i feel safe in new york city
so here's what happened tuesday...
erica and i decided to go to nyc to go ice skating at rockefeller. i was proud of myself, because the whole break i was freaking out about how the heck to get up there - train, bus, cheap, etc - and nothing was coming together and nothing was planned. normally i would say "let's not go" but this time i got a new york city map, we drove right in, found rockefeller on the map, and we did it. it was all pretty spur of the moment, and i was proud of myself. it turned out to be a mostly great day...it was an adventure if nothing else.
we get to the lincoln tunnel without a problem. the only problem was, we didnt plan on what to do once we got out of the lincoln tunnel. we had no idea where to go..but we just went with the flow and parked at the first place we saw. the place we parked ended up costing 30 dollars, but, thats the same as 1 round trip bus ticket, so, it's not too bad all in all.
the parking deck was shady to say the least. we realized as we pulled in that we needed to get out of the car immediately so the attendant could park it. which meant we had to gather all the stuff we needed to take for the day - so we frantically grabbed everything we needed and shoved it in erica's bookbag. we had no idea what was going on and i think we were both about to cry. but we got what we needed and sent the car on its way. the man had an accent and i had no idea what he was saying to me when he was giving me my ticket...i was too stressed out to listen anyway. we said goodbye to the corsica, praying we would see it later that day, with the same amount of miles on the odometer and scratches on the paint job as we left it with.
well, we soon discovered, as we were getting organized, that we forgot erica's phone in the car. this was kind of essential because we were hoping to hook up with rata and dale and the boys later in the day. you're not supposed to go into the parking deck at all, attendants only, but i told the guy and he muttered something in his accent and i went down to find the car. holy moly. cars everywhere. bumper to bumper. parked in. chaos. it took us about 5 minutes to find my car in the chaos. the cars are left with windows open and keys in the ignition. we grabbed the phone, said goodbye to the car, shook our heads, and went on our way.
we found rockefeller without a problem, went ice skating without much wait, and it was all very fun and pleasant and picturesque and great. we really enjoyed ourselves. gentlemen, if you live near NYC, have a girlfriend who is a professional figure skater, and need a fun holiday date, take her to rockefeller.
we then made our way to a little place to sit while calling rata to figure out what was up. we were next to radio city music hall. we chatted and found out that neither her or dale were at the guys' apartment, and while im friends with the other guys, it would have been somewhat awkward, so we decided we wouldnt be visiting their pad. she told us that dale's store where he was working is on 7th and broadway - on broadway between 7th and 8th. at that point, i think we were sitting on 7th ave, or close to that, and broadway was a couple blocks away. we said, oh, that's not far at all, and set out to find dale.
we found ourselves wondering through masses of people in the middle of times square. we were confused to find that 7th and broadway are the same thing at spots...so his store could not be on broadway between 7th and 8th if broadway IS 7th. we asked some streets vendors..they gave us weird looks. after checking a few streets between 7th and 8th, we asked a times square security officer. he called information, gave us the address, and directions, as well as some friendly chats about pennsylania and steel mill country. we walked to the address, and were a little confused to find a high rise office complex...we found american apparel on the little index thinger, but the guy at the desk said they were closed today, and went on to explain this was the wholesale showroom, not the retail store. . . . . . . . wrong address.
we went on pretty much every other street between 7th and 8th, weaving back and forth, and could not find him at all.
we gave up, walked back towards the parking deck, stopped at a cool little park on 6th ave called bryant park. there we talked to rata, she was as confused as we were, and suggested we probably had 7th avenue and 7th street mixed up, and they are two completely different things. (she was right).
we were wiped out. so we walked to the parking deck, and as we got there, we saw before us, broadway. there was a little light from heaven shining on it and i think i heard some cherubims singing. rata had told us the address of the store was 718 or something like that, we saw the numbers on broadway were in the 1300s and we said "oh, he cant be very far off." we were on 36th street. we started walking. at about 30th street a lightbulb went off and i said, "erica, hold on. he's on 7th street. we're on 30th. this we are walking 30 blocks. are you sure we want to do this?" (we were pretty exhausted already). she insisted and we kept walking.
at about 25th street, dale calls! he tells us he is at the store, on break, picking up his paycheck. well it is a good freaking thing that he is on break picking up his paycheck at that store, because he was working at the other store that night and just happened to be there. otherwise, we would have walked 30 blocks to find a store without dale...and im pretty sure erica and i both would have started sobbing, curled up in the fetal position in the corner of american apparel.
well we finally got there and met up with him. he was on his way to get dinner. we went with him to this cool little place that sells hot dogs and fruit juices. he treated us to a recession special - two hot dogs and a papya juice for 2.25. they were good hot dogs, too. we went back to work with him and checked the place out. he got us on a subway - thank the lord in heaven above - and we rode back to 34th street and found the parking deck. the car was unscathed, barely, and old man explained how to get back to the lincoln tunnel, and we finally made it home. it was a good day but man oh man were we sore the next day.
we checked it out, and those 30 blocks alone was 3 miles of walking. the entire day - for 7 hours - we were either skating or walking. we probably sat for no more than 30 minutes the entire day. we're guessing at least 7 or 8 miles of walking over the course of the day. we were pretty wiped out...but we had a lot of fun.
so next time you're in NYC, dont call rata for directions, and dont mix up avenues and streets.