop in our own cab.
We left Yankee Stadium seats at 9:18 PM. We walked into our house at 11:15 PM. I went to bed exhausted at midnight. The game was in the 14th inning. 0 – 0 pitchers duel. When I woke up, to add insult to injury, the Yankees had won in the 15th.
Can you imagine if we’d stayed?
Carly Phillips would like to take 100% credit for all her stories but the truth is, Carly’s strength is writing family, emotion, funky elderly people and animals. She couldn’t plot her way out of a paper bag, which is why she smartly found her plotmonkey pals early on in her writing career. Thanks to their support, Carly is now a NYT Bestselling author of 23 plus novels. Because writing doesn’t keep her busy enough, Carly is also a wife, a mother of one preteen and one teenage daughter, the primary care giver of her soft coated Wheaten terrier and an expert carpool mom.
Destiny
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Once Upon A Valentine
Through The Night
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Glad you made it home (and to the bathroom), Carly!
I just get soooo way beyond darn confused on trains and subways.
Reading those boards is just an exercise designed straight from Hades. And what’s up with the arrows on the signs…I can’t ever tell which direction they’re actually pointing…is it straight ahead and slightly to the left or does that mean just left as in the next track over…?!!!
My DH says I just read everything too literally…well…isn’t that the point of a sign to begin with?!!! And if he reads the sign in his non-literal…whatever…way, we still end up on the wrong darn train. So yeah…I’m thinking his interpretation bites the big one too! LOL!!!
Fun stuff…after your home, done in the bathroom, and bitching, moaning and laughing about it over wine or gin and tonics a bit later — D. D. Scott
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Oh my Carly. What an event you had. I missed watching the games. I am a die hard Sox fan too. My family is from Mass. My co-workers are Yankees fans. So when I came into the office, they gave me a play by play of the games. They still wont let me live it down that the Nat’s beat the Yankee’s and the Yankee’s killed the Sox. I hear it every day.
Hope your feeling better Carly.
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Our family is split down the middle when it comes to Sox/Yankees. I am in the Sox camp.
Someday I would love to travel with you Carly. My thinking is that two bad travel karmas have to cancel each other out. Or not.
I am heading back to LA over Labor Day weekend and this time flying into LAX. With a 3 hour layover in Vegas. And a wheelchair. Something is bound to go wrong.
Hope the foot is feeling better. I missed the twitters since I have barely been on this week.
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Ouch on the poor footsie! Hope you feel better soon!
Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh, Carly.
And I LOVE that you have a family who can bitch and moan and cuss and yell and screw up and actually get alone while doing so. (Is that a NY thing? Or are you guys just special?)
Super story, but I gotta say, having been a Yankees fan since I was seven (actually the same year I decided to become a writer), I’m sorry for you, but glad my boys eventually won.
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Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh, Carly. I needed it. I didn’t know you had surgery. Hope you’re feeling better. I love your travel stories. No one has experiences like that except you.
Take care and have a wonderful day,
Cher
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Hope your foot is feeling better, Carly!
My family are die hard Red Sox fans. We live in Mass. That series was very painful to watch. My hubby and I went to bed after the 9th inning with the score 0-0, glad we didn’t stay up past midnight to see the loss. Oh well, the Sox are on an upswing right now! Go Red Sox!
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Take care of yourself and I hope you recover quickly!
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Hope you feel better soon Carly. Your foot looks like mine did this time last year. Now I’m trying to hold off as long as possible before having the surgery on my right foot.
I guess it’s good I live where I can drive everywhere, don’t think I could figure out the train system. Sounds like even with all the craziness, you had a great time with your family.
In my family, you either are a Braves fan or a Cards fan. Now I still love my Braves and hope they win all their games, unless they are playing the Cubs. I guess my mom had me watch one too many Cubs games as a kid. We watched the Cubs every afternoon(before they had lights at Wrigley) and the Braves at night. Of course, if have to pick between the Yankees and the Red Sox, I’ll pick the Sox.
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I live to amuse, guys. I knew that night was a perfect blog! Once I survived.
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I love that blog (I thought of you when I had my own travel nightmare last fall). Glad everyone is safe and no worse for wear. Take care of that foot…
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Loved your ordeal about traveling to and from Yankee Stadium via the train. Of course being a Yankee fan I was thrilled that the Yankees came through in the end.
Glad you’re foot is healing.
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Oh, This is sooo like my life…did that once at Laguardia airport! Never ever want to connect flights there again! LOL! Go Yankees!
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Hey Carly, all I can say is…that is NY for you!…I am glad you are able to sit and relax with your foot up now. That was a great story. When I saw the headlines, I was thinking, “Oh No, Carly. Not again”…Your stories about traveling have always been funny. I am glad that you had people with you. As I was reading, I thought you were going to discover that you guys were on a train that wasn’t going to leave the station, and the game ended and you still missed your train. Hey, at least people know that when they travel with you it is another adventure…you can even get some plot ideas out of that one…It is great to see you “up and about.” I will swing by later.
Peace and love,
Paula R.
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Oh, Carly, I am sorry but
You have the BEST (and most awful!) travel stories!
Glad you guys all made it home safe and sound!
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Hope the foot is doing well!
Hope you are better about the loss to the Yankees! It’s interesting that the game went 0 – 0 for so long! That doesn’t happen very often!
