The Big Apple

EDITOR'S NOTE: I decided to do one long post and leave it up for a couple of days, instead of many smaller ones, so feel free to come back if it's too much at once.

One of the last things my mom said to me when she dropped me off at the airport last Wed. night was "I bet you change your mind and decide to move to NYC instead of Seattle." We shall see.

I took this picture while walking around Central Park on Saturday afternoon with Lori and thought it was one of the more peaceful images that we rarely see of NYC. This unique combination of high rises in the background and a wide open green park is why I'm sure many are drawn to this city.

I have to admit that I wasn't really prepared for how hot it was going to be, for my trip last Fall was in November and the temp was in the 50s most of the time. This past week, the mid-to-high 80s, so it felt like Hawaii, but without the reprieve of the tropical breezes.

I'm not sure how many of you have been to NYC, but Manhattan is divided up into distinct neighborhoods. I was on the lower end of it, at the border of Little Italy and the Lower East Side. Last Fall, my mom and I stayed up in Midtown, about two blocks from Times Square. Though Midtown was much more convenient to stores and restaurants, it was also much noisier, esp. at night.

I was three blocks from Katz Deli, which was featured in When Harry Met Sally when Sally did her infamous fake orgasm. The sign says that's where Meg Ryan sat for the scene and "hope you're having what she's having."

On Thursday, Joel (the man with the secret blog) was kind enough to come into the city and treat me to a dinner in Little Italy at a restaurant called Pellegrino. The food was excellent, and I had something new called a vodka sauce, which is red/white mixed together. So, thanks Joel!

On Friday morning, Wes came up early and we met up via cell phone around the closest subway stop (btw, I think I've become pretty good at that system).

The first thing he said to me was "I thought you'd be a lot taller." I'm still not quite understanding why I come off as some type of an Amazon, when I have said all along I'm just shy of 5'8".

Anyway, we went for a medicore meal in Chinatown, and after, he browsed through Asian films on DVD. I had to point out exactly where I saw U2 last year and then I got a phone call that Lori was coming in earlier.

On our way to Penn Station to meet Lori, we stopped by the World Trade Center site (I figured Sunday would be crazy on the anniversary). The pic above was taken from the viewing platform, and based upon the map, the towers were on the opposite corner of that lot. What was jarring was coming up out of the subway right into the middle of the ground-level of the site. Not much has been done to the site since last November, and I heard that there's a lot of dispute as to what should go in the place or if it should be left as is.

The signs you see above provide pictures and the timeline for events on 9/11. If you are ever in NYC, this should be your top priority to pay your respect to those who died on that day. It is as moving, if not more so, than going to the Arizona Memorial, here in Hawaii.

Friday night was the Big Event in terms of meeting up with the bloggers. Lori, Wes, and I had a mini-slumber party in my room on Friday, so we went up together on the subway. Here's our picture taken after dinner with me, Lori, Sarah, Wes and Joel (with The Anonymous Blogger taking it, of course). I had a really good time meeting up with everyone, and it goes to show that no matter what you blog about, pieces of your personality will some come through. I have yet to be surprised by meeting a blogger in-person, and that's a good thing. I think I did jar TAB a little bit at first when I mentioned something about what he doesn't like to do, he paused as if to wonder if I was a stalker, and then said "oh yeah, I guess you read that on the blog."

After dinner, Sarah bid adieu as she was leaving for India the next day, and we made our way to Greenwich Village for the next round. Lori and I insisted that we go by Magnolia Bakery for the cupcakes featured in Sex and the City. While Joel and TAB waited in a nearby park (and blogged from wifi feeds, of course), Wes treated Lori and I to these desserts. My review is that they are just okay. The frosting was a bit rich for me and the cake was a little dry. We then hit an English pub called The Slaughtered Lamb, and then split up around 1 a.m. I was surprised to see how crowded it was on the streets, even at that time.

My most memorable part from that night is when we walked by some people smoking a joint on the street, and then started talking about where it's legal to do so. I mentioned Amsterdam, only to have TAB turn around and say "I threw up in Amsterdam." I couldn't stop laughing because it was so like the random statements on his blog.

This is Lori and Wes at Madison Park eating the most delicious hamburger from that building you see in the background called The Shake Shack. This particular day had my most memorable moment between these two. Lori and Wes riffed off each other pretty well over the course of the two days we spent together, even discussing Christian existentialism on the way to dinner the previous evening.

Here's what cracked my ass up:

Lori: I just gave a bird a french fry in case you see it flying away with it.
Wes: You better be careful with that or it might make them shit on you.
We laugh
Wes: You know, I was once shit on three times in one week. By birds.
Lori: Thanks for clarifying that. That it was birds.

