New York, New York
Our trip to NYC.
This was a big family trip with a star studded cast of characters in my personal life. Jes, my mom, Harmbo, Zak and I all piled into Jes' big sedan for the 12 hour drive up to NYC. My mom took the serious long haul drive through Washington, Harmbo took the shouting Brooklynite NY leg, Zak sat on the hump (middle seat) practically the whole way, and I only drove on the wrong side of the road once.
We get to NY late in the evening, and have dinner with Ryan at this rad cafe near his house where I was able to get egg salad on rye and feel New York tastic and businessmen argued about the stockmarket in the neighboring booth.
Ryan has this awesome apartment in Midtown, with a balcony, unheard of NY square footage, and 250 boardgames organised by type and complexity. His kitchen cupboards are full of Warhammer men. We got the tour, and Ryan showed us some of his favourite stuff on the internet, which produced several ridiculous memes to be shouted for the rest of the trip by the louder travellers.
I slept with Ryan that night and we stayed up preposterously late talking about all things. From what I hear the same occurred in the outer room, where everyone else slept.
The next morning was New Year's Eve. The coffee-addicted had already been out and gotten some stuff together. Then Zak and Harmbo went Heather-hunting, she has moved here it seems and now works as a beekeeper for the Museum of Natural history. There was a mess of confusion over seeing her and they came back defeated, but having walked a long way. In the meantime Ryan, Jes, my mom and I did Christmas with Ryan under his tree, which was very artistically decorated courtesy of Amanda and was crowned with a rhino star. I was probably as excited about Ry's presents as he was, because they were all from Hadrian's wall.
When we all met up it was time for lunch and Times Square. We found a pizza joint where I had half a New York pizza. Otherwise known as the Best Pizza Ever. And we headed down to Times Square. Now this was 4pm, two hours before the first of 6 hours of acts started. But when we got to Times Square they had already filled up several blocks. Now each block gets cordoned off and they start working on a new one as people arrive. We got to the first block, and it was shut. To the second block, and it was shut. Jes began walking faster and faster, with the 5 of us trailing behind her, each trying to keep up with the person in front of them without losing the person behind them. Panic began to set in. Then Jes broke into a run. I gazed back at my mom and Ryan, and my mom, like a soldier falling on a landmine, waved me on, “Go, quickly.” I ran. Jes Harmony Zak and I sprinted forward darting into the road to beat the crowd. Jes jumped through a puddle of slush and we were dodging cars and other revellers, the smokers sprinting with the rest of us. We get in, and are waiting in line to actually make it in when we see Ry and my mom making it through. Screaming, we get them into our line and are inside the square.
The bright lights big city sense of Times square is always intense, but in this case we had a real sense, like getting into a trendy club and something this big at the same time. We were all pretty ecstatic to be there and together and took a bunch of pictures. Then we filtered forward to our position. I should mention at some point that Ry was having a phantom gall attack most of this time, so was looking a little pale around the gills. We hung out and talked until 6, but the stage was not going to really be a part of our time. They had big screens showing whoever on them, but there was no sound system set up, so you couldn't hear anything or really tell what was up there. This wasn't the end of the world, the acts are pretty crap, but made it a lot more like waiting 6 hours for ten seconds, nothing to punctuate the time left.
I felt a bit like that comedy routine from here “you have a drink and a snack and a nap and watch a movie, and there's still 26 more hours in your flight.” We took to revelling in a big way. We played music on our own and other people's mobiles. We danced and told inside jokes. We took pictures and made faces. We made friends with everyone around us. We partied. We revelled. We cheered for each hour's passing. And there were still three or four hours to go, I forget.
So at some point Jes was like “Do you want to just go?” Her slush feet were starting to freeze, my mom couldn't stand anymore, and Ry was fainting a bit from illness. Our worry was the “cool kids” Zak and Harmbo, who have no fear of standing for hours and staying up all night. Tentatively, we suggested it. “Hell Yeah!” Harmbo said, and literally danced down the street on the way back. I flaged down a cop and said I wanted to leave, and then we all (even my mom) jumped the barricade and frolicked down the road, still the party.
We got to ry's house, put Jes' feet on a heater, ordered some food. Watched some of the TV coverage and played a srsly awesome board game which increased our feelings of knowing each other and being bonded family. At midnight we went on Ryan's balcony to scream off it, and we could see fireworks reflected in the skyscrapers off his balcony. That was pretty magical.
Passing out happened shortly thereafter and the next morning the early risers (all but Ry) went out to breakfast where we ate whole pots of jam with our faces and began the all day process of writing each other's New Years resolutions. Some were funny, some serious, and it was a cool convo.
Then there was a long walk through central park, followed by a long meal finding expedition, in which everyone wound up happy, and wandered through the city finding the Dude and chess shops. The cool kids wandered all night, but we homebodies went back and played awesome puzzle games with Ryan til we passed out, and then watched bad downloaded shows once the rest of the guys got home.
The next day was time to go, though we calculated we could leave it til noon. Zak went off to find Heather again (successfully this time!) and the rest of us went to the Met. I hung close to ryan most of the time, and we got to talk about our favorite art, like lying in a rowboat trailing our fingers through the slow moving waters of art. Jes and harmbo took a more punk rock approach, snapping photos and becoming obsessed with edgy contemporary stuff. We ate a greek banquet, and then took off. Jes was insanely stressed the whole way home, I guess reentry stuff. But the trip went really smoothly, and we got home earlier than I expected trying a new way. So that was my awesome NYC trip. Pictures will be forthcoming someday.
