<--Written as of November 16, 2002, but very late at night.-->
I made it back from New York tonight, so I guess I should get to work on the overview blog. I’ll split it into sections for you so it’s a little easier to comprehend.
Going
The trip up there went by smoothly. I was entertained just watching scenery go by that I hadn’t seen before. I brought along a few CDs, even one that I made especially for the trip as our soundtrack. 🙂 This trip was just my Dad and I again, and only over-night.
Begging to Get Lost
We got really turned around trying to get to the hotel, but we figured it out. We came up the New Jersey Turnpike and entered Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel. As soon as we got out, we were confused. MapQuest failed yet again! But, I grabbed the map and we navigated ourselves across the island and to the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Our hotel was over in Long Island City, which in unto itself was a joy to find. 🙂 One way streets are evil. The hotel itself was nice. We dropped our stuff off, I put on some make-up, and out we went.
Food!
Our first stop was by accident; Times Square. We happened upon it because that was where the 7 train stopped (the subway train we had to take to get into Manhattan. Times Square was lovely and all, but it really doesn’t seem as big as they make it look on TV. It was cramped, but maybe the scaffolding and millions of people added to the claustrophobia. By this point both Dad and I were getting hungry, since the last time we ate was around 9:00am back at a McDonald’s in New Jersey, and it was now going on 2pm. We wandered around, hemmed and hawed. I couldn’t decide and I wanted to do something tres New York. Like lunch in Central Park. We were heading there anyway, so why not go check it out?
Il Violino
I’ll tell you why not; the Tavern on the Green is hideously expensive. Normally I’d be okay with that, since it would have been the symbolic elaborate gesture for New York, but they didn’t even have any food that sounded particularly appetizing right then. Starving, tired, and getting chilly, we walked out of the park onto Central Park West at 69th. A few blocks out and we spotted an Italian restaurant and went for it. It was very cramped and felt like I was in a fishbowl. We sat on the outer-edge of the restaurant, which was nothing but glass. So we looked at the corner of 69th and Columbus, watching everyone go by. The food was pretty good, though. I had lasagne. I was hoping for real New York pizza, but I didn’t feel like walking for it.
“Son, I need a friend.
From there we walked back into the park toward Bethesda Terrace, which really isn’t as big as I was expecting it to be. And I had no clue whatsoever that it was right by a lake. In all those movies I never saw a lake. Just a pretty fountain, some arches, and stairs. What happened with that? Anyway. The Band Shell was right there, where Buddy Epsen delivered that famous line from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I had my Dad sit on one of the benches and I took his picture with the band shell in the back. I hope it turns out well. 🙂
Robert the Horse Guy
My Dad and I walked back down the Mall and it was already getting dark. When we reached the corner we climbed into a horse-drawn carriage and had a lovely little tour of Central Park thanks to our driver, Robert. It was fun, even though we’d just seen all the sights he pointed out. But, it all looked a lot prettier when we weren’t walking by it on aching feet. 🙂 Plus, how can you go to Central Park for the first time and not go on a carriage ride? There’s a law, you know. You have to. Or a rabid Rudy Guiliani will attack you by the roller blading park.
38th & Hunter’s Point Ave.
The hike from the subway stop back to the hotel was bad that night. We were both pretty dang sore, but when we finally got there it was great to sit down. We ordered Chinese food and watched a crime movie on USA that had *way* too many one-liners in it. And then, sleep.
Repeating the Alastair
If you don’t know, when I was in London on my way to meet my friend Alastair in person for the first time I was horrendously late. Two and a half hours late. I felt *horrible* about it. I was literally pacing at a Tube station, waiting for the train, and Amber said it looked like I was about to lose my breakfast. They shut down the Tube exactly between my stop and his. A trip that should have taken 15 minutes escalated into two and a half freaking hours. I was upset, and I’ve vowed that it will never happen again.
So I was nervous. This morning I was supposed to meet up with Sujit and a few of his friends between 10 and 10:30 roughly near the Empire State Building. We’d go to a movie, go out to lunch, and have a great time. I was so afraid of being late that I woke up several times in the night, swearing that I heard the alarm go off. This happened at 3:30, 4:45, 5:35, and 7:00. At 5:35, half awake, I must have misread the clock because I actually woke my Dad up saying we were going to be late. Whoops…
The funniest part is, though, was we were ahead of schedule. But, somebody upstairs decided to toy with me a little. As we were switching trains at Grand Central Station, we tried to take the elevator to get up to the mezzanine. It went up four feet and stopped dead in its tracks. My Dad tried to hit the call button, but it did nothing but ring for a while. I leaned against the wall, sighed, and all I could think was, “This really isn’t funny.” But, no thanks to the answerless telephone, the elevator decided to behave and went back down four feet and let us out. Maybe it was PMSing, who knows, but we ended up climbing the stairs, finding the train, and making it to Sujit’s place 30 minutes early. At least I wasn’t late!!
Charles Potter… Harry Dickens… Harles Pickens… Carry Potter…
I went to see the second Harry Potter movie with Sujit and his lovely friends, Gil and Amy. Honestly, the second film was much better than the first, but I still have issues with it. I’ve promised to behave, and I’m trying to keep this concise, so I’ll only mention one thing that’s seriously bothered me in both films that I just don’t get. Why do all the witches and wizards look like they belong in a Charles Dickens novel? It just screams late 19th century Aldgate to me. Like Jack the Ripper would fit in with Tom Riddle’s gang, and then Dan Radcliffe can reprise his role as David Copperfield, only this time he’ll be wearing round glasses and he’ll have a magically moving scar. And, as promised, that’s all I have to say on that topic. 😛 (But if you really want to know more, email me.)
Eeeeeeaaaaahot!
