For once the shadows gave way to light...
So, Laurel has reminded me that I still have yet to update about my New
York trip. So I shall put off my uncompletable paper (the school e-mail
is down and the questions are in there!) and make an entry instead.
Beware this is probably going to be a long one.
I awoke promptly at a quarter til five on Saturday morning. Yes, I was supposed to drag myself out of bed at 5:45, but alas, some time in the night, my cat walked on my clock and set it an hour ahead. I, however, did not become aware of this until after I had filled my huge AZD thermos with strong black coffee (I was feeling unusually tired for -some- reason.) and loaded the Nissan with my bags. So then, I went back to bed until it was time to leave at 7.
We got on the road at 7 AM Saturday morning. It was a long haul to Pittsburgh, and my father was convinced that I was lost for about half of the trip, which I was not. It's just a very long and boring drive. As was the train-ride. Jill and I boarded the Amtrak in Pittsburgh at around 10 and we didn't get to New York until half past six...this was about an hour ahead of schedule too. I got a lot of knitting done on the train though, so all is good.
After our arrival in the big apple, we where quickly swept up by Jill's friend, Jill, who for the purpose of this narrative will be called NYJill as not to be too confusing. She showed us the "way of New Yorker," an art that would be continually developed over the course of the week. Metro cards were purchased. A single rat (the only one I actually saw, and keep in mind I stayed in a "hostile" here.) was seen running across the subway tracks. Various lines of varying colours were taken. The South Street Seaport was arrived at. Sure, it smells a lot like fish, but the Seaport is one of the most beautiful things I've seen (the sea food at that Irish place wasn't too bad either...), and I managed to see a lot of beautiful things in my day. I especially adore the view were you can see almost all of the bridges. Unfortunately the flash on my digital camera is one to err on the side of suckage, so the picture doesn't look so great.
It was back to the hostel after that. The Whitehouse Hotel is surely the closest I will ever come to knowing what it was like to have to live in a tenement. (As it turns out The Whitehouse Hotel was at one time a tenement, so...yeah...my assumptions were correct.) The rooms were absolutely tiny. The walls didn't go all the way to the ceiling. Few other people in the building spoke the same language as me. It rocked. Okay, so it really have been extremely crappy to have to live that way, but for a few nights, it was an experience. A real experience that I would have never recieve if I had chosen a four star in Midtown as opposed to a hostel in the East Village. (Ah...what glory the East Village is...slums and all. It's just ripe for a creative soul such as mine.)
Then came Sunday, aka Broadway day. Jill and I caught the subway uptown to Times Square and wandered about for a while, looking at the various theatres, suffering under our first scam (damn greedy homeless...), and eating at the rather scary post-modernist McDonald's (It's a happy place no more, it's now a 1984 style world.). All this was before RENT, of course. RENT is one of the most amazing shows in the world to see live. Some things you just can't fully grasp from just listening to the OCR. For example, Light My Candle is about 300 times funnier with the movements and facial expressions, and the extremely blatant way that Mimi blows out the candle (here I though she left the room, but oh no...) and I'll Cover You is much more touching. I won't even get into the severe emotional issues I was having. The women in front of me most have thought I was some kind of bi-polar freak. I just have this extreme emotional connection to that show and it's message, so it meant more than anyone can possibly imagine for me to be able to see that story finally played out before my eyes on a stage where I could emotional connect with those voices I've been connecting with since I first accidently downloaded "Santa Fe" long ago.
And as promised to Laurel, Ashes, and various others...the greatest picture...EVER! (Yay for lead actings taking photos for charity...)
After a quick dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp...with a great view from our table, indeed, overlooking Times Square, it was off to Avenue Q. The mood of this one was much lighter, of course. That's why it was chosen to see second. The message is still there though. Everything in life is only for now... It's really a good musical...though it is an awful lot like Seasame Street on strong narcotics.
After heading back to the village was our first moment of intrigue and "Only in New York" moment. Walking down Bowery, talking on his cell phone was...Ben Stiller! Yep. There's not much more to say about that...
Monday morning was...er...interesting We got up before 5...this time on purpose, to get ready to head to Rockefeller Centre. Why? Let's just say something really silly, fan-girly, and well...inexplicable
(Yes, we were on TV. My mother has it on tape.)
Before this, however, we had a subway...experience. Two homeless men, one with a wood slat, screaming at each other. I was scared out of my mind, but the people on the other platform thought it was extremely funny. Oh well, schadenfeude, I guess.
