NA & Beer Garden plans & Philly recap. Also, "Hi! I'm Sara! I have tattoos!"
If we have NA on Wednesday at WR, I'll be able to meet up after class. If NA is this Thursday I won't be able to make it as I'm going to meet up with a few old friends after work at the highly praised Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Astoria for food/drinks.
If anyone is interested in joining me at the Beer Garden on Thursday, you're more than welcome. It's right off the Astoria Blvd stop on the N/W line, which is about a 20-25 minute train ride to/from the midtown area.
This weekend was our trip to Philly, and it was extreme fun! Liz went with us this time and I was very happy to hang out with her as I haven't really been able to do much of that in a long time. =(
We checked into our hotel around 11:30 on Saturday morning. It was really amazing for the price ($120/night for double occupancy) -- a two-room suite with two double beds, a mini-fridge, microwave, balcony overlooking a sizable duck pond, a HUGE bathroom. It was located in Mt. Laurel, NJ, which is nowhere and 15 miles away from the Philly city center, but it had a large, heated, indoor pool and jacuzzi -- which was actually quite relaxing.
We walked around a bit in Olde City and then came across an antiques flea market, which Judy was pleased with, I think. Then drove over to Eastern State Penitentiary (which is also near Nicole's house) to eat at a Greek place and then to Nicole's to have my tattoo done. The pain was not very bad at all; sharp, but since it only took a couple of minutes to ink the tat, it's hard to say exactly how the pain compares to other tats. Other tats have hurt worse, but it's usually because you've run out of epinephrine by that point. The first few minutes of tattoos never hurt all that much anyway.
We stayed and chatted at Nicole's for a little while, played with her kitties and then went over to South Street to do some shopping. Maryann and Judy went into a store called "Mineralistic" which is that type of store that sells figures of dragons, fairies, and gargoyles, and has jewelry and candle holders and such. Maryann got a very interesting candle holder for her wall, which I can't wait to see up! Surprisingly, I didn't buy a thing.
We then went over to eat at Nodding Head Pub, but Liz couldn't get in (what is it with pubs in smaller cities checking IDs? Jeez.) So Judy joined some new friends there and the rest of us went to Ruby Tuesday. Which, of course, did not check Liz's ID and so we all got drinks anyway...
After dinner we went over to the penitentiary for the haunted house and OMG THAT WAS SO MUCH FUNNNN!!!1!11!1 It was very creepy and the actors did an amazing job! I'm not easily scared or anything, but for this kind of thing, what's the point if you don't get yourself into the mood and let yourself get scared? I'm SUPER glad that Maryann was with us; that she's so easily scared really made it WAY more fun. =D You might think $30 ($20 mon-thurs/$25 fri & sun) is a lot to spend on a haunted house, but the walkthrough was a good 45 minutes and SOOOO WORTH IT. Afterwards, the 5-minute walk back to the car turned into 10 or more minutes as we kept expecting to see things in the shadows and around corners, lol!
Sunday was mostly more relaxed... bounced around in the pool and jacuzzi for an hour, then back to Philly for food. Judy and Maryann went to the Pirate exhibit and Planetarium at the Franklin Institute. Liz and I went to see the R.Crumb exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art, which was pretty darn amazing! There was a lot of reading to do, and I didn't get around to all the comics, but MAN, Crumb can be pretty hysterical. He does a lot of criticism-by-depiction, so his work isn't for everyone -- it's easy to be offended by it. But I think it's daring and great. We took a quick walk through the other exhibits (Douglas Blau's photographs, Kate Gilmore's performance videos, Odili Donald Odita's abstract wall painting) and then sat outside in the sun for a nice, relaxing 1/2 hour. It was really wonderful.
I'd been a little concerned, from that morning, that Nicole hadn't pressed deep enough when doing my tattoo, so I called her to ask if we could stop by and she could go over it again. So she called back and told me to come on over. So Liz and I went back to Nicole's and I had my lip touched up. Then went to meet up with Maryann and Judy and leave for NYC... or we planned to, at least. Jim called then, and we ended up meeting up with him for a quick lunch. It was quite nice... and we were running late because of it. He gave us some least-time directions and we ended up back in NYC at around 8:15pm.
Not bad, though by the time I returned the car it was almost 9. I almost had to pay for an extra day ($70), but I asked the manager if there was any way they could reduce the fee -- at the very least, to the extra hour rate ($50). He gave me SUCH A FUCKING ATTITUDE, I swear I wanted to tell him that he's a fucking prick. But I kept a smile on my face as he postured as if he wouldn't be able to do it, but gave me the discount anyway while shaking his head and giving me a fucking lecture. You know what? If you're going to give me the discount, give it to me and I'll appreciate it. If you're not going to give it to me, just don't fucking give it to me. What the hell is the problem? I've worked in retail; I know how it is. Don't lecture me just because you didn't get a chance to take out your frustration on anyone else yet. At one point he said "it's just twenty dollars." Uh, yeah! You're the manager of an airport car rental company. Are you saying you make enough money to say it's "JUST" $20?! Even if YOU do, you know nothing about ME. If it was JUST $20, I wouldn't be asking for the fucking discount now, would I?!
What an asshole.
