Elvis has left the building…
SOoooooo last week in short.
Saturday my parents flew in at around 7:30 and I discovered the beauty of cabs + WTC path train.
Sunday i took my parents to the Staten Island Ferry and we walked around southern NYC. It was cold.
Monday, I went to work. Afterwards i camed home and took my parents to see Blue Man Group. I enjoyed the hell out of the performance, and they did also.
Tuesday, I went to work. Afterwards we went to a Mexifunk Cocina (its ko “seen” ah for the unintelligent people….. in this world…. the digital world. IT is not ko ki na even if that feels better for the tongue. Fuck the tongue’s feelings.) After that we saw Harry Potter’s fourth movie. It was fun, but required keeping dad out far beyond his bedtime.
Wednesday, I went to work. I left 2 hours early. Dad and I spent the night talking and freezing. We went to the Village Vanguard, but it wasn’t our kind of band. They played “Free” jazz which is apparently described best as, “Three or more instruments are wandering through a musical field, and maybe those three instruments can work together to create something, but they may not.” My own definition BTW.
Thursday, No work. Turkey day. Remember past pacts we broke with the Native tribes of America. Feel sorrow for your heritage in being a liar. Move on. Mary cooked the turkey, it turned out very successful.
Friday, No work again. Went to Atlantic City. Did you know the only real thing there are outlet stores and casinos. Mainstay is gambling. Lost fourty dollars got annoyed and didn’t touch anything else. It was not fun how fast that fourty dollars went. Enjoyed spending time with dad. The drive down there was interesting. I don’t drive “defensively” according to dad. I “jerk” to much. So does every cab driver in New York city btw.
Saturday, No work. Mary and Mom went to Greenwich Village walked around took pictures and then met up with me and dad at the mall. Dad and I planned to play pool, but the poolhall was closed. We bought three board games and came home after eating some very nice italian food.
– boggle
– cranium
– Wheel of Fortune
— we played this, it was fun. I guess. Kind of easy, which was annoying.
Went to sleep fairly early because mom and dad’s plan left at 6:58.
Sunday. Morning of rush.
After much debate about how we should procede, Mary proposed that the best route is 33rd street because there is definitely going to be a cab there. I get a cab phone number and we plan to be up and to the path train by 4:13.
Woke up late. Startling. Mom and Dad woke up at 3:30 instead of 3:00 and we woke up at 3:45. It was a rush. Mary went into the shower. came out at 4:00. Path train left at 4:13.
………………………………. add stress here.
We cut down the stairs and everything short of running, we get there at 4:14 to see the train pull out. We get concerned. It hits me that we should go to WTC because it is a quicker ride into manhattan. Mary and I are still concerned about the availability of cabs att the WTC, but feel confident because of the phone number back up we have.
Getting to the WTC and outside we are swarmed with cabs. it is 5:02 by the time we get a cab and then 5:30 by the time we get to the Airport and we get mom’s tickets. There some difficulties getting her tickets via the kiosk, so we cut infront of a bunch of people and got the tickets via representative. 5:35 we are having breakfast joking about how we rushed and made dad work harder then he should have climbing stairs quickly.
singing the glories of the taxi services and hailing another taxi to take us home at 6:00, we get stuck with a cab that overcharges us. He took the longest route i’ve ever seen. 27 $ cab ride turned into a 40 $ cab ride in a couple minutes. I’m pissed because he was allowed to jip us because we were in a hurry to get home, and didn’t take the couple minutes to go downstairs to the cab vendor.
All the same. Lesson Learned. And now it is 7:30 and i’m still awake typing this up. I wanted to get it out of my system. I’m going to try and sleep soon.
In the end, my parents trip here was awesome. I’m over joyed about the whole experience. Not to mention in a couple days it will be a birthday……….. and i will be able to cry if i want to.
November 27th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
i sense some lingering there on your discussion of the pronunciation of “cocina” (in this world). i apologize for being a ridiculous english (and apparently spanish) language nazi. unfortunately for the last five years my livelihood has depended upon me being infinitely nitpicky about language and at this point, that impulse is very hard to turn off. i also apologize for pressuring you to catch a ride with that asshole cabbie, especially since you had already been through the cab-catching procedure there. next time we (and if i am there on my own, i) will definitely go downstairs. i was going by my own experience leaving newark liberty, where the official cab system was a racket and took forever. but you were right! additionally, in your post, it sounds like i wasn’t there at all until thanksgiving day. let it be known to the gentle reader (lest he or she think that i was strangely absent from the week’s events) that i enjoyed spending time with steve and claudia in the afternoons and at dinner this past week. your dad is a saint for putting up with meester, the fourth installment of harry potter (which i still maintain would’ve been much improved with a larger dose of alan rickman), and for buying us dinner on several occasions. your mom, too, was very forgiving about my spawn of satan cat, and i really enjoyed showing her around greenwich village, shopping at street festivals with her, and introducing her to loreena mckennitt and my friend ronlyn’s new book. i especially appreciated being able to share thursday with you and your parents. this year i had a really great thanksgiving day. and being able to host them–and make the turkey with you–made me feel very, well, i don’t know … a part of something? finally, i want to record for posterity the fact that you totally kicked ass at scrabble last night–you beat me and everyone else, in a four person game, by like forty points, despite a mistake early on. you had some really good turns. jury/my, triple word score, with the y on a double letter. (grumble grumble) … it was fun!
November 29th, 2005 at 12:23 am
I have found the perfect place for people to vacation at! David and Mary’s. They have lots of things for you to do, but the best thing is you get your exercise and can lose weight. Not that they don’t feed you, but after you eat, you walk so fast and go up and down stairs so much that you lose all the calories you got from the meal. Got to tell you that everyone I told loved our stories about our trip. They are a little envious about the entertainment, but all wondered if they could survive the fitness training. WD said he looked for some old people getting off the plane and saw two youngsters (did i tell you the boy lies) But I was asked today how much I weighed now. They said I looked like I had lost some more weight. By the way, finished the book on the plane. Fantastic! I will be able to read this book a second time. There are so many things that I might can catch through the second reading. Can I advertise the book here? We are moving tomorrow and Wednesday…Just wait til you see the new place. Your room will be private and we can drink coffee on a patio with a special surprise….but the weather has to warm up for me…..Great place to celebrate and decorate for Christmas!!!