Thursday the 28th- From Miami to New York City and afterwards...
Well, to put it frankly, I wasn’t able to provide a live update last night because I fell asleep at 9 PM. Why? Because I had slept all of 90 minutes since, oh, 7 AM Wednesday morning. But now, I’m on twelve hours sleep and on the comp as well, so here goes!
At 3:30 AM Thursday morning I was already getting dressed, leaving the house at 4 in the morning. After picking up my aunt and uncle, we sped up the turnpike to the Fort Lauderdale airport, checking in and going through hell at the security line. They even made me take off my belt. My fucking belt! Not only that, but they treated my laptop like it was smeared with god knows what, so they wiped the dam thing down with a cloth to see if it had anything. Anyways, we got on our Jetblue flight around 7 and proceeded to make a horrible mistake. As the plane finished its taxi to the runway, I decided to take a break from watching SportsCenter on the inflight DirecTV and look out the window on the takeoff. I swear the damn thing went 0-200 in 3 seconds flat because that is how hard it went forward after a full stop at the tail of the runway. When it pulled up to take off, the plane went skyward at what I believed was at least a 45 degree angle. The second the plane got over the Broward coastline and over the ocean, I began to freak out. Hyperventilation, heart pounding, the works. When we got to cruising level at what I swore was a full half hour, the seat belt signs turned off…but I still thought we were angled upward. After ordering a coffee and cookies (they don’t serve full meals on Jetblue), I tried to relax with a helping of Nickelodeon, but to no avail. Surprisingly enough though, I fell asleep at around Columbia, South Carolina, and happened to wake up just when the plane began to pass Newark, New Jersey. The part of the flight that bothered me most before landing, though, was the occasional streams of air which would cause turbulence onboard. Nothing severe, but enough to scare me. Before I knew it, we were getting off the plane at JFK International. Half an hour later, we had our bags in hand and we caught a private car my aunt had rented to our hotel, the Sheraton New York. This is where I got disillusioned with the so called capital of the world.
We had to ride through most of Queens to get to Manhattan, and what I saw made my stomach churn. Virtually all of the buildings I saw were extremely aged, and most could be called decrepit or run-down. The Queensboro Bridge was no looker either…everything seemed to personify an grizzled old bum on the street. Manhattan showed the first signs of improvement, but there were still spots of grimy and decrepit structures all over the place. My first thought at the hotel door was that I had never seen a city which seemed to rot from the outside in, instead of from the inside out. The hotel, to put it simply, has the fastest elevators I’ve ever been in…I wouldn’t be surprised if they were slower than those of many other buildings in this town. The room has a good enough view, essentially the first signs of Times Square (even though I’m not AT Times Square; I’m on 7th Ave. and 53rd St., a few blocks away), the W Hotel, Reuters HQ, and a massive double billboard for Derek Jeter’s cologne. After unpacking and a little rest, we all headed out to Times Square, where we went into the world’s biggest Toys ‘R Us. Sadly enough, I did not run into any comely ladies like Gio had told me about, but it was fun nonetheless (I guess chicks have more to do on a Thursday afternoon than hang out at Toys ‘R Us waiting for Miami guys to walk in) After Toys ‘R Us, we headed to 6th and 5th Avenues, taking a gander at all the buildings, including Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Radio City Music Hall, among other places. Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel, where we headed up to our rooms to just plop into bed after a good shower.
It’s late…I guess I’ll have to do a double post tomorrow then. See ya!
At 3:30 AM Thursday morning I was already getting dressed, leaving the house at 4 in the morning. After picking up my aunt and uncle, we sped up the turnpike to the Fort Lauderdale airport, checking in and going through hell at the security line. They even made me take off my belt. My fucking belt! Not only that, but they treated my laptop like it was smeared with god knows what, so they wiped the dam thing down with a cloth to see if it had anything. Anyways, we got on our Jetblue flight around 7 and proceeded to make a horrible mistake. As the plane finished its taxi to the runway, I decided to take a break from watching SportsCenter on the inflight DirecTV and look out the window on the takeoff. I swear the damn thing went 0-200 in 3 seconds flat because that is how hard it went forward after a full stop at the tail of the runway. When it pulled up to take off, the plane went skyward at what I believed was at least a 45 degree angle. The second the plane got over the Broward coastline and over the ocean, I began to freak out. Hyperventilation, heart pounding, the works. When we got to cruising level at what I swore was a full half hour, the seat belt signs turned off…but I still thought we were angled upward. After ordering a coffee and cookies (they don’t serve full meals on Jetblue), I tried to relax with a helping of Nickelodeon, but to no avail. Surprisingly enough though, I fell asleep at around Columbia, South Carolina, and happened to wake up just when the plane began to pass Newark, New Jersey. The part of the flight that bothered me most before landing, though, was the occasional streams of air which would cause turbulence onboard. Nothing severe, but enough to scare me. Before I knew it, we were getting off the plane at JFK International. Half an hour later, we had our bags in hand and we caught a private car my aunt had rented to our hotel, the Sheraton New York. This is where I got disillusioned with the so called capital of the world.
We had to ride through most of Queens to get to Manhattan, and what I saw made my stomach churn. Virtually all of the buildings I saw were extremely aged, and most could be called decrepit or run-down. The Queensboro Bridge was no looker either…everything seemed to personify an grizzled old bum on the street. Manhattan showed the first signs of improvement, but there were still spots of grimy and decrepit structures all over the place. My first thought at the hotel door was that I had never seen a city which seemed to rot from the outside in, instead of from the inside out. The hotel, to put it simply, has the fastest elevators I’ve ever been in…I wouldn’t be surprised if they were slower than those of many other buildings in this town. The room has a good enough view, essentially the first signs of Times Square (even though I’m not AT Times Square; I’m on 7th Ave. and 53rd St., a few blocks away), the W Hotel, Reuters HQ, and a massive double billboard for Derek Jeter’s cologne. After unpacking and a little rest, we all headed out to Times Square, where we went into the world’s biggest Toys ‘R Us. Sadly enough, I did not run into any comely ladies like Gio had told me about, but it was fun nonetheless (I guess chicks have more to do on a Thursday afternoon than hang out at Toys ‘R Us waiting for Miami guys to walk in) After Toys ‘R Us, we headed to 6th and 5th Avenues, taking a gander at all the buildings, including Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Radio City Music Hall, among other places. Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel, where we headed up to our rooms to just plop into bed after a good shower.
It’s late…I guess I’ll have to do a double post tomorrow then. See ya!