Back from the Big Apple
Dang, I just saw that I haven't updated this thing since Dec 27. Since then, we had a great New Years party at Tony's house. You can check out Tony ( 
chachy46) or Perry's LiveJournals for details or photos. How's that for lazy? :)
Now for a warning... I believe this may be the longest LiveJournal ever. ;-)
So anyways... this past weekend we took a little road trip to New York! I had a faaaaaaaaaaantastic time!!! The picture I've included over to the side was just the first one I saw off my camera that didn't require any kind of manipulation. hehe Perry and I took a bus up (more on that later) and stayed at Martin's apartment. Martin and his roommate/straight-boyfriend David have a nice, cozy, CLEAN (yay!) apartment up there on the upper east side. There's a daily serenade of them practicing their music, so that's nice too. :) They were great hosts, and they are both great guys.
So there's a charter-bus type thing that leaves Va Beach every night at 1am to go to NYC. I initially couldn't understand how they'd be able to do that and stay in business, but somehow they do. It's run by Asians and more than 50% of the clientele are Asian, so I guess they have some need for it they were aware of and decided to meet. It's $60 roundtrip, so it beats a $150-$200 plane ticket if you're short on cash.
The bus trip up wasn't too bad. Young and Justin kindly dropped us off at the 'station'. The bus was a little late but not too bad... I think we left around 1:15am. There was enough space on the way up for a lot of us to get our own seat, so I was able to sleep in several different positions. haha All of a sudden, Perry nudges me and says we're almost there. I look out the window and it's still dark, so I just lay back down... then the bus stops. It was 6:50am and we had already arrived!!! Talk about fast service. It was raining--didn't plan for THAT! So we sprinted through the rain and found a cab. We got to Martin's place a little later, said our hellos, got situated, and pulled out the futon to get a little more "real" sleep. hehe
I won't bore you with all the details of "We went to this store and saw this building" etc. I'll skip the touristy stuff for the most part. hehe We didn't do nearly as much of it this time anyway, since we did most of it last time I was up there. I will say I didn't get to go to the MoMA, which was sorta disappointing, but there is always next time!
Friday we mainly did some shopping and light sightseeing. Tony and Anthony were coming up Saturday morning, so we were trying to save more touristy things for then. We went up to Rockefeller Center and that area to see Ed. He works at the Build-a-Bear store there. I had met Ed briefly before but didn't really know him (I know him a lot better now, and he's great! hehe). He made some suggestions on where to go out. We ended up going to Splash. It was supposed to be a "Tribal" theme, so we were a little scared, but it ended up being a lot better than we expected. Drinks were a little pricey, but average for NY ($10/LIIT).
The bathrooms were scandalous. They have stalls, but it's one long trough, and the opening where the trough is is rather large, so it gives quite a bit of room for peeking or reaching or other things. =) The bigger shock came later after I'd already gone to the bathroom when we realized that the "wall" in front of you when you are pissing is actually just clouded glass, where you can easily see silhouettes and such from the other side. =) LOL We got back around 4:30am I think. We warmed up some pizzas and hung out some. Tony and Anthony arrived shortly thereafter, and along with Ed who came back with us that night, we all crashed in the living room (who knew 4 people could fit on a futon).
Saturday was more shopping and light sightseeing. It kept getting colder and colder and COLDER every day we were there. I went to Old Navy and got a very warm fleece pullover for $6 that I wore under my coat most of the rest of the weekend. We wanted to go to dinner at this Italian restaurant where the food is good and priced reasonably, and a sweet Asian lady sings on a piano. :) The schedule did not permit that, so we stuck with some Ray's pizza and pre-club cocktails (Citrus Vodka and Cranberry). Yummy stuff. :)
Tonight was the night to go to Roxy. Manny Lehman was spinning. He used to be a resident at Nation, so we were familiar with him. We gave a little tour to Tony & Anthony and then took advantage of the open bar from 11pm-midnight. I think I had 4 strong rum & cokes. They kept me going for a few hours. haha We started dancing a little after the open bar ended, and we danced, and we danced, and we danced. Damn. I definitely had my shirt off after a little bit of time... it had been a while since I did that too. haha The dancefloor is pretty large, but it was packed and hot and sweaty and the music was great, so we just kept on pushin'. :) The selection definitely exceeded my expectations. It was a lot of new stuff, and some stuff didn't recognize but was still danceable, and then some old favorites (like Kim English-Everyday) thrown in. Somewhere along the way I took a break to get a LIIT to hold me over.
