AlanBarber.Org
Monday, October 04, 2004
My trip to New York City
I’m moving to New York and that’s final! This weekend was amazing on so many levels. Above all I’m ecstatic that I was able to spend some quality time with my girlfriend and as a result of this visit I really feel so much closer to her. But all of that is for another entry or two because this one is just about my time in NYC. This is going to be a long post so sorry to bore the living daylights out of everyone but I want to make sure to cover everything in detail.
I flew into LaGuardia around 6pm on Thursday night. It’s actually pretty cool because while we were taxing around I saw Donald Trumps plane out on the tarmac and there was a limo and a police escort parked by it. Later while we were unloading it took off. I didn’t see anyone but it could have been Trump flying out.
I managed to find my girlfriend and it was just pure bliss to see her in person again. It felt so good to just give her a big hug and kiss. We waited forever at the baggage claim for my suitcase but it did finally show up. My girlfriend lives in queens very close to the airport so we just grabbed the M60 bus and headed to her place. It’s a very nice area that she lives in. It’s diverse and full of life, sort of a mixture of Greek and Middle Eastern people. There are just tons of wonderful shops everywhere.
Her apartment is pretty darn small. It’s really a one bedroom apartment but two people live there. She does have the actual bedroom which is nice. The roommate has a bed in another room but there are no doors and you have to walk through the roommates “room” to get to the bedroom. Still it’s on a nice street that is pretty quiet and the apartment is cozy. I could see myself living in a place like that. The one thing I really don’t like is that there is no shower, just a bath. Ugg! I’d at least install one of those hand held sprayer thingies so you can wash your hair easier.
I didn’t sleep very well that first night. I’m just used to my own bed so it was a bit hard to get comfy. We got up Friday and headed into town. She showed me where she worked and we went to the Ed Sullivan Theater to try to get tickets to see David Letterman. They weren’t taping though so that was a bust. We stopped at a coffee shop and I got a coffee and a morning harvest muffin (it has all sorts of stuff in it like nuts, raisins, carrot shreds, etc). We walked over to Central Park and just relaxed. We sat there talking and people watching for a while. It was a fun time because I could just sit back and soak up the city.
We headed over and saw Times Square and then took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. That was neat because you could look back and see the whole city from the water and it was a very powerful image in my mind to see the city like that. It is just so large. We took the subway back to queens and I rested for a bit while she went and took part in a study she signed up for that paid 25 bucks. She needed the money so I didn’t complain. We then went to the east village for dinner and ate at this Italian place on 1st Avenue called Three of Cups. A bit salty but still good food!
There was talk of rain for Saturday evening so we went to see the city from the Empire State Building that night. NYC was beautiful and it was romantic to be up there with my girlfriend. After that we headed back home and crawled into bed but ended up spending the entire night talking. I can’t remember if we actually decided to go to sleep or I just passed out but last I remember was looking at the clock around 5am. We woke up and got breakfast at a local place then goofed off rest of the Saturday morning. Just hung around the apartment and talked about things. It was our chance to have some quality time and play catch-up for the last month and a half being apart.
Later that afternoon we finally went out to finish seeing the places I wanted to go see. We stopped at ground zero first. It’s kind of weird. The whole area down there is just a ghost town now. It’s eerily quiet compared to the hustle and bustle everywhere else but it was in a way a relief to visit the site. It’s just been such a powerful event that has become a part of our lives and to be able to visit the site and pay my respects helped in some ways to just make me feel better.
We headed to SOHO and just roamed around for hours. We checked out a few stores including Urban Outfitters. That’s a killer store and we ended up spending about an hour just roaming around looking at everything. By then it was dinner time so we went into this bistro to eat. The place was empty but the service was dead. We sat there for who knows how long and no one even came to give us menus. We walking out in disgust but ended up finding someplace better. A BBQ place called Tennessee Mountain. It was again good food and well worth it. Besides it was my birthday so I was happy to be a bit gluttonous and eat a big ol’ plate of BBQ pork dumped ontop of biscuits instead of some crappy bistro sandwich.
We took the subway back to queens and walked to Astoria Park. She loves to go running there so we walked along the water and looked at the city before calling it a night and going back to the apartment. Watched a little local news on the TV then crawled into bed and just talked for a while before going to bed.
I got up Sunday and just felt so damn depressed. I hated the fact that I had to leave. I knew by then that I wanted to live in NYC and all I could think of was how much I wanted to just stay. Forget flying back home I would just stay and start living in NYC right then and there! I couldn’t though so I got packed up and left the apartment. Took the bus back to the airport and got my ticket. I sat outside of the security check for the longest time with my girlfriend just wishing I didn’t have to say goodbye. I finally had to go through and waved goodbye for the last time as I headed to my gate.
Funny thing happen while I was there. I saw a movie star get off the plane I was going to get on! The plane had already unloaded but about 10 minutes after everyone else was gone Giovanni Ribisi walked thru the door. He’s currently in “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” and was in “Lost in Translation”, “Gone in Sixty Seconds” and “Boiler Room.” Plus he played the goofy brother of Phoebe on Friends.
So that was my visit to New York City. I’m going to try very hard to go again soon. Now that I have the touristy crap out of the way I can just go to spend more time with my girlfriend and not be so overwhelmed with running around the city. Spend the whole day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or go have a picnic in Central Park or whatever to just do something relaxing and fun for the weekend.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world: those who love big cities and those who despise them. I’m so glad you feel as alive as I do being here! I can’t wait til the next time you’re able to visit!