After standing in the Centre for about 3 hours we walked...and walked...and walked some more. We traveled the entire length of the island from 49th street to Battery Park, hitting in between: St. Patrick's Cathedral (I'm still planning on getting married at St. Joesph's Cathedral, but this was on of the most beautiful Catholic Churches I've ever seen. Think about the reaction I had to this place, Jill, and imagine how crazy it's gonna be when I see The Vatican next spring.), The Empire State Building (biggest tourist trap known to mankind, but I did get some amazing pictures from the top. It's all about the angles.), The Brooklyn Bridge (we walked out to the first observation deck...again...great pictures. altphoto is going to hate me for flooding them with Cityscapes and Urban decay, but I do so love photgraphy.), and The financial district at lunch time (not an incredibly intelligent move on our part. Oh no, but we did continue to develop our New Yorker skills...What is this wait for the cars of which you speak? Cars wait for Pedestrians...)
After all that we had to stand in line for the ferry out on the freezing bay to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Jill managed to set off the metal detectors with her boots, which was a ratehr interesting experience indeed, but we did eventually get the okay to go. Again, I got some more great cityscapes, but there was one picture I didn't get. Try as I might, I could not find Rosa Tornabene anywhere on that damnedable thing. I know all the information: what ship she came on, everything, but I couldn't find her name. I did, however, find this:
It'll have to do for now. And besides, the search for my roots wasn't too tempered, because...not long after returning to Manhattan Island, a Contini/Tornabene went home.
Aw...home...Mulberry...Again, if my reaction was like that to the best tortellini I've had since Grandmum Rose past away and the fabulous cannoli place, I'm gonna be psychotically weird less than a year from now.
After our trek through Italia Piccola, NYJill, who met us for dinner, decided to take us for a walk. Jill and I decided that since we'd already walked incredible amounts that day we might as well keep a walking. She took us through the East Village, where we were staying. Through the West Village (and to think that I saw it on Christopher Street....*shakes head* crazy amazing that West Village...'nough said) She showed us the speak-easy where F. Scott Fitzgerald penned The Great Gatsby, which amazes a literature buff like me beyond all reason. Then we continued on to the Hudson river. "I know when people say New Jersey you don't automatically think beautiful," says NYJill, "but..." it was.
I was quite sad to leave on Tuesday. Quite. It took me 19 years to get to that city. I didn't want to go after only 3 days. One day though... There's no keeping me away now. Oh no.
I awoke promptly at a quarter til five on Saturday morning. Yes, I was supposed to drag myself out of bed at 5:45, but alas, some time in the night, my cat walked on my clock and set it an hour ahead. I, however, did not become aware of this until after I had filled my huge AZD thermos with strong black coffee (I was feeling unusually tired for -some- reason.) and loaded the Nissan with my bags. So then, I went back to bed until it was time to leave at 7.
We got on the road at 7 AM Saturday morning. It was a long haul to Pittsburgh, and my father was convinced that I was lost for about half of the trip, which I was not. It's just a very long and boring drive. As was the train-ride. Jill and I boarded the Amtrak in Pittsburgh at around 10 and we didn't get to New York until half past six...this was about an hour ahead of schedule too. I got a lot of knitting done on the train though, so all is good.
After our arrival in the big apple, we where quickly swept up by Jill's friend, Jill, who for the purpose of this narrative will be called NYJill as not to be too confusing. She showed us the "way of New Yorker," an art that would be continually developed over the course of the week. Metro cards were purchased. A single rat (the only one I actually saw, and keep in mind I stayed in a "hostile" here.) was seen running across the subway tracks. Various lines of varying colours were taken. The South Street Seaport was arrived at. Sure, it smells a lot like fish, but the Seaport is one of the most beautiful things I've seen (the sea food at that Irish place wasn't too bad either...), and I managed to see a lot of beautiful things in my day. I especially adore the view were you can see almost all of the bridges. Unfortunately the flash on my digital camera is one to err on the side of suckage, so the picture doesn't look so great.
It was back to the hostel after that. The Whitehouse Hotel is surely the closest I will ever come to knowing what it was like to have to live in a tenement. (As it turns out The Whitehouse Hotel was at one time a tenement, so...yeah...my assumptions were correct.) The rooms were absolutely tiny. The walls didn't go all the way to the ceiling. Few other people in the building spoke the same language as me. It rocked. Okay, so it really have been extremely crappy to have to live that way, but for a few nights, it was an experience. A real experience that I would have never recieve if I had chosen a four star in Midtown as opposed to a hostel in the East Village. (Ah...what glory the East Village is...slums and all. It's just ripe for a creative soul such as mine.)