Late into the night we walked around a little and went to the upstairs room. They play some older music up there. It was nice to take a little break. There was a really long Madonna run that may have gone a little too long. After things started slowing down there, we went back to the main room for a while. There was still some good stuff playing, including one of my favorite recent songs, Movin' Up by Inaya Day.
The place was starting to clear out some. When we hopped in the cab, the clock said 5:40am and we were surprised. The night just flew by! By the time I got back to the apartment I was wore out. I was in a good mood and wanted to stay up more to talk and stuff, but I totally passed out cold eventually instead. haha
Sunday was more shopping and light sightseeing. It was my first time at Macy's. We didn't go there the first time I was in NY for some reason. At first I thought "Okay, this just looks like a Hecht's", but then we saw all 9 floors, and I saw allllllll of the stuff and the selection, and I was impressed. =) We also went to that Italian restaurant. The lady wasn't singing though, unfortuntaely. BUT instead Anthony and Martin took turns playing some songs. They both did really well. It's almost a requirement of mine that my husband will be able to play the piano, at least a little bit, so it's nice to hear guys I know playing, even if it's not for me specifically. ;-) haha
After the restaurant, we went to a nearby apartment where Martin's bf was having some pre-club cocktails with a few friends. We met up with them and then went over to Avalon, which is a good-sized club in an old church. It's almost like a maze. There are a lot of little rooms (like another side bar that played a little more ghetto music and reminded me more of a straight bar haha) and halls and things. The main room is the central part of the church, and it reminded me of a shrunk version of Nation. The architecture was interesting definitely. From the upstairs balcony, you could look right into the DJ booth too, so a few times I took a break and just watched the DJ at work. The well drinks were $5, and I soon discovered the LIIT's there were just $6! Wow! That's even cheaper than VA. haha
It was fun, minus a little drama here and there. Eventually Perry drug me up onto the stage. It was fun too. =) After a while, he was in the mood for some ghetto music. The ghetto music calmed down some and we went to walk around some more, and as we walked into the main room, the lights were on and they were sweeping up the place, so we figured it was time to go. haha Once we got outside we saw that it had snowed (!) a little. It was just a light-dusting though, nothing serious. We grabbed some snacks at a little store and went back to the apt. I was still way drunk, and I can't really remember, but I think I kept laughing at all kinds of random things. :) I don't really even remember going to sleep.
Monday was our last day. That was sorta depressing, I didn't really want to leave. There was a big event from 10am-10pm where Junior Vasquez was spinning along with some special musical performers, but we'd realized we weren't going to have the energy to go to that. We hung around at the apartment mostly. David and Martin fixed pancakes and bacon (yummy!), and we watched movies.
After packing, we took a cab back to Chinatown to pick up the bus home. It was crazy there, they have all kinds of buses and people everywhere. We didn't have much of a problem finding ours though. This bus was a little more crowded, so we didn't get 2 seats per person this time. As we were going through the Holland Tunnel, this weird buzzer starts going off and the bus driver just stops the bus and we sit there with cars honking and driving around us (this was 6pm). After a couple minutes we took off again. The ride wasn't too bad, I listened to Evita and some classical selections. They helped relax me and I napped a little. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Delaware on Rt 13, the bus pulled over to the side and stopped again. This time for 5-10 minutes. Not looking good... trust me, I was making all kinds of deals with God just to get home. haha We started up again.
THEN in Salisbury MD we ended up stopping for good at a Walmart. Apparently his brakes weren't working, and some other issues. The bus driver said they were sending another bus from Philly to pick us up, and it would be there in 2 hrs. UGH. The time actually went by pretty quickly. I read Men's Health and walked around Walmart some. Finally the new bus arrived, and I totally went to sleep the rest of the way. :)
I spent the whole day today trying to get my sleep schedule back in order and taking care of some laundry. It was a nice relaxing day, especially compared to the hell I know I will have to deal with at work tomorrow. Oh well. Speaking of that, I do need to get to sleep now. I'll have some more pics and things posted in the next few days. I'm also still trying to write more! (I haven't even written about my classes yet)
Catch ya later!
