NewYork-ness
As we all know, I am quite horrible about updating my journal, so I'm gonna recount the last two weeks of my life in today's post. Oh! Make that three weeks, since I might as well recount some of the stuff that lead up to my many adventures in New York =P
So yeah, May 26th heralded the passing of my girlfriend's birthday, so I was thinking of what to get Layla as a gift, and thought "hey, she likes clothes from Illig, I'll go buy her some nice stuff to wear." Plans were made to meet up on the 24th in New York to see Phantom of the Opera, so I needed to make a mad dash to but my gifts. The weekend before I decided to go to a store called Commander Salamander in Georgetown, since I know there carry that line of clothing. This also happened to be the weekend of Anime Central and oddly enough, an Otakon staff meeting. I awoke to Scott and Terry asking me if I wanted to hang out on the same day as I had made my plans to make the trek into DC, which was quite convenient, since they were in DC. So we met up and started shopping. Commander Salamander had one of the items I was looking for, the Internet Skirt, but only in size medium, and Layla wears size small. Layla already knew I was planning to buy her some clothing, so I called her to see if a medium would do. She said it did, so the skirt was purchased, and good times were had by all. The most interesting event of this trip was eating at Johnny Rockets and seeing the waiters and some customers boogie down to disco music (I think they were playing "Staying Alive") ^_^;;;
Anywayz... the other thing I wanted to get was the Mall Camo Hoodie also by Illig, so I ordered that online, and all was good. Being the busy person that I am, I had no plan to wrap my gifts, since I only have Christmas wrapping paper, and no real time to wrap with... heh, but when I told Layla about this... she asked me nicely to wrap the gifts ;_; so as the risk of being late to meet up with Dustin before heading out to NYC on the 24th, I found some wrapping paper that was lying around work and wrapped the gifts XD
As I kind of touched on earlier, Layla, myself, and some friends decided to meet up in NYC to see Phantom of the Opera. I drove up to Dustin's place and crashed at his place, then we left early to pick up Kasey and were in New York by 11am or so (about and hour later than planned due to problems with Kasey's bank). The three of us met up with Layla and Lauren and Layla's parental units at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After all that time I spent wrapping my presents, we found out that it could not be taken inside since they wanted to see the contents of the packages... blah! Luckily, Layla was waiting for us near the entrance, so we held a quick gift unwrapping party right outside of the museum. That was weird... hehehe.
We wandered around the museum for a bit, then went to the the "Goddess" exhibit, which was kinda cool. It was a showcase of costumes worn by women. Good times. Then we wandered some more until we got to the section for musical instruments, then we looked at European paintings... which was like a maze! Then we left to all see the weapons and armor section, but we left Lauren behind so she could appreciate the paintings some more. In the armory-type-place I got to see swordz.... many, many cool japanese swordz... ::drool::. Unfortunately, we had to find Lauren and get going to see the Phantom, so I went to fetch her, but like I said... it was a maze! gah! Long story short (ha!), we found her and proceded up to Times Square.
After eating at the busiest Sbarro's, EVER, we got in line for Phantom and eventually were seated. Ok, so this was my first Broadway MUSICAL (not "play" was I was reminded a billion times by Layla =P) and I must say, it was amazing. I could definitely see myself paying full price to see it again (though I'm glad we got a nice fat discount ^_^;;;). The end was very moving, and I was told by the "veterans" among us that the guy currently playing the Phantom uber-good... all I know if that he really did do an excellent job, and I was really captured in the last scene. Good show! ^_^
So, what's the next thing people should do after getting a healthy dose of culture? PLAY VIDEO GAMES! We hit up Laser Park. I made a fool of myself on the DDR Extreme machine (like, TOTAL fool.... I SUCK!) and we played some Laser Tag. I swear, I wasn't out and out stalking Layla, but I DID see her a bunch, and I shot her up good. Oh yes... she hates me for that ^_^;;;
The Village was our final destination. We had dinner at this quaint Turkish restaurant (Donner Kabob = YUM!) and we walked around. It was at this point I found the joy that is the 8th Street Lab. Think, Hot Topic, but far less goth, and much more cyber/raver. They had the skirt I bought Layla in size small, but all we did was look around. Oh, wait, no... her parents bought her some more clothes from there, being that is WAS her birthday get-together... but I can't remember what she got ^_^;;; We hit up two Asian food stores, and kinda ran into a friend of Layla's parents.
Finally, we parted ways ;_; and Dustin made the scary drive back to New Jersey, where I then hopped in my car and drove back to Maryland.
