#day-17

Suddenly we wake up. What? It's 8am already?? Wow we slept so much last night! Looks like we covered up for the lost sleep.

We scrambled to get ready, ate breakfast at the motel and we were ready to leave. I decided to take out the inner liner from the jacket, thinking it might be hot outside. Kuntal already wore her jacket and thought of letting it be as is. We stepped out into the parking area, and realized how hot it was. It was 80 something already! And oh humid of course. She had no choice but to take out the liner from the jacket and the pants. We started and filled up gas first. By the time we got gas and hit freeway, we were already cursing the humidity.

This time I decided to ride a little slower than the traffic. It's so much relaxing that way. Kuntal could feel the difference as well. Glad we were not hating the traffic too much anymore. We quickly crossed into New York State via 95S. 

We could see the Long Island bay and the ferries on the way. Wish I could have gone to Stony Brook to show Kuntal my university, but we are time pressed now. May be in the next trip. As we crossed the Bronx area, we could see the city traffic building up. George Washington bridge was what we had to take to go to NJ. Traffic slowed down for quite a distance before the bridge. Luckily it wasn't too much for us. 

Finally crossed the GW bridge and we could see the city skyline at a distance on the left.

Now that we were in NJ, we had to call up Aayush, my younger brother, and decide on a meeting place close to NJ turnpike. 

We took a break at a gas station to coordinate the meet up, and stock up on water. The heat is in upper 90s today. Did I mention the humidity? Decided to meet up at a rest area about an hour into NJ. Let's move. We are back on to 95S, now called NJ turnpike. Here comes the first toll. Wtf! The machine won't dispense the ticket. Cars started piling behind us 😣. Pressed the attendant button, but no response. God knows if anyone would ever show up! This seemed to be the first toll on this freeway, so I thought chuck it. We'l be paying the max toll at the exit anyway. The turnpike was pretty full. Good speeds too. Close to the EWR airport there was a traffic delay due to an accident. So much for the express lanes! Saw bunch of cars taking emergency road and crossing over from express lanes to regular ones. Drive is crazy here. As we reached our meeting place we realized that the rest area was on the other side of the freeway. Took the next exit and asked Aayush to come there instead. Lounged at a Dunkin Donuts. Good to see him finally! And his new car too 😊.

By now it was about 1:30. We called Anuj (Kuntal’s friend) and his wife Priyanka to let them know we are running late. Decided to have lunch with them in Philadelphia. It was just an hour from there. Within a few minutes we were in Pennsylvania. 

Glad to find better roads and better traffic. We already crossed 100F on our way. By around 3pm we were at his apartment. We were sweating profusely. It was so nice to feel the AC in his apartment. Heaven!! It was exactly what we needed. Thank you for the wonderful lunch too!!

After meeting Aayush and Anuj, going through the heat and the crazy NY/ NJ traffic sure made us feel all worth it.

Towards Washington DC now. It's 2 hours and 30 minutes from here. We were back on the road by 4:30. Took a sightly lengthier route to avoid the freeway traffic congestion. We crossed Delaware and Maryland. 

By now I could see more and more motorcycles on the road. Pretty much all of them waved at us too. Felt nice to be back into friendly territory again 😊. The 301 road in Maryland was particularly nice. Trees on both sides of the road. Huge! Like wall to wall. Cutting off all the direct sun light. 

We could see farm lands again! All of that took us to the Bay Bridge. Yup there's one on the East coast too. It was a nice and particularly long bridge.

From here we decided which motel to go to, in DC. About 35 more minutes. We could see how nicer the roads to Washington has become. No trouble with the traffic as well. Just the heat. We were just waiting to get off, remove our jackets and take a cold shower. It's almost 8:30pm when we reached at the motel. Looks like a not so happening place. It's in DC but just at the border. We ordered some Thai food for delivery. Frikkin took more than an hour for delivery! Spicy as hell too, ouch!. Long day!

It's July 19th.

Ini untuk Tuan di seberang jalan.

Aku berpikir seratus kali untuk menulis surat ini. Mungkin tidak, bahkan lebih.

  Tuan,

Apa kabarmu? Apakah baik-baik saja?

Aku baik-baik saja meski kau tak bertanya atau bahkan nantinya pertanyaanmu hanya sekedar basa basi saja. Aku benar-benar baik-baik saja.

  Bagaimana hidupmu? Menyenangkan?

Bila iya, aku tak tahu harus sedih atau bahagia.

Sedih karena kebahagiaan itu tanpa aku.

Bahagia karena akhirnya kau bisa hidup dengan baik.

  Tuan,

Sudah lama sejak pertemuan terakhir kita.

Sudah lama sejak percakapan panjang yang menguras ego.

Sejak kedua mata kita beradu memecahkan keheningan malam itu.

Perpisahan yang sangat pahit, bukan?

Kalau aku tak salah ingat , terhitung 90 hari sudah.

Katakan saja bahwa ini rindu.

Tidak sulit memang berjumpa denganmu. Tapi aku tak seberani itu menampakkan wajahku dihadapanmu.

Pengecut memang.

  Terimakasih sudah sempat memberi warna dalam hitam abu-abunya hidupku.

Tidak pernah terbayangkan akan ada orang yang sebegitu sabar menantiku.

Maaf bila aku tak sempat membalas cinta tulus darimu.

  Tuan,

Aku tidak ingin kau berjuang sendiri mencintaiku.

Berhentilah sampai disini.

Maukah kau berdamai dengan kenangan kita?

Aku sudah.

  Tuan di seberang jalan,

i had orientation at American Eagle and I found out I'll be working at Aerie =)

I should get a call tomorrow about a work schedule for next week, but i'm for sure working black friday. but i'm soooooo excited~

and i bought some stuff today because i just got my birthday/graduation money and all 9 of us at orientation today got our employee discount starting today afhsdjklsa

and then i went by kassy's and got some more clothes, but i actually am really sad she's moving =(