Lori and I gussied up to go see The Phantom of the Opera on Saturday night. I saw this last Fall, and when Lori said she wanted to see it, I jumped on the chance to see it again, for it was -- and still is -- fabulous. The current Phantom sounds just like Michael Crawford and is my favorite Broadway show I've seen so far (I've seen many of the famous musicals via national tour). We went out to eat after the show in Times Square and was, again, shocked by how many people were out at 12:30 a.m. as if it were 5 p.m.

Oh yeah, we went to get a snack before the show near my hotel, and we wound up sitting next to Mena Suvari from American Beauty and American Pie. She looked exactly the same, and is so skinny that you could see her collar bone sticking out. I was quite amused at the end of the meal when she and her girlfriends did the usual check-splitting and trying to figure out who owed what.

I said good-bye to Lori on Sunday and then impulsively hopped up to the famous Madame Tassaud's Wax Museum. This was one of my favorite ones -- of Julia Roberts, of course. This was fun to see, but I don't think it was worth the $30 ticket to get in. They did have a lot of historical figures, sports legends, and even a horror section. The cool thing was that all the visitors were posing with the figures, but since I was by myself, this will have to suffice. No biggie.



I then had to rush home and get ready for the wedding of my friend Nate' (na-tay) to her husband, Hal -- which was the entire point of the trip. I've known Nate' since 1981 when we were next-door neighbors in Hawaii, and we've kept in touch ever since. I wish I didn't have our pictures in storage, for it's odd that neither one of our faces have changed much ever since we met. I was also able to catch up with her parents, who also said they recognized me as soon as I walked into the room.

They opted for a small wedding/reception and had both at this fine dining restaurant called One if By Land, Two if By Sea, which was absolutely fabulous. The food was delicious and it has that nice, quiet, dark romantic atmosphere. The name of the restaurant comes from the fact that Paul Revere supposedly stayed there when it was an inn back in the 1770s. Hal and Nate' are honeymooning here in Hawaii, so I'm anxious to catch up with them one-on-one sometime this week.

I actually took this shot on Saturday afternoon, but it does segue into Monday nicely. It is the front of Carrie's building that was featured in Sex and the City in Greenwich Village (despite the fact she said she lived on the Upper East Side on the show). If I had all the money in the world and was going to live in NYC, this is the area that I liked most, but on the side streets away from the action.

On Monday, I hung out with a real-life friend, Mike, who was in town. We first went to The Met, only to discover it was closed on Mondays, so we then went to the Museum of Modern Art, which was interesting (and ironically, cheaper than Madame Tassaud's). While I could appreciate much of what was in there, I had a harder time with sculptures such as a pink flourescent bulb in a light fixture as a "work of art." That's a debate for another post, but I was glad we went.

Afterward, we went to Serendipity (yes, as featured in the John Cuzack movie) for some famous frozen hot chocolate, which was better than I thought it would be. And if you ever want to go, try for about 3 p.m. on a Monday in September, for it was dead compared to going last November when it was a two-hour wait the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

We walked around a lot (Hell, that's the only way to eat out all the time and not gain 100 lbs) and then decided to go to Greenwich Village for dinner. Once we were in the middle of it, I realized that I was turned around and we had to get back to Bleeker Street. So, I stopped this woman who was walking her dog and asked her if she could tell me where it was. As she was talking to me, I realized how familiar she looked/sounded and -- I shit you not -- it was Liv Tyler from The Lord of the Rings movies (and others, I know). As she walked away, I exclaimed "oh" like a dumbass, and she turned around, and then I said "oh, nevermind, thank you for your help."

Tuesday, I slept in very late, met Mike for a lunch and then said good-bye. I went up to the Theatre District to see what ticket I could get for a show that night and wound up finding one in seventh row center for Wicked, which is the backstory of the two witches from The Wizard of Oz. I met my aunt for dinner nearby and then raced to the show. I have to admit that I liked it, but didn't love it. I enjoyed Phantom much more, though I do realize that it's all subjective and a matter of personal taste.

Probably the only regret is that I didn't have any more time with Sarah or TAB, as I did with the others, for I felt like I got to know the other three much more one-on-one. Group dynamics are always different, particularly when everyone else is ending their work week on a Friday night.

All in all, I had a great time in New York and it will continue to be one of my favorite cities, and I'll probably come back to visit often. However, I don't have any desire to move there, unless I'm rich because it's just so expensive (I ordered a Diet Coke in Midtown and it was $4.34 for 8 oz). I also feel somewhat like a fish-out-of-water with the culture in that it's so fast-paced, and most of the Southern ways I grew up with are a foreign concept there. As I said on Wes' site, Seattle feels like the hybrid of a city like New York combined with the laid-back attitude of Hawaii, and is a better fit for me -- right now.

Thanks to everyone for not forgetting about me, with my craziness the past couple of weeks. I will be catching up on your blogs over the next couple of days.