by Lizbeth S » Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:20 pm
I've been posting here about taking 2 bar exams and what I should drink for my celebration on Thursday night. Well, because of a cancelled flight on US Air, things didn't quite turn out the way I expected. Wednesday night I had to fly from Pittsburgh to Newark to take the NJ bar exam in Somerset on Thursday. I made it there without too much hassle, took the exam, and made it back to the Newark airport. My flight was supposed to leave at 6pm, but was delayed until 7pm. Then 7:15...then 7:30....then 8:00...then they just cancelled the entire thing! During the wait (when I thought I'd still be flying), I found a seat at the bar in the terminal restaurant and ordered from the limited wine list (a Robert Mondavi Select Pinot Grigio without a year). I started talking to a bunch a people around me, and it turned out they were all trying to get to Pittsburgh as well. By my 2nd glass, the flight was definitely cancelled. All of us hiked from the bar back to the US Air counter, only to find out they were claiming weather problems (meanwhile it was bright and sunny in Pittsburgh, Newark and Philadelphia....), so that they would not have to give us hotel vouchers. And they weren't guaranteeing flights out of Newark until Monday! Well, my new friends and I looked at each other and decided to rent an SUV and drive through the night. This is how I ended up riding back middle seat of a Ford Escape for 8 hours (being barely 5 feet and 100lbs, I'm the automatically designated small-seat person). Anyways, the guys I rode with had bought a quite a few bottles of wine in NJ that they could not find in PA. We ended up popping a few when we hit construction around the Allentown area (yes, open container laws were definitely being broken!). So I was able to try some Amarone for the first time ever. I didn't catch the name, but it was pretty good. I was expecting it to taste really hot and alcoholic (I think it was about 17%), but it was suprisingly balanced. We also had a bottle of CA cabernet being passed around, but I was not a fan...way too much oak and vanilla. Finally, around 4:30am, we arrived at the Pittsburgh airport to pick up all of our cars. I bid my new friends goodbye, found my car in extended parking, and drove back to Shadyside. I think I dropped into bed around 5am Friday morning. So my Thursday night celebration did not turn out the way I expected, but I ended up having quite an adventure, and got a chance to try some new wine. But don't worry, I'm still taking all of your suggestions and will be having a make-up celebration once I'm fully moved to my new apartment in Philly!