Pat Cochran
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Karen, no one has travel experiences like you. Hope your foot heals well & quickly. I need one on both big toes, but, don’t have an alternate driver as I wouldn’t be able to drive for 6 weeks.
Thankfully, one can drive to Dodgers Stadium, but, as I’ve gotten older, stadium experiences are just too exhausting. Watching on TV sounds way more appealing.
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Nothing like traveling by train in NYC. LOL! We were keeping up with that game via ESPN, which was giving inning-by-inning highlights all night, and the Internet. But I too got the final results in the AM. 15 innings?!
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And wasn’t it just 2 measly runs?
Peace and love,
Paula R.
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Hilarious retelling. I’m so glad I only travel with you twice a year.
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It reminds me of the time my daughter and I were leaving Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in almost down town Dallas after she had one of her many surgries and long hospital stays to fly home from LOVE Field in Dallas to Lubbock. We had to be at the airport one hour early (PRE 9/11 days) so we decide enstead of eating at the hospital we will go early and eat at the McDonalds in the airport because she has been trapped in the hospital for a while and is really wanting something else, besides she was only 11 at the time and McD’s sounded good.
So we call for a cab three hours early for our flight thinking this will give us plenty of time to spare for delays and restroom trips checking in ect… We wait 45 minutes, NO CAB.
I call again and again the dispatcher says she’s sorry and tells me there is a cab in the area and that it can be there in about 10 or 15 minutes. another 45 minutes passes and NO CAB.
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Glad that everyone made it home safe and sound. Carly you do have some interesting travel adventures.
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Once at a pre-season 49′er game the game was lopsided, not real interesting, and people were picking up and leaving. Big mistake! The game went into overtime which was very exciting and the best part of the game!! The person I was with and I were not sorry we decided to stay until the end. It is not cheap to go to a game so we wanted our money’s worth!! We got it!
Good luck to a quick recovery with your foot.
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I never leave games early! Of course we’ve been lucky with the two Detroit Tigers games i’ve been too were exciting. And the Red Wings are always fun!
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Heartbreaking! Yankees/BoSox games are always exciting. But if you’d stayed till the end, it would’ve taken you many hours longer to get home–the train gets mobbed! The price of live sporting events.
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that looks fun
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Has anyone ever hear of AuthorLink? Do you know if it’s legit or not? Anyone ever used their critique service?
Thanks,
Cher
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I would like to know that as well.
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Does anyone here know anything about
Dorrance Publishing Company, Inc. ?
Are they legit or are they not that reputable?
Please if you know anything can ya let me know…..Thanks!
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Patsy, Dorrance Publishing is a vanity and subsidy publisher. They are listed on Preditors and Editors as not-recommended.
Hope this helps,
Cher
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Thanks! That is good to know. I don’t even know where to begin looking for a publisher and I don’t really know who to trust and who not to trust. Where would you suggest I go to find out these kinds of things? If ya don’t mind me asking. Thanks!
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Patsy, pick up a copy of the 2009 Writer’s Market or the 2010 if it has been released yet. If you write romance, join RWA. http://www.rwanational.org They have a list of publishers on their site. If there is a local writers chapter in your area that you can join this is a great way to network with authors. Attend conferences if you can to meet editors and agents who are acquiring. Again you have to be careful. There is an agent whose name is Cricket something or other. She attends conferences all the time and has yet to sell a book to a publisher. Most of the big houses like Harlequin/Silhouette Books, Harper Collins, Kensington, Pocket etc have a web site. These houses have been around a long time. You can look at who they publish so you know they are legit. You can also send an e-mail to one of their authors to find out if they are happy with them.
Be very careful of vanity publishers. They will take your money, send you your book and there is not a bookstore in the country who will order it. However, that said, self-published books have been known to end up on the NYT list–The Christmas Box is an example but this is extremely rare, like Dodo bird rare. If I had a self-published book, I could go here in Denver to the Tattered Cover which is an independent bookstore and ask the book buyer to read my book. If they liked it I could ask if they would put a few copies in the store to see how they do.
Sorry this is so long. I guess what I’m trying to say is network with other authors as much as you can. Check out the web sites of authors you love to read. They usually have a list of links on their site. Check out some of the links. This is a good way to make connections.
I am no expert but I hope some of this helps,
Cher
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Thanks Cher…Yes it was very helpful. There is not a local chapter of RWA here. The closest is Dallas/ Ft Worth which is 6 hours east. But I can look for others in the area. Thanks again!
Patsy
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Patsy you can still join the chapter and get on their loop and network. The internet is an awesome place for that. Then maybe once in a while you can do a weekend trip to attend a meeting. The important thing is to connect with other authors.
Glad it helped,
Cher
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What an adventure, Carly!
I cringed when I read about your foot surgery. Hope it heals fast!
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So the good news is that no one in my family realizes I’m a traveling jinx so they still go with me!
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Nawww…they are just used to you…lol…
Peace and love,
Paula R.
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um… I guess now is not the time to mention all the subway stations do have elevators? You just have to find them.
Maybe I walked right by you, getting lost in the subway! 
Heh. I feel your pain though, Carly – really.
NY Public transport I feel like is one of the least friendly – DC, Boston, etc are so much easier.