The next day, I learned that the skirt I bought as a gift, was too large in medium... and since I'm always looking for an opportunity to see my girlfriend, plans were made to meet up in New York again to buy her the right size skirt at 8th Street Lab, and so she can give the skirt back to me so I can return it.
That monday was her birthday proper, I sent her flowers, we talked on the phone for a bit. Very good times. ^____^
The end of this post is near! Yesterday was the day we were to meet in New York again. For anyone who's stayed on to read all of this... I commend you ^_^;;;
So yeah, saturday marked the graduation party that my roommate had planned for her boyfriend, and of note, my friend Jim from Rochester had come down. He left my place about 3am or so, and I went to sleep. Waking up and out the door by 9am (for the expected rendezvous at noon in the Times Squarish area), I made only one stop on my drive... at the Delaware House... where I saw Jim again... seems that he somehow got a big hole in his tire... like, a three inch hole... dunno how it happened, but it did, and I somehow stopped at the same rest stop. We chatted for a bit, then I was back on my way.
As I'm near New York, I am informed by Layla (and her parents who are again tagging along) that traffic is at a stand-still up near the original destination. So we changed plans and met up in the Village, which was more convenient anyway. My dumb ass didn't park where it was free. Ooops. We hit up the 8th Street Lab again, and I bought Layla that skirt in small, so now all is right with the world. I was also somehow convinced to buy a UFO jumpsuit.... I'll take pictures when I get the balls to wear it ^_^;;;
Um... lessee... we ate lunch/dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant, which had excellent Stroganoff and Challa bread, I'm no expert on perigees, but I had some of those too, and it was good. We hit The Art Store to get supplies for this class Layla was gonna start taking. I didn't realize there were so many damned brushes out there ^_^;;;
I finally got to be alone with Layla when we went to Kinokuniya. We took a picture together in one of the sticker booths, and I bought the two volumes of Trigun Maximum I didn't have. She got a manga called Doll and a copy of Shoxx with Psycho le Cemu on the cover, using the gift certificates she received as a gift from Lauren.
Our day ended with us all chatting around some Starbucks coffee and me spilling my drink into my crotch.... -_-;;; All in all, I wished I could have spent more time with my girlfriend, but I enjoyed the time I had. ^_^
Now, if I somehow end up in New York again next week.... I think I'm gonna cry =P
-Tom
So yeah, May 26th heralded the passing of my girlfriend's birthday, so I was thinking of what to get Layla as a gift, and thought "hey, she likes clothes from Illig, I'll go buy her some nice stuff to wear." Plans were made to meet up on the 24th in New York to see Phantom of the Opera, so I needed to make a mad dash to but my gifts. The weekend before I decided to go to a store called Commander Salamander in Georgetown, since I know there carry that line of clothing. This also happened to be the weekend of Anime Central and oddly enough, an Otakon staff meeting. I awoke to Scott and Terry asking me if I wanted to hang out on the same day as I had made my plans to make the trek into DC, which was quite convenient, since they were in DC. So we met up and started shopping. Commander Salamander had one of the items I was looking for, the Internet Skirt, but only in size medium, and Layla wears size small. Layla already knew I was planning to buy her some clothing, so I called her to see if a medium would do. She said it did, so the skirt was purchased, and good times were had by all. The most interesting event of this trip was eating at Johnny Rockets and seeing the waiters and some customers boogie down to disco music (I think they were playing "Staying Alive") ^_^;;;
Anywayz... the other thing I wanted to get was the Mall Camo Hoodie also by Illig, so I ordered that online, and all was good. Being the busy person that I am, I had no plan to wrap my gifts, since I only have Christmas wrapping paper, and no real time to wrap with... heh, but when I told Layla about this... she asked me nicely to wrap the gifts ;_; so as the risk of being late to meet up with Dustin before heading out to NYC on the 24th, I found some wrapping paper that was lying around work and wrapped the gifts XD
As I kind of touched on earlier, Layla, myself, and some friends decided to meet up in NYC to see Phantom of the Opera. I drove up to Dustin's place and crashed at his place, then we left early to pick up Kasey and were in New York by 11am or so (about and hour later than planned due to problems with Kasey's bank). The three of us met up with Layla and Lauren and Layla's parental units at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After all that time I spent wrapping my presents, we found out that it could not be taken inside since they wanted to see the contents of the packages... blah! Luckily, Layla was waiting for us near the entrance, so we held a quick gift unwrapping party right outside of the museum. That was weird... hehehe.