After the movie we all went to Sujit’s favorite Thai restaurant. It was *fantastic*! But Sujit ordered some chicken soup stuff for us all to try and man, it made me pull some funny faces because it got really spicy. It was fine when it first met my mouth, but then it got witchy and decided it didn’t like it in there. It burned on the back of my tongue for a while, and a little bit got stuck on my lips. Holy crap that had a bite to it. It was good – really good – but I’ve never been so grateful for a big pile of rice on my plate.
At the restaurant Sujit’s sister Sarika joined us. I had a great time talking to her, she’s really nice. She’s moving out to Los Angeles soon so we started talking about designing her apartment. It was great fun. After lunch we all went back to her apartment, which is soon to be Sujit’s when she moves out. She shared some lemon squares with us, and then Dad and I left for the Empire State Building.
I Like London N.Y. in the Rain
Um. No. 🙂 I got soaked this afternoon. The rain started out as a mist, I could have handled that. True, it was so cold my hands were turning white, but that was okay. That just builds character. But this afternoon was complete gratuitous nonsense! I was so wet that my socks and my underwear were soaked! All from walking a few blocks in the rain. Granted, I didn’t have an umbrella or a raincoat, but still!! It was highly uncomfortable.
Blown Away by the Empire State Building.
Dad and I went to the top of the Empire State Building where for a while I thought I wasn’t going to be allowed outside. Two of the automatic doors weren’t opening and I didn’t see any people outside at first. I wandered around the gift shop, pretty disappointed. But then I saw a bobbing head and realized one door was open on the other side. I went over and was promptly blown away. Okay, not entirely, but pretty close. I wandered around, took some pictures, tried not to end up having my hair blown off my head. The wind was ferocious and the rain bit me as it flew sideways. I kept taking pictures though, like a mad woman, but it was fun! *That* built character because it was so funny. The north side of the building was blocked off for some reason so I was going to walk up to the netting, zoom in, and try to get a good shot of whatever was over there. But, try as I might, I couldn’t get up to the net. A huge gust of wind came and as I tried to lift my right leg I could feel myself being pushed backward as my left leg lost its footing. I decided I had enough pictures and it was time to go back down before I took flight.
Back home.
The walk back was even more miserable than last night because not only was it cold we were soaking wet. My hair was wet and freezing, my clothes were clinging to me in the worst possible way, and there’s something to be said for having callouses on one’s feet. I do not have any, and it hurt like you wouldn’t believe. (I haven’t had callouses for a while since I was off of my feet for so long. The undersides of my feet feel as soft as the top.) My little toes were stinging and there was nothing I could do about it. We finally got back, changed clothes, and got in the car. We managed to drive straight back without any stops or problems. Leaving the hotel around 6:30 we made it back home at 11:45. I was really exhausted in the car and it was really difficult to keep my eyes open for a while. I tried to sleep, but that never happens in cars for me. So I read for a while and got really involved in the new Orson Scott Card book ‘Shadow Puppets.’ (Go read those books!!)
Now for the random stuff:
Bagel Goy
I was really tempted to get a New York bagel, but apart from the fact that every time we passed a bagel shop I had already just eaten, I was also mildly afraid of causing a riot. I’m such a goy when it comes to bagels. I’ve literally sent Jews to pacing rooms, muttering to themselves, after they’ve heard how I eat bagels. Literally. I’m not kidding. I didn’t want to cause a scene when I walked in and asked for a plain buttered bagel. It wasn’t worth risking my life, since I’ve already tried that in New York before at JFK airport. The woman that worked there must have asked me a dozen times, “Are you sure? Nothing else? Are you sure you don’t want an onion bagel instead at least? I won’t even charge you extra.” Makes me feel bad, like I’m insulting their culture, but I can’t help it! 🙂
And the Oscar for best pit stops goes to…
Delaware rules. We drove through there to and from NYC and they have the best, most often, and most well stocked rest stops around. Can’t go ten miles without seeing yet another food services sign featuring at least six different restaurants. Now if only I’d gotten hungry in Delaware instead of in New Jersey. I had to wait for twenty minutes before we finally spotted an exit that looked like it might have something near it, but it still didn’t have a sign. So when you’re in Delaware, stop at one of their rest stops, praise them, and let them know I say Hi.
I like Bridges, Bridges for me, I like Bridges, Bridges for Free…
We had to go over the Delaware Memorial Bridge to and back. I really like bridges, they’re great testaments to the accomplishments of the human race. Such amazing works of engineering, so many different architectural styles. It’s fabulous.
And Finally…
I’m not sure how I feel about New York City. All I can think right now is I’m so glad my nervous thoughts of impending doom before this trip turned out to be a false alarm. Before I left I was seriously nervous, I thought something terrible would happen. Not sure what, just something terrible. That went okay, so I’m still trying to relax. But, apart from that, New York is just way too crowded. There are too many people, moving too quickly, making too much noise, going too many different directions. There are more people living in New York City than there are people in Canada. Where do all these people fit?! It was 4:00 in the afternoon, pouring down rain, and the streets were still jam-packed. I don’t think I could live like that. I love the way that London is a big city, but you can go places in the city and not see a single other human being. 4:00 in the afternoon they’re all having tea, so I can go out to St. James Park and sit by myself. 🙂 (Yes, rash generalization and stereotype, but you know what I mean.) I’ve frequently been in places all over London and not seen a single other person. It gives it a slower pace, a more secluded feel amongst the best resources of a big city. NYC is just too cramped and too overpopulated for my taste, and that scares me.
I’d still like to go back, though. There are a few more things I’d like to go see, some more pictures I’d like to take when the weather isn’t so crappy. Maybe in the spring.
But for now, I’m beat. I’m going to bed. 🙂