Then came Sunday, aka Broadway day. Jill and I caught the subway uptown to Times Square and wandered about for a while, looking at the various theatres, suffering under our first scam (damn greedy homeless...), and eating at the rather scary post-modernist McDonald's (It's a happy place no more, it's now a 1984 style world.). All this was before RENT, of course. RENT is one of the most amazing shows in the world to see live. Some things you just can't fully grasp from just listening to the OCR. For example, Light My Candle is about 300 times funnier with the movements and facial expressions, and the extremely blatant way that Mimi blows out the candle (here I though she left the room, but oh no...) and I'll Cover You is much more touching. I won't even get into the severe emotional issues I was having. The women in front of me most have thought I was some kind of bi-polar freak. I just have this extreme emotional connection to that show and it's message, so it meant more than anyone can possibly imagine for me to be able to see that story finally played out before my eyes on a stage where I could emotional connect with those voices I've been connecting with since I first accidently downloaded "Santa Fe" long ago.
And as promised to Laurel, Ashes, and various others...the greatest picture...EVER! (Yay for lead actings taking photos for charity...)
After a quick dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp...with a great view from our table, indeed, overlooking Times Square, it was off to Avenue Q. The mood of this one was much lighter, of course. That's why it was chosen to see second. The message is still there though. Everything in life is only for now... It's really a good musical...though it is an awful lot like Seasame Street on strong narcotics.
After heading back to the village was our first moment of intrigue and "Only in New York" moment. Walking down Bowery, talking on his cell phone was...Ben Stiller! Yep. There's not much more to say about that...
Monday morning was...er...interesting We got up before 5...this time on purpose, to get ready to head to Rockefeller Centre. Why? Let's just say something really silly, fan-girly, and well...inexplicable
(Yes, we were on TV. My mother has it on tape.)
Before this, however, we had a subway...experience. Two homeless men, one with a wood slat, screaming at each other. I was scared out of my mind, but the people on the other platform thought it was extremely funny. Oh well, schadenfeude, I guess.
After standing in the Centre for about 3 hours we walked...and walked...and walked some more. We traveled the entire length of the island from 49th street to Battery Park, hitting in between: St. Patrick's Cathedral (I'm still planning on getting married at St. Joesph's Cathedral, but this was on of the most beautiful Catholic Churches I've ever seen. Think about the reaction I had to this place, Jill, and imagine how crazy it's gonna be when I see The Vatican next spring.), The Empire State Building (biggest tourist trap known to mankind, but I did get some amazing pictures from the top. It's all about the angles.), The Brooklyn Bridge (we walked out to the first observation deck...again...great pictures. altphoto is going to hate me for flooding them with Cityscapes and Urban decay, but I do so love photgraphy.), and The financial district at lunch time (not an incredibly intelligent move on our part. Oh no, but we did continue to develop our New Yorker skills...What is this wait for the cars of which you speak? Cars wait for Pedestrians...)
After all that we had to stand in line for the ferry out on the freezing bay to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Jill managed to set off the metal detectors with her boots, which was a ratehr interesting experience indeed, but we did eventually get the okay to go. Again, I got some more great cityscapes, but there was one picture I didn't get. Try as I might, I could not find Rosa Tornabene anywhere on that damnedable thing. I know all the information: what ship she came on, everything, but I couldn't find her name. I did, however, find this:
It'll have to do for now. And besides, the search for my roots wasn't too tempered, because...not long after returning to Manhattan Island, a Contini/Tornabene went home.
Aw...home...Mulberry...Again, if my reaction was like that to the best tortellini I've had since Grandmum Rose past away and the fabulous cannoli place, I'm gonna be psychotically weird less than a year from now.
After our trek through Italia Piccola, NYJill, who met us for dinner, decided to take us for a walk. Jill and I decided that since we'd already walked incredible amounts that day we might as well keep a walking. She took us through the East Village, where we were staying. Through the West Village (and to think that I saw it on Christopher Street....*shakes head* crazy amazing that West Village...'nough said) She showed us the speak-easy where F. Scott Fitzgerald penned The Great Gatsby, which amazes a literature buff like me beyond all reason. Then we continued on to the Hudson river. "I know when people say New Jersey you don't automatically think beautiful," says NYJill, "but..." it was.
I was quite sad to leave on Tuesday. Quite. It took me 19 years to get to that city. I didn't want to go after only 3 days. One day though... There's no keeping me away now. Oh no.