New York City

~~~~ Okay

Sunday - Lindsay came down so Daddy could grill her a steak. After almost two years of promising this he finally came through and I think they were both really pleased. Daddy's already talking about making her a hamburger the next time she comes. Oh, carnivores. After dinner Lindsay and I started to pack. We both realized we didn't have appropriate purses for the trip (uber girly, I know) and made an emergency run to Penney's. After that we stopped at Dairyland for ice cream (mint orea, yum) and then headed back home to finish packing. We watched Becomming Jane (potentially one of my favorite movies) and snacked on mom's lemon bars.

Monday - Woke up, packed up the car, grabbed my Aunt Nancy, and took off to the Akron-Canton Airport. Got through security with no troubles and sat and waited. Our flight was delayed a little but it wasn't bad. We had Arby's for lunch in the airport and had a 52 minute plane ride to LaGuardia. When we got there we had to sit on the runway for a little because there wasn't a free gate (welcome to New York airports) but after that little mishap everything worked out. Met up with Craig and got settled in his house in Jersey City. It's a nice house and he took us out on his balcony to see the city skyline. Very pretty. Then Lindsay and I headed out to the city. To get there from Jersey City you have to take the LightRail then the PathTrain. Seems easy enough. We only messed up once so I'd say we did relativley well. The Path drops you off on 33rd so it was only a ten block walk up to TimesSquare. Lindsay got her picture of the Empire State Building (green for st. patty's day) and we just wandered around. Had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe for a lack of anyplace around better. Our waiter called himself Zoro but we thought he looked more like Howie from the Backstreet Boys. Pretty sure he was hitting on us the entire time. Awesome. Had Sante Fe Egg Rolls. Yum. After that it was pretty late so we headed back to Jersey and went to bed.

Tuesday - Woke up early to find Craig had gotten us Bagels, Coffee, and Orange Juice. Silly boy. Got ready and headed back into the city. Walked 52 blocks up to the MET. It was nice to see so much of the city but probably not the smartest decision we've ever made. Stopped by the public library on the way and saw the original Winnie the Pooh. So cute! Finally made it to the MET and spent the next 6 hours there. I know, we're real cool kids. I was in heaven. I was realtively unimpressed by the Classics section but I guess that's just because the Athens Archaeology Museum is just so well done and has so many impressive artifacts. But all in all I thought the Met was organized the same way and had many impressive exhibits. The Egyptian section was great and the Temple of Dendur was really impressive. After grabbing a quick lunch down at the cafeteria (fruit and yogurt parfait and vitamin water) we headed up to the second floor. Saw some Renaissance and 18th and 19th century European art... and basically crashed. Caught the Monet and Van Gogh sections, as impressive as ever, and then decided that we needed to remember what daylight looked like so headed out to Central Park. Found Cleopatra's Needle... which has NOTHING to do with Cleopatra! Then just started to wander. It was kinda cold and cloudy but central park is central park. Saw some landmarks and made our way to Strawberry Fields. That was the real reason I wanted to go to Central Park. Strawberry Fields is the section of Central Park dedicated to John Lenon. It overlooks the Dakota... the place of his assassination. In the center is a memorial entitled Imagine with flowers forming a peace symbol. While we were there some people in the Park began to scream at each other and nearly broke out in a fist fight. Oh the irony of violence and hatred at the peace memorial... After snapping a picture of the Dakota we went back into the Park and saw a few more sights. A couple fountains and the Alice in Wonderland statues. After that we were about ready to die so we found a cafe called Pret and went in for a while. Pret turned out to be awesome. It's an organic all natural cafe with great food. Lindsay had organic hot chocolate and broccoli cheese soup and I had Moroccan lentil soup. Still not Egyptian but it was tastey. After that we stopped by Macy's just to say we've been there. I bought the prettiest Indian-inspired dress I have ever seen and Lindsay got a pair of Calvin Klein jeans. Plus everything was on sale so it was awesome. Then we decided to head back so Craig could take us out to dinner in Hoboken. When we got back we went to a local bar and I had a veggie wrap. Not too bad. We hung out for a while, got Lindsay drunk, played a little trivia, and won some shirts because we were from Ohio. I also knew one of the trivia questions about cannibalism in New Guinea thanks to Dr. Sidky!

