Why Does T Hate Joisey?

T is talking to Richard Bonomo (who is now back from Japan) about how much she hates going to Jersey for her job.  She hates the "creepy, Sleepy Hollow part" on the Garden State Parkway, where some guy claimed he was going to take an exit and then decided at the 11th (and a half) hour that he would not do it.  He nearly killed T in her rented Corolla.  (At least it was a Toyota and not a domestic car, since she drives a Honda.)

On the New Jersey Turnpike, they had one of those old-fashioned tollways that you had to go through even if you have an Easy Pass, and she was almost sandwiched between two semis in her little Corolla.  And then she returned it with no gas!

When she was in Princeton in October, it snowed!  The trees were beautiful red, gold, and yellow... and then there was snow!  And then there was the trip out West, where her coworker's GPS system told them to drive right into the Hood and then advised them to take a left-hand turn that didn't even exist.  But in New Jersey, on the Turnpike you can't even turn left!  You have to turn RIGHT to go left.  It's a true jug handle turn!!

She and her boss were trying to fly standby, and her boss could because she has Premiere Executive Status but T only has Premiere Status so she was delayed for two hours.  She was also on the runway at O'Hare for two hours for a one-day audit that she had hoped to be able to do from her desk.

From September to the beginning of December, T was three days in the office, three days traveling.  (Of course, one of those trips was to Curacao so it's hard to feel sorry for her over that!)  Then when she was in Canada, they were having some sort of weird coalition government coup, where the prime minister who was ELECTED can be told he no longer is prime minister by some woman who is lieutenant governor.  It's like a remnant of the monarchy!  T thought I would like the word "prorogue" - she can't remember what it means, but it has something to do with Parliament taking a break.  If the Lieutenant Governor denies it, the Prime Minister would be so embarrassed that he would have to step down.  (I don't understand this at all, but T is the one who was there so she knows more about this than I do.)

Wow, Rich is reading about this on Wikipedia, and some people have to wear tricorn hats and some wear bicorn hats.  Some people were going to vote "no confidence" because the PM didn't vote for a stimulus package, even though they were defeated in a landslide.  T was amazed they could just take over the government like that even after getting spanked in the general election.   So the PM got his prorogue and could keep his job, and democracy is still alive in Canada, but T still hates New Jersey.

Famous Hat