New York, New York... just saying it's name gets expensive.
While I have intentions of returning to refin what I write here later and add commentary and intrigue and lots of other great things, for the moment, while I am still here in this city that never sleeps (except on Sunday because all the liquor stores are closed and Times Square even looked almost empty at 2 A.M.) my intentions are to record as much as possible for the sake of my memory which has a tendency to fail me at the worst possible times. And that was the longest run on sentence I could think to preface this with.
Night One, 11:59 - Tucson International Airport
The trip seemed to have an auspcious beginning when our JetBlue redeye flight was delayed at least an hour and a half. But despite this we were still in high spirits as we boarded the plane. After the novelty of in flight tv screens behind the back of every chair wore off, we all tried our best to sleep in the most uncomfortable position ever imagined ... sitting upright. Our seats didn't recline, I was stuck in the middle seat (because on the flight back I'll have the window seat for fairness) and the women two might right who's entire family was sitting across the row kept harping on about how horrible her said family was. And how dare I take up my half of the arm rest, oh boy did she huff and puff about that so I'd be sure to know she did not approve. I maybe got a totall of two hours of sleep when you combined the little bits and pieces where I was finally able to nod off only to be awoken by the crick in my neck or some other bodily malady. Finally two hours late and a little worse for wear we landed at JFK Airport to begin our trek to the island of Manhattan and the horrible start that would await us there.
Day One - Subways, Times Square and the renter from Hell
I am being awfully negative so far but that is because the first parts of our trip were pretty bad. We thought we were in for a long nine days, however I promise things turn around so I don't have to feel like the bringer of bad news. The negative part about our first morning here was that after a long overnight flight were we got hardly and sleep we would have loved to find a clean apartment waiting for us as we were promised so we could at least try to regain some lost sleep and then start fresh. This was not to be because the women we are renting from is looking for a good flogging when we are done here. We decided to rent an apartment because it seemed cheaper in the long run and we might have a better chance of getting the undilluted NYC experience that way. And while run down apartments may be the undilluted version, we at least expected her to wash the sheets like she promised. We all cautiously took our naps anyway, because after having to lug our luggage (an object who's name is no longer lost on me) around for some extra time till she could finally deign to meet us we were all dead tired. (Note: the only reason we had horribly overpriced soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden despite having sworn not to give in to the crappy chains while in New York is because we just needed somewhere to sit with our luggage for two hours and it was caddy corner to our apartment which is right of the touristy hell that is times square)
Upon waking is when things actually start to look up. After a nap in questionable sheets you do everything you can to try to forget things by distracting yourself however possible. We were ready to get out and see some of the city. I think it's safe to say that architecture is a big draw for this group so one of our first destinations was to be the Flatiron Building. This building is even better in person than in the pictures of art history books. The city itself is better in person for that matter because you really don't understand the true scale of all the skyscrapers and narrow one way streets until you are standing right under them staring up in awe. I don't mean to be overly sentimental or anything, but honestely awe is the only word for it so I'll stick with that and damn the consequences. I think jealousy really sets in when I see such well excecuted building strategies for the sake of housing the most people in the smallest place possible. I despise the sprawl of the desert I come from so in comparison I can't help but romanticize things just a little bit. This is the New York City of the movies which until now is my only frame of reference. There was also an amusing encounter with some young asian tourists with whom we ended up in a long game of you take our picture we'll take your picture too that warrants mentioning so I won't forget how cute it was.
Our landlord (who is japanese woman with a german last name even though she is married to a japanese man which is a conundrum we're still trying to figure out) only left us one set of keys. Since we don't think very highly of someone who pretends we haven't paid her when we have NUMEROUS times and then fails to make good on any of her promises, we had no qualms about making a second set so we wouldn't be stuck in our group of four the whole time. As luck would have it we happened upon a Home Depot in the middle of a shopping district that was multiple levels and had this contraption that helped you get your cart up and down stairs while you rode the escalator that we all found horribly amusing. This is just another of the key differences between the building style here and our putrid western sprawl. With our second set of keys things were looking up and we were starting to feel more optimistic. It was time for a trek to Grays Papaya hot dogs to try the stuff that dreams are made of: the recession special. Two hot dogs with saurkraut and a papaya drink later we were ready to head home, wash our sheets and wash our bad morning off with a long shower.