Wednesday - Woke up, got pretty, found MORE bagels and orange juice from the boy, and headed to the Village. Stopped in the train stations so I could get a cup of coffee and the vendor could not believe I drank it black. Go figure. After a few problems and lots of rain we found the Strand which boasts over 18 miles of book shelves. I swear if there's a heaven that would be mine. I bought the third book in the Bartimaeus trilogy, a book on the history of Superman for Daddy, and a novel in Italian called La Casa de Emily Brook. After picking up our obligatory Strand bags we hopped on the subway to go Uptown to Rent. We had some time to kill so Lindsay bought her stereotypical streetvendor hotdog and I got a pretzel. After that we headed to the Nederlander Theatre. Rent was amazing (as always). The Maureen was probably my least favorite but the Mimi was the best EVER. I also loved Colins and Angel particularly. And Roger grew on me throughout the show. When he started to get tired I caught a bit of an accent and after the show we looked him up and he's from London... oh yeah, I'm so good. Decided to take a little break and headed back to Jersey. Waited for Craig to get off work and spent a little time looking through the Posted books. People write their deepest darkest secrets on postcards and send them into this one guy who publishes them in a book. Some of them were real funny while some were real sad. After that we headed to the Life Cafe. One of my lifelong dreams was to visit the place where Jonathan Larson wrote Rent and it lived up to my best expectations. Trivia night was going on so the place was packed. Lindsay and I had our NY Cosmos we promised ourselves we'd have... via Sex and the City! I had the Falafel and Hummus platter for dinner. Soooo good! Then we just hung out. Lindsay got fun drunk again which is always a good time and the trivia people came over to visit and they were pretty fun. They gave us prizes because Craig named our team "my friends are visiting from Ohio" and his response to "what essential element is found in breast milk" was "the thing that gives babies milk moustaches". The owner of the Life Cafe came to talk to us and had us sign the RentHead roster. All in all the night was amazing and the best night of the entire trip. I adore the Life Cafe and can't wait to go back. After a quick picture on the bench that Jonathan Larson use to sit on while he was writing Rent we grabbed a cab back to the Path. At this point Lindsay was pretty belligerent which only made it better. We managed to make it home and life was good :)

Thursday - We had a hard time getting started but Craig hadn't managed to get us breakfast (finally we win!) so before we went into the city we had a brunch-type thing from Quizinos. I had a veggie sandie and broccoli cheddar soup. Yum. Then we took the World Trade Center line. Walked around the site for a while. You could tell they were getting a lot of work done. It was nice to see hope springing from the ground. Then we walked down to the ferry but the line for the Statue of Liberty was tremendous and it was REALLY windy so Lindsay was content with getting a picture of her from the shore. Then we got our souvenoirs. Lindsay got one of those I heart NY t-shirts and I bought my obligatory corny coffee mug to add to my collection. It was just like Linds' shirt. Then we walked up Broadway for a while until we found a Borders with a coffee shop. Stopped by for a cup, talked to Brian who also happened to be in town, made plans to see him, and headed out to find the subway. Hopped on to go up to Tims Square and met Brian infront of his hotel. Went into M&Ms World just because it was too cheesy to pass up. Wandered around for a while then decided we needed to get Craig a present because he was paying for EVERYTHING (the jerk). Found a Best Buy and, after letting his brother Chip into the conspiracy, bought him the first season of House. Wandered around for a while longer. Stopped by Rockefeller Center to watch the ice skaters and then ran to Pret again. Called Craig to make plans then headed back to the shopping district. Stopped by Victoria's Secret, Forever 21... where I almost had a heartattack (the place was SO messy), and then over to the Manhatten Mall to wait for Craig. Met up with him then took a cab to Candle Cafe. I wanted to go because it was an exclusively vegetarian restaurant and I was curious. Had some fantastic wine and a Moroccan wrap with couscous and tofu... yuuum. Afterward we decided to head back to Jersey. Dropped off Brian on Times Square and grabbed the Path back to Jersey. Got home and watched Office Space and Cruel Intentions. Equally good movies for entriely different reasons. Lindsay went to bed and I stayed with Craig that night... best decision I made in a long time.

Friday - After about two hours of sleep Lindsay and I stumbled into LaGuardia. Managed to get our boarding passes, check our bag, and make it through security. Our flight was delayed half an hour and then we drove around the runway for about an hour but compared to my JFK experience that wasn't so bad. Plus I slept most of the time so it was all good. Made it home in one piece and got ready to go back to school.

That's the best trip I've had in a long time. Potentially the best trip I've had ever. Plus the after-effects are particulary enjoyable :) Except I seem to have a sore-throat thing going on that I do not appreciate. Oh well... if it doesn't get better by next Monday I'll go to the Health Center... to be told that I have an Upper Respriatory Infection!

Currently Listening to: Ordinary - Train