This was a big family trip with a star studded cast of characters in my personal life. Jes, my mom, Harmbo, Zak and I all piled into Jes' big sedan for the 12 hour drive up to NYC. My mom took the serious long haul drive through Washington, Harmbo took the shouting Brooklynite NY leg, Zak sat on the hump (middle seat) practically the whole way, and I only drove on the wrong side of the road once.
We get to NY late in the evening, and have dinner with Ryan at this rad cafe near his house where I was able to get egg salad on rye and feel New York tastic and businessmen argued about the stockmarket in the neighboring booth.
Ryan has this awesome apartment in Midtown, with a balcony, unheard of NY square footage, and 250 boardgames organised by type and complexity. His kitchen cupboards are full of Warhammer men. We got the tour, and Ryan showed us some of his favourite stuff on the internet, which produced several ridiculous memes to be shouted for the rest of the trip by the louder travellers.
I slept with Ryan that night and we stayed up preposterously late talking about all things. From what I hear the same occurred in the outer room, where everyone else slept.
The next morning was New Year's Eve. The coffee-addicted had already been out and gotten some stuff together. Then Zak and Harmbo went Heather-hunting, she has moved here it seems and now works as a beekeeper for the Museum of Natural history. There was a mess of confusion over seeing her and they came back defeated, but having walked a long way. In the meantime Ryan, Jes, my mom and I did Christmas with Ryan under his tree, which was very artistically decorated courtesy of Amanda and was crowned with a rhino star. I was probably as excited about Ry's presents as he was, because they were all from Hadrian's wall.
When we all met up it was time for lunch and Times Square. We found a pizza joint where I had half a New York pizza. Otherwise known as the Best Pizza Ever. And we headed down to Times Square. Now this was 4pm, two hours before the first of 6 hours of acts started. But when we got to Times Square they had already filled up several blocks. Now each block gets cordoned off and they start working on a new one as people arrive. We got to the first block, and it was shut. To the second block, and it was shut. Jes began walking faster and faster, with the 5 of us trailing behind her, each trying to keep up with the person in front of them without losing the person behind them. Panic began to set in. Then Jes broke into a run. I gazed back at my mom and Ryan, and my mom, like a soldier falling on a landmine, waved me on, “Go, quickly.” I ran. Jes Harmony Zak and I sprinted forward darting into the road to beat the crowd. Jes jumped through a puddle of slush and we were dodging cars and other revellers, the smokers sprinting with the rest of us. We get in, and are waiting in line to actually make it in when we see Ry and my mom making it through. Screaming, we get them into our line and are inside the square.
The bright lights big city sense of Times square is always intense, but in this case we had a real sense, like getting into a trendy club and something this big at the same time. We were all pretty ecstatic to be there and together and took a bunch of pictures. Then we filtered forward to our position. I should mention at some point that Ry was having a phantom gall attack most of this time, so was looking a little pale around the gills. We hung out and talked until 6, but the stage was not going to really be a part of our time. They had big screens showing whoever on them, but there was no sound system set up, so you couldn't hear anything or really tell what was up there. This wasn't the end of the world, the acts are pretty crap, but made it a lot more like waiting 6 hours for ten seconds, nothing to punctuate the time left.
I felt a bit like that comedy routine from here “you have a drink and a snack and a nap and watch a movie, and there's still 26 more hours in your flight.” We took to revelling in a big way. We played music on our own and other people's mobiles. We danced and told inside jokes. We took pictures and made faces. We made friends with everyone around us. We partied. We revelled. We cheered for each hour's passing. And there were still three or four hours to go, I forget.
So at some point Jes was like “Do you want to just go?” Her slush feet were starting to freeze, my mom couldn't stand anymore, and Ry was fainting a bit from illness. Our worry was the “cool kids” Zak and Harmbo, who have no fear of standing for hours and staying up all night. Tentatively, we suggested it. “Hell Yeah!” Harmbo said, and literally danced down the street on the way back. I flaged down a cop and said I wanted to leave, and then we all (even my mom) jumped the barricade and frolicked down the road, still the party.
We got to ry's house, put Jes' feet on a heater, ordered some food. Watched some of the TV coverage and played a srsly awesome board game which increased our feelings of knowing each other and being bonded family. At midnight we went on Ryan's balcony to scream off it, and we could see fireworks reflected in the skyscrapers off his balcony. That was pretty magical.
Passing out happened shortly thereafter and the next morning the early risers (all but Ry) went out to breakfast where we ate whole pots of jam with our faces and began the all day process of writing each other's New Years resolutions. Some were funny, some serious, and it was a cool convo.
Then there was a long walk through central park, followed by a long meal finding expedition, in which everyone wound up happy, and wandered through the city finding the Dude and chess shops. The cool kids wandered all night, but we homebodies went back and played awesome puzzle games with Ryan til we passed out, and then watched bad downloaded shows once the rest of the guys got home.
The next day was time to go, though we calculated we could leave it til noon. Zak went off to find Heather again (successfully this time!) and the rest of us went to the Met. I hung close to ryan most of the time, and we got to talk about our favorite art, like lying in a rowboat trailing our fingers through the slow moving waters of art. Jes and harmbo took a more punk rock approach, snapping photos and becoming obsessed with edgy contemporary stuff. We ate a greek banquet, and then took off. Jes was insanely stressed the whole way home, I guess reentry stuff. But the trip went really smoothly, and we got home earlier than I expected trying a new way. So that was my awesome NYC trip. Pictures will be forthcoming someday.