Next Entry: Night Two - Acccidental Meetings and the Diner from Heaven
Night One, 11:59 - Tucson International Airport
The trip seemed to have an auspcious beginning when our JetBlue redeye flight was delayed at least an hour and a half. But despite this we were still in high spirits as we boarded the plane. After the novelty of in flight tv screens behind the back of every chair wore off, we all tried our best to sleep in the most uncomfortable position ever imagined ... sitting upright. Our seats didn't recline, I was stuck in the middle seat (because on the flight back I'll have the window seat for fairness) and the women two might right who's entire family was sitting across the row kept harping on about how horrible her said family was. And how dare I take up my half of the arm rest, oh boy did she huff and puff about that so I'd be sure to know she did not approve. I maybe got a totall of two hours of sleep when you combined the little bits and pieces where I was finally able to nod off only to be awoken by the crick in my neck or some other bodily malady. Finally two hours late and a little worse for wear we landed at JFK Airport to begin our trek to the island of Manhattan and the horrible start that would await us there.
Day One - Subways, Times Square and the renter from Hell
I am being awfully negative so far but that is because the first parts of our trip were pretty bad. We thought we were in for a long nine days, however I promise things turn around so I don't have to feel like the bringer of bad news. The negative part about our first morning here was that after a long overnight flight were we got hardly and sleep we would have loved to find a clean apartment waiting for us as we were promised so we could at least try to regain some lost sleep and then start fresh. This was not to be because the women we are renting from is looking for a good flogging when we are done here. We decided to rent an apartment because it seemed cheaper in the long run and we might have a better chance of getting the undilluted NYC experience that way. And while run down apartments may be the undilluted version, we at least expected her to wash the sheets like she promised. We all cautiously took our naps anyway, because after having to lug our luggage (an object who's name is no longer lost on me) around for some extra time till she could finally deign to meet us we were all dead tired. (Note: the only reason we had horribly overpriced soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden despite having sworn not to give in to the crappy chains while in New York is because we just needed somewhere to sit with our luggage for two hours and it was caddy corner to our apartment which is right of the touristy hell that is times square)
Upon waking is when things actually start to look up. After a nap in questionable sheets you do everything you can to try to forget things by distracting yourself however possible. We were ready to get out and see some of the city. I think it's safe to say that architecture is a big draw for this group so one of our first destinations was to be the Flatiron Building. This building is even better in person than in the pictures of art history books. The city itself is better in person for that matter because you really don't understand the true scale of all the skyscrapers and narrow one way streets until you are standing right under them staring up in awe. I don't mean to be overly sentimental or anything, but honestely awe is the only word for it so I'll stick with that and damn the consequences. I think jealousy really sets in when I see such well excecuted building strategies for the sake of housing the most people in the smallest place possible. I despise the sprawl of the desert I come from so in comparison I can't help but romanticize things just a little bit. This is the New York City of the movies which until now is my only frame of reference. There was also an amusing encounter with some young asian tourists with whom we ended up in a long game of you take our picture we'll take your picture too that warrants mentioning so I won't forget how cute it was.
Our landlord (who is japanese woman with a german last name even though she is married to a japanese man which is a conundrum we're still trying to figure out) only left us one set of keys. Since we don't think very highly of someone who pretends we haven't paid her when we have NUMEROUS times and then fails to make good on any of her promises, we had no qualms about making a second set so we wouldn't be stuck in our group of four the whole time. As luck would have it we happened upon a Home Depot in the middle of a shopping district that was multiple levels and had this contraption that helped you get your cart up and down stairs while you rode the escalator that we all found horribly amusing. This is just another of the key differences between the building style here and our putrid western sprawl. With our second set of keys things were looking up and we were starting to feel more optimistic. It was time for a trek to Grays Papaya hot dogs to try the stuff that dreams are made of: the recession special. Two hot dogs with saurkraut and a papaya drink later we were ready to head home, wash our sheets and wash our bad morning off with a long shower.
Next Entry: Night Two - Acccidental Meetings and the Diner from Heaven