NY Trip log, Thurs-Sat
Thursday
6:30: I've made it through airport security. Yay me! Huge pain in the ass with all the lines and waiting and such. Much busier than I had anticipated. Dance County Airport sucks, btw, as there is no wireless access point. Grrr. I'll have to settle for ruminating with the locals. Ruminating. Now THAT's a 50 point scrabble word. I think I used it out of context, however. Good thing scrabble isn't about grammar, eh?
6:39: Tried playing solitaire. Was royally ass-stomped. I quit. I should probably save the battery life for more fun things anyways.
9:10: (Actually, it's 10:10, I believe.) Made it to Detroit. I hate flying. Not for the usual reasons -- I actually like the rough takeoffs and occasional turbulence. No, I hate flying because it's so god awful boring. I watched movies on my iBook for most of the way, then got bored of that and just tried sleeping. I managed to squeak in about 30 minutes of shut-eye. Now I'm back on a plane again, this time about to head off to New York. I can't wait to see the huge city with its millions of people. It'll be cool.
5:25: Arrived in New York earlier today, probably around 12:30 or so. I think I've figured out the basics of driving in NY. Be quick to nail the pedal to the floor, cut people off, the bigger vehicle always has the right-of-way, and disregard horn honkers. Went to Radio City Music Hall and took the tour. Pretty cool place. I took lots of pictures. Found out that we do have internet access, but you have to pay $2.95 for the first 15 minutes, then $0.25 per minute thereafter. Grrrrr. You'd think that in New York, with all the people around you, there'd be another wireless router.
6:38: Went out with Dan to get some beer. Made the mistake of talking to some black guy on the street trying to sell fake IDs. We didn't want one but wanted to find a liquor store. His friend came along and made us come with him to a McDonalds where he tried telling us that to make sure we weren't agents, he had to see the money we were going to pay with, and make sure the serial numbers don't match. He tried taking $30 from me but I grabbed it back and we excused ourselves and went back to our apartment. So much for the beer run tonight. Maybe we'll luck out and find one on our way back from the play.
Friday
12:22 AM: Just got back to the hotel after seeing Mama Mia! and going to eat supper at Sophia's, an italian restaurant. Mama Mia was great! I fell asleep for a little bit during the first bit (since I've been awake since Wed at 11 a.m. with only 3 hours of sleep between then and now), but I caught most of it. Great show and based on the music of ABBA. You might think that the terms "Great show" and "ABBA" shouldn't go in the same sentence together, but check out Mama Mia and I think you'll be surprised. Had Rigatoni Antica and a Manhattan at Sophia's. The Manhattan kicked my ass. I'm pleasantly buzzing right now. Probably due to my lack of sleep. Well, I'm due, and so will go to bed now.
3:48 PM: Today's been quite eventful.
A scene from this morning....
...The phone rings. It wakes up Dan, who then answers. I hear, "Shit. Fuck. Oh shit. Oh fuck. Here talk to Alex and see what he has to say." The phone transfers hands to an equally sleepy and confused Alex. I then hear, "Shit. Of fuck. Shit. Aw fuck. Stall them as long as you can, we'll be down in a minute." Turns out the girls thought to call us and let us know that the bus was just about to leave...
I just thought it was hilarious hearing two sleepy roommates say nearly the exact same thing. And the whole, "here, talk to Alex and see what he has to say." Ha! Maybe you had to be there?
We got downstairs at 9:10, and missed the bus tour by a few minutes and decided to try to catch up. We didn't want to spend money on a cab, so we took the subway. Made it to downtown Manhattan, and explored. Saw Ground Zero, the American Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange buildings, saw the NY American Museum (which sucked!). Went to the South Street Seaport and hung out, waiting for the group to arrive at 1. From there Dan and I explored downtown a bit more. Met up with the group at 3, took the subway back.
6:33 PM: Just got back from a shopping spree. Oops. I spent about $170. Ouch. But, I got a nifty wool suit, and a nice silk tie along with a good dress shirt and a couple pairs of socks.
Nelson just gave me an address of a place I have to check out:
100 Lafayette Street -- One block south of Canal street. 1 west of broadway.
Going to see Aida tonight.
Saturday
5:08 PM: Woke up at about 9:30, showered, and went downstairs to meet the group. We went down to Chinatown for shopping. In hindsight, I hate Chinatown. Sure it was fun for the first few minutes, but it was packed and the vendors all sold shitty stuff. I bought some black market DVDs, a watch, and 2 of the "I love NY" shirts. The DVDs were all of current releases. However, when we got home we discovered that they weren't of a very high quality. In fact, they sucked. Well, I guess you get what you paid for, and I paid $4-5 for current releases. My $10 watch had fallen apart by the time I got home. The only things that haven't broken or fallen apart are the two t-shirts. I'm just glad I didn't buy more at Chinatown. I'm back at the hotel for a little bit after walking all day.
Recap of last night: Ellen and I went out to a nearby bar and drank from 12:30 or so until about 4 a.m.. Matt is the coolest bartender around!