We wandered around the museum for a bit, then went to the the "Goddess" exhibit, which was kinda cool. It was a showcase of costumes worn by women. Good times. Then we wandered some more until we got to the section for musical instruments, then we looked at European paintings... which was like a maze! Then we left to all see the weapons and armor section, but we left Lauren behind so she could appreciate the paintings some more. In the armory-type-place I got to see swordz.... many, many cool japanese swordz... ::drool::. Unfortunately, we had to find Lauren and get going to see the Phantom, so I went to fetch her, but like I said... it was a maze! gah! Long story short (ha!), we found her and proceded up to Times Square.
After eating at the busiest Sbarro's, EVER, we got in line for Phantom and eventually were seated. Ok, so this was my first Broadway MUSICAL (not "play" was I was reminded a billion times by Layla =P) and I must say, it was amazing. I could definitely see myself paying full price to see it again (though I'm glad we got a nice fat discount ^_^;;;). The end was very moving, and I was told by the "veterans" among us that the guy currently playing the Phantom uber-good... all I know if that he really did do an excellent job, and I was really captured in the last scene. Good show! ^_^
So, what's the next thing people should do after getting a healthy dose of culture? PLAY VIDEO GAMES! We hit up Laser Park. I made a fool of myself on the DDR Extreme machine (like, TOTAL fool.... I SUCK!) and we played some Laser Tag. I swear, I wasn't out and out stalking Layla, but I DID see her a bunch, and I shot her up good. Oh yes... she hates me for that ^_^;;;
The Village was our final destination. We had dinner at this quaint Turkish restaurant (Donner Kabob = YUM!) and we walked around. It was at this point I found the joy that is the 8th Street Lab. Think, Hot Topic, but far less goth, and much more cyber/raver. They had the skirt I bought Layla in size small, but all we did was look around. Oh, wait, no... her parents bought her some more clothes from there, being that is WAS her birthday get-together... but I can't remember what she got ^_^;;; We hit up two Asian food stores, and kinda ran into a friend of Layla's parents.
Finally, we parted ways ;_; and Dustin made the scary drive back to New Jersey, where I then hopped in my car and drove back to Maryland.
The next day, I learned that the skirt I bought as a gift, was too large in medium... and since I'm always looking for an opportunity to see my girlfriend, plans were made to meet up in New York again to buy her the right size skirt at 8th Street Lab, and so she can give the skirt back to me so I can return it.
That monday was her birthday proper, I sent her flowers, we talked on the phone for a bit. Very good times. ^____^
The end of this post is near! Yesterday was the day we were to meet in New York again. For anyone who's stayed on to read all of this... I commend you ^_^;;;
So yeah, saturday marked the graduation party that my roommate had planned for her boyfriend, and of note, my friend Jim from Rochester had come down. He left my place about 3am or so, and I went to sleep. Waking up and out the door by 9am (for the expected rendezvous at noon in the Times Squarish area), I made only one stop on my drive... at the Delaware House... where I saw Jim again... seems that he somehow got a big hole in his tire... like, a three inch hole... dunno how it happened, but it did, and I somehow stopped at the same rest stop. We chatted for a bit, then I was back on my way.
As I'm near New York, I am informed by Layla (and her parents who are again tagging along) that traffic is at a stand-still up near the original destination. So we changed plans and met up in the Village, which was more convenient anyway. My dumb ass didn't park where it was free. Ooops. We hit up the 8th Street Lab again, and I bought Layla that skirt in small, so now all is right with the world. I was also somehow convinced to buy a UFO jumpsuit.... I'll take pictures when I get the balls to wear it ^_^;;;
Um... lessee... we ate lunch/dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant, which had excellent Stroganoff and Challa bread, I'm no expert on perigees, but I had some of those too, and it was good. We hit The Art Store to get supplies for this class Layla was gonna start taking. I didn't realize there were so many damned brushes out there ^_^;;;
I finally got to be alone with Layla when we went to Kinokuniya. We took a picture together in one of the sticker booths, and I bought the two volumes of Trigun Maximum I didn't have. She got a manga called Doll and a copy of Shoxx with Psycho le Cemu on the cover, using the gift certificates she received as a gift from Lauren.
Our day ended with us all chatting around some Starbucks coffee and me spilling my drink into my crotch.... -_-;;; All in all, I wished I could have spent more time with my girlfriend, but I enjoyed the time I had. ^_^
Now, if I somehow end up in New York again next week.... I think I'm gonna cry =P
-Tom