Anyway, I leave you with this quick cell phone pic of my new tat. It says "w;t", because I like the word "wit": what it means and how it's used. The semi-colon is a reference to John Donne poetry (which I love), by way of this play (which I saw when I was 17 or 18, and also love).
If anyone is interested in joining me at the Beer Garden on Thursday, you're more than welcome. It's right off the Astoria Blvd stop on the N/W line, which is about a 20-25 minute train ride to/from the midtown area.
This weekend was our trip to Philly, and it was extreme fun! Liz went with us this time and I was very happy to hang out with her as I haven't really been able to do much of that in a long time. =(
We checked into our hotel around 11:30 on Saturday morning. It was really amazing for the price ($120/night for double occupancy) -- a two-room suite with two double beds, a mini-fridge, microwave, balcony overlooking a sizable duck pond, a HUGE bathroom. It was located in Mt. Laurel, NJ, which is nowhere and 15 miles away from the Philly city center, but it had a large, heated, indoor pool and jacuzzi -- which was actually quite relaxing.
We walked around a bit in Olde City and then came across an antiques flea market, which Judy was pleased with, I think. Then drove over to Eastern State Penitentiary (which is also near Nicole's house) to eat at a Greek place and then to Nicole's to have my tattoo done. The pain was not very bad at all; sharp, but since it only took a couple of minutes to ink the tat, it's hard to say exactly how the pain compares to other tats. Other tats have hurt worse, but it's usually because you've run out of epinephrine by that point. The first few minutes of tattoos never hurt all that much anyway.
We stayed and chatted at Nicole's for a little while, played with her kitties and then went over to South Street to do some shopping. Maryann and Judy went into a store called "Mineralistic" which is that type of store that sells figures of dragons, fairies, and gargoyles, and has jewelry and candle holders and such. Maryann got a very interesting candle holder for her wall, which I can't wait to see up! Surprisingly, I didn't buy a thing.
We then went over to eat at Nodding Head Pub, but Liz couldn't get in (what is it with pubs in smaller cities checking IDs? Jeez.) So Judy joined some new friends there and the rest of us went to Ruby Tuesday. Which, of course, did not check Liz's ID and so we all got drinks anyway...
After dinner we went over to the penitentiary for the haunted house and OMG THAT WAS SO MUCH FUNNNN!!!1!11!1 It was very creepy and the actors did an amazing job! I'm not easily scared or anything, but for this kind of thing, what's the point if you don't get yourself into the mood and let yourself get scared? I'm SUPER glad that Maryann was with us; that she's so easily scared really made it WAY more fun. =D You might think $30 ($20 mon-thurs/$25 fri & sun) is a lot to spend on a haunted house, but the walkthrough was a good 45 minutes and SOOOO WORTH IT. Afterwards, the 5-minute walk back to the car turned into 10 or more minutes as we kept expecting to see things in the shadows and around corners, lol!
Sunday was mostly more relaxed... bounced around in the pool and jacuzzi for an hour, then back to Philly for food. Judy and Maryann went to the Pirate exhibit and Planetarium at the Franklin Institute. Liz and I went to see the R.Crumb exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art, which was pretty darn amazing! There was a lot of reading to do, and I didn't get around to all the comics, but MAN, Crumb can be pretty hysterical. He does a lot of criticism-by-depiction, so his work isn't for everyone -- it's easy to be offended by it. But I think it's daring and great. We took a quick walk through the other exhibits (Douglas Blau's photographs, Kate Gilmore's performance videos, Odili Donald Odita's abstract wall painting) and then sat outside in the sun for a nice, relaxing 1/2 hour. It was really wonderful.
I'd been a little concerned, from that morning, that Nicole hadn't pressed deep enough when doing my tattoo, so I called her to ask if we could stop by and she could go over it again. So she called back and told me to come on over. So Liz and I went back to Nicole's and I had my lip touched up. Then went to meet up with Maryann and Judy and leave for NYC... or we planned to, at least. Jim called then, and we ended up meeting up with him for a quick lunch. It was quite nice... and we were running late because of it. He gave us some least-time directions and we ended up back in NYC at around 8:15pm.
Not bad, though by the time I returned the car it was almost 9. I almost had to pay for an extra day ($70), but I asked the manager if there was any way they could reduce the fee -- at the very least, to the extra hour rate ($50). He gave me SUCH A FUCKING ATTITUDE, I swear I wanted to tell him that he's a fucking prick. But I kept a smile on my face as he postured as if he wouldn't be able to do it, but gave me the discount anyway while shaking his head and giving me a fucking lecture. You know what? If you're going to give me the discount, give it to me and I'll appreciate it. If you're not going to give it to me, just don't fucking give it to me. What the hell is the problem? I've worked in retail; I know how it is. Don't lecture me just because you didn't get a chance to take out your frustration on anyone else yet. At one point he said "it's just twenty dollars." Uh, yeah! You're the manager of an airport car rental company. Are you saying you make enough money to say it's "JUST" $20?! Even if YOU do, you know nothing about ME. If it was JUST $20, I wouldn't be asking for the fucking discount now, would I?!
What an asshole.
Anyway, I leave you with this quick cell phone pic of my new tat. It says "w;t", because I like the word "wit": what it means and how it's used. The semi-colon is a reference to John Donne poetry (which I love), by way of this play (which I saw when I was 17 or 18, and also love).