chachy46) or Perry's LiveJournals for details or photos. How's that for lazy? :)
Now for a warning... I believe this may be the longest LiveJournal ever. ;-)
So anyways... this past weekend we took a little road trip to New York! I had a faaaaaaaaaaantastic time!!! The picture I've included over to the side was just the first one I saw off my camera that didn't require any kind of manipulation. hehe Perry and I took a bus up (more on that later) and stayed at Martin's apartment. Martin and his roommate/straight-boyfriend David have a nice, cozy, CLEAN (yay!) apartment up there on the upper east side. There's a daily serenade of them practicing their music, so that's nice too. :) They were great hosts, and they are both great guys.
So there's a charter-bus type thing that leaves Va Beach every night at 1am to go to NYC. I initially couldn't understand how they'd be able to do that and stay in business, but somehow they do. It's run by Asians and more than 50% of the clientele are Asian, so I guess they have some need for it they were aware of and decided to meet. It's $60 roundtrip, so it beats a $150-$200 plane ticket if you're short on cash.
The bus trip up wasn't too bad. Young and Justin kindly dropped us off at the 'station'. The bus was a little late but not too bad... I think we left around 1:15am. There was enough space on the way up for a lot of us to get our own seat, so I was able to sleep in several different positions. haha All of a sudden, Perry nudges me and says we're almost there. I look out the window and it's still dark, so I just lay back down... then the bus stops. It was 6:50am and we had already arrived!!! Talk about fast service. It was raining--didn't plan for THAT! So we sprinted through the rain and found a cab. We got to Martin's place a little later, said our hellos, got situated, and pulled out the futon to get a little more "real" sleep. hehe
I won't bore you with all the details of "We went to this store and saw this building" etc. I'll skip the touristy stuff for the most part. hehe We didn't do nearly as much of it this time anyway, since we did most of it last time I was up there. I will say I didn't get to go to the MoMA, which was sorta disappointing, but there is always next time!
Friday we mainly did some shopping and light sightseeing. Tony and Anthony were coming up Saturday morning, so we were trying to save more touristy things for then. We went up to Rockefeller Center and that area to see Ed. He works at the Build-a-Bear store there. I had met Ed briefly before but didn't really know him (I know him a lot better now, and he's great! hehe). He made some suggestions on where to go out. We ended up going to Splash. It was supposed to be a "Tribal" theme, so we were a little scared, but it ended up being a lot better than we expected. Drinks were a little pricey, but average for NY ($10/LIIT).
The bathrooms were scandalous. They have stalls, but it's one long trough, and the opening where the trough is is rather large, so it gives quite a bit of room for peeking or reaching or other things. =) The bigger shock came later after I'd already gone to the bathroom when we realized that the "wall" in front of you when you are pissing is actually just clouded glass, where you can easily see silhouettes and such from the other side. =) LOL We got back around 4:30am I think. We warmed up some pizzas and hung out some. Tony and Anthony arrived shortly thereafter, and along with Ed who came back with us that night, we all crashed in the living room (who knew 4 people could fit on a futon).
Saturday was more shopping and light sightseeing. It kept getting colder and colder and COLDER every day we were there. I went to Old Navy and got a very warm fleece pullover for $6 that I wore under my coat most of the rest of the weekend. We wanted to go to dinner at this Italian restaurant where the food is good and priced reasonably, and a sweet Asian lady sings on a piano. :) The schedule did not permit that, so we stuck with some Ray's pizza and pre-club cocktails (Citrus Vodka and Cranberry). Yummy stuff. :)
Tonight was the night to go to Roxy. Manny Lehman was spinning. He used to be a resident at Nation, so we were familiar with him. We gave a little tour to Tony & Anthony and then took advantage of the open bar from 11pm-midnight. I think I had 4 strong rum & cokes. They kept me going for a few hours. haha We started dancing a little after the open bar ended, and we danced, and we danced, and we danced. Damn. I definitely had my shirt off after a little bit of time... it had been a while since I did that too. haha The dancefloor is pretty large, but it was packed and hot and sweaty and the music was great, so we just kept on pushin'. :) The selection definitely exceeded my expectations. It was a lot of new stuff, and some stuff didn't recognize but was still danceable, and then some old favorites (like Kim English-Everyday) thrown in. Somewhere along the way I took a break to get a LIIT to hold me over.
