The Worth of a Pair of Boots

This past Saturday, we were to meet Amber's parents on the other side of Pittsburgh to give her mom a pair of boots she left at our house the weekend before. These weren't just any boots, but were the boots she wears when they go on motorcycle trips, and they were just getting ready to ride down to North Carolina.

So, I hurried Amber out the door (as we were already running late), only to realize ten minutes later that we had forgotten the boots! We turned around, picked up the boots, and went through a little deja vu experience and were on our way. Then, we got to the interstate. Apparently, Pittsburgh has this lovely concept that they like to do ALL their road construction on weekends to avoid it getting in the way of people traveling to work during the week. Well, it wouldn't be such a bad idea if they didn't work on every highway at the same time AND closed them off down to one lane - AND gave some more forewarning to everyone who utilizes these roads a bit earlier than the 11:00 news the night before.

So, needless to say, we found ourselves in a sea of traffic. This was, of course, quite ironic given the signs we saw on the interstate reminding us it was "nozone action day" and to limit our fuel consumption. Traffic was going so slow, cars were pulling off wherever they could as they were overheating or running out of gas. When all was said in done, what should have been a 25-30 minute drive took us almost 3 hours and 1/4 tank of gas... our entire Saturday afternoon spent sitting in traffic. Grr...

At least Amber's mom rewarded us with buying us lunch afterward and naming me the best son in law in the universe (of course, Amber's an only child, so I'm guessing she doesn't have much to compare me to). Nevertheless, right now, I'm in the middle of preparing material for the twelve schools I'm applying to for PhD programs; And if I get an offer from a school outside of Pittsburgh on a day I'm stuck in traffic, I think I'll be pretty motivated to take it.