The Upstate Life

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Back to NYC, Again, Edition

Gotta love those four day weekends. TUL will unfortunately not be able to enjoy another one until next weekend, bummer right? Anyways, I left Bethesda around 1:30 and began my journey up 95, through the New Jersey Turnpike, past the Outerbridge Crossing, and ultimately onto the BQE. Parked the Buick outside my grandparent's apartment at their vacant parking spot (they're in Florida for the winter), and hailed a taxi to Manhattan. I was going to take the Subway, but it was already 6:30 when I arrived in Queens and I needed to get my late ass to the Upper West by 7 so there wasn't much of a choice. Despite dropping probably about seven times more than if I were to take the #7, the timing was excellent as I literally ran into B who was coming back from work when I got out of the taxi.

B, his friend C, and I went to Quiznos across the street from Hammerstein for a quick dinner before catching the concert. I actually went in-depth about the show with what I guess will become an occasional feature with the aptly titled TUL's Take. After the bright lights turned on (zing), we hopped onto the 1/9 and headed to B's apt for what would be my NYC residence for the next few days.

B had work the next day (sucka), and I was left to roam about in his place. One important thing I've learned is to watch out for this hot water pipe in his bathroom that is poorly positioned right next to the toilet. I practically singed my leg when reaching for some paper, providing quite the humorous moment had there been some sort of live audience watching. After that emotionally scarring incident, I met up with my friend from summer camp JE who I haven't seen in over who knows when. He apparently lives a few blocks away from B's place. so we met up at some café in the Upper West and grabbed some lunch. Since we both also had the day off, we went to the movies and checked out The Incredibles. I really enjoyed the film as it had some great dialogue and an excellent score. I especially liked Jason Lee's role as the voice of the villain. Even though TUL is probably the only person who still hasn't seen Finding Nemo, it was definitely worth the inflated price of $10.25 for admission.

TUL and B's mutual friend K was in the city as well for the weekend, so we met up with him and his girlfriend and had the chance to walk around the city for a couple of hours on Saturday. We headed downtown towards Times Square and witnessed its exponentially increased commercialism that has occurred since the last time I was there last year for a job interview. I mean there's a Hershey retail store now for crying out loud. Anyways, while walking around we were also introduced to the phenomenon known as Naked Cowboy. I'd say it was about 30 degrees that day, dude is crazy. Later that night I got to meet up with not one but two of my closest friends from Maryland, G and D, that respectively live in the city and Long Island. We ate at this nice restaurant in the Upper East Side called Merchant's. I ordered the equivalent of a gourmet steak sandwich that I, of course, easily devoured. It was great catching up with both of them and had an excellent time discussing about our post-college days. We all had separate plans after dinner, so we each went out own way at around 10 that evening.

I headed down to TriBeCa to meet my friend E at the Canal Room. After about a 30 minute wait at the coat check, I finally made my way inside. I had an awesome time there despite what I'll see on my next credit cart statement. Apparently the crowd was a bit B&T since E ran into a bunch of people from high school from the island. Nonetheless, it was a great way to close out my last night in NYC. Hell, the DJ even played "Take Me Out" which even through TUL for a loop since every other song was Hip-Hop. Down to $5 in my wallet, I hopped on the subway and made my way back to B's apartment.

Got back to Queens around 2 and had to pick up the requisite Woodside Pizza cheese slice and garlic knots. Placed two orders of each, totaling to, you guessed it, $5. Can't beat that. The four hour drive back to Maryland began around 4pm and TUL was on his way back to Bethesda. All and all it was a terrific four day weekend as I'm definitely missing NYC already. Except Naked Cowboy, still trying to erase that from my memory.

Posted by Brett at 2:39 PM |