Late into the night we walked around a little and went to the upstairs room. They play some older music up there. It was nice to take a little break. There was a really long Madonna run that may have gone a little too long. After things started slowing down there, we went back to the main room for a while. There was still some good stuff playing, including one of my favorite recent songs, Movin' Up by Inaya Day.
The place was starting to clear out some. When we hopped in the cab, the clock said 5:40am and we were surprised. The night just flew by! By the time I got back to the apartment I was wore out. I was in a good mood and wanted to stay up more to talk and stuff, but I totally passed out cold eventually instead. haha
Sunday was more shopping and light sightseeing. It was my first time at Macy's. We didn't go there the first time I was in NY for some reason. At first I thought "Okay, this just looks like a Hecht's", but then we saw all 9 floors, and I saw allllllll of the stuff and the selection, and I was impressed. =) We also went to that Italian restaurant. The lady wasn't singing though, unfortuntaely. BUT instead Anthony and Martin took turns playing some songs. They both did really well. It's almost a requirement of mine that my husband will be able to play the piano, at least a little bit, so it's nice to hear guys I know playing, even if it's not for me specifically. ;-) haha
After the restaurant, we went to a nearby apartment where Martin's bf was having some pre-club cocktails with a few friends. We met up with them and then went over to Avalon, which is a good-sized club in an old church. It's almost like a maze. There are a lot of little rooms (like another side bar that played a little more ghetto music and reminded me more of a straight bar haha) and halls and things. The main room is the central part of the church, and it reminded me of a shrunk version of Nation. The architecture was interesting definitely. From the upstairs balcony, you could look right into the DJ booth too, so a few times I took a break and just watched the DJ at work. The well drinks were $5, and I soon discovered the LIIT's there were just $6! Wow! That's even cheaper than VA. haha
It was fun, minus a little drama here and there. Eventually Perry drug me up onto the stage. It was fun too. =) After a while, he was in the mood for some ghetto music. The ghetto music calmed down some and we went to walk around some more, and as we walked into the main room, the lights were on and they were sweeping up the place, so we figured it was time to go. haha Once we got outside we saw that it had snowed (!) a little. It was just a light-dusting though, nothing serious. We grabbed some snacks at a little store and went back to the apt. I was still way drunk, and I can't really remember, but I think I kept laughing at all kinds of random things. :) I don't really even remember going to sleep.
Monday was our last day. That was sorta depressing, I didn't really want to leave. There was a big event from 10am-10pm where Junior Vasquez was spinning along with some special musical performers, but we'd realized we weren't going to have the energy to go to that. We hung around at the apartment mostly. David and Martin fixed pancakes and bacon (yummy!), and we watched movies.
After packing, we took a cab back to Chinatown to pick up the bus home. It was crazy there, they have all kinds of buses and people everywhere. We didn't have much of a problem finding ours though. This bus was a little more crowded, so we didn't get 2 seats per person this time. As we were going through the Holland Tunnel, this weird buzzer starts going off and the bus driver just stops the bus and we sit there with cars honking and driving around us (this was 6pm). After a couple minutes we took off again. The ride wasn't too bad, I listened to Evita and some classical selections. They helped relax me and I napped a little. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Delaware on Rt 13, the bus pulled over to the side and stopped again. This time for 5-10 minutes. Not looking good... trust me, I was making all kinds of deals with God just to get home. haha We started up again.
THEN in Salisbury MD we ended up stopping for good at a Walmart. Apparently his brakes weren't working, and some other issues. The bus driver said they were sending another bus from Philly to pick us up, and it would be there in 2 hrs. UGH. The time actually went by pretty quickly. I read Men's Health and walked around Walmart some. Finally the new bus arrived, and I totally went to sleep the rest of the way. :)
I spent the whole day today trying to get my sleep schedule back in order and taking care of some laundry. It was a nice relaxing day, especially compared to the hell I know I will have to deal with at work tomorrow. Oh well. Speaking of that, I do need to get to sleep now. I'll have some more pics and things posted in the next few days. I'm also still trying to write more! (I haven't even written about my classes yet)
Catch ya later!