Blogging New York...Day Five...

Today was my last full day in New York, and it was a good one. For the Yankee haters out there, you may want to stop reading now...because really, that's all today was about. I get why you don't like them. I'm okay with it. But I've loved them pretty much my whole life, and it was awesome to finally get to see them play in New York. 

I took my subway-mastery with me and actually transferred from one train to another - both ways!! YES!! I rule. I loved hearing the announcement that we'd arrived at Yankee Stadium. I stepped out into the station, saw the sign and pretty much couldn't stop smiling until I got home.

I really don't have any crazy stories to share from today...it was just all too good and too fun. The Yankees, wearing their trademark pinstripes, won and Mariano Rivera - my all-time favorite Yankee - saved the game. Hearing Enter Sandman by Metallica when they opened the bullpen doors for him to enter the game in the bottom of the 9th was awesome, and I must admit, I was a little bit giddy.

It was a gorgeous day out, and the fans were great. A couple of people were kind enough to take my picture so I could have photos of myself in the stadium. Really, everyone was so nice. I will say that the grilled hot dog didn't even come close to the grilled home run dog at AT&T Park in San Francisco, but it was still tasty. The other bummer was their choice in soda: PEPSI. Yuck. I had water. Other than that, everything was good. 

Entering and wandering around Yankee Stadium is sort of like being at Disneyland. There are people everywhere - literally like every 3 feet - holding signs asking how they can help you. There are also people sweeping up the hallways to keep the Disney, er, Yankee magic in tact. There's a lot that I didn't see just because there simply wasn't time, but it's pretty cool. I still like AT&T better overall because it's the old style ball park, and let's face it, the view is unbeatable, but it was awesome to finally see The Bronx Bombers play in their home land.

By the way, that's Derek Jeter on the left and Nick Swisher on the right. Nick is absolutely one of the funniest men in baseball and Derek is, well, he's Derek Jeter. And that's enough.

It was also very cool to hear New York, New York played at the end of the game, and I sat and listened to several choruses. I left the stadium after a while and found that everyone was taking the subway out of The Bronx, so I stepped into the nearby McDonald's to wait. And to get a Coke, because by that time, I needed one! And really, I think we all know McDonald's has the best Coke.

I managed to waste enough time and had a very empty train to take back to the hotel. My feet were never so happy to get back and stop moving. I've really given them a beating this week and may give them a nice soak later this evening. 

Tomorrow's my last day in the city that never sleeps, and I'm meeting another old friend for breakfast at the very famous Carnegie Deli. Many folks told me I needed to check this place out, but it didn't really interest me because I'm not a big sandwich fan...but breakfast? Well, that's a whole new game. I mean, as long as there's bacon, how could it be bad?

Oh good...just got a case of the hiccups...

Anyway...it's been an amazing week, and I'll wrap it all up when I get home tomorrow night. I will definitely be back New York. You've totally won me over.

Blogging New York...Day Three...

First of all, let me assure you that my stealth mode still works in New York. I thought maybe that was just a California thing but no. People don't see me here either. Yeah. It's cool.

After getting home last night I ended up staying awake until somewhere around 2am - ugh, but only 11pm Cali time, so not horrible. What was horrible was waking up at 6am - yeah, that's 3am in California. That was not yay. And I was wide awake. So, I played online for a while, watched some TV and then fell back asleep around 8 for a couple of hours. I find nothing wrong with the morning nap.

Once I rolled out of bed for good, I hopped on the subway, you know, because I'm the master of it, and went uptown to Lincoln Center to meet my friend Mary at her office in The Sesame Workshop. No tour of the studio since that's elsewhere in town, but it's always fun to see where friends work. And I got a cool free t-shirt! Woo-hoo!!

Mary and I took a cab to the Shake Shack near Central Park and had a tasty lunch, peppered with entertainment. I'm not a wine drinker, but even I found it a little strange that this place that serves burger and fries and shakes also serves wine. We were talking about it in line and being a bit snarky - I know you find that hard to believe, and Mary even asked the guy taking our order if people actually order it because we didn't get it. He said a lot of people order it, and I believe there was another snarky comment made, as we both rolled our eyes. We stepped away and someone right behind us ordered half a bottle of white wine and we almost fell over. We then saw said wine in tiny little plastic wine cups. They were, well, they were something...

The place was packed so we joined a couple of others at a larger table - very New York I'm told, and enjoyed a tasty feast of burgers and fries. It was really rather tasty. Across the street they were filming an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and we popped over when we finished eating and took a couple of snaps of Larry David. I've never watched the show, but still, kinda cool.

From there we wandered toward Central Park and then parted ways, as unfortunately, she had to return to work. I spent an hour or so just wandering through the park, and while I certainly didn't see all of it, it was really fun to just wander around, sit on a few benches and watch New Yorkers in motion. I have to say, there are more benches in that park than in every other park I've ever seen. Combined.

I ended up on 5th Avenue on the other side of the park and began walking back from whence I came earlier in the morning. I came upon the very cool Apple sign in the glass building, F.A.O. Schwartz and the big piano - which I was highly annoyed by due to the 457 kids and parents playing on it causing all sorts of ruckus. I also have to say, the bathroom in F.A.O Schwartz was seriously nasty. I was less than impressed. The toys though, were very cool. And yes, I'm twelve. Maybe eight. That's the only place I went into on 5th Avenue - believe it!

I made my way to the subway and came back to the hotel and crashed for a while before embarking on my evening at the theatre. And yeah, I spelled it "re" not "er". Deal with it. On my way to the theatre from the subway, I walked by a couple of folks selling the Obama Condom. I did not stop to find out what that scary thing might be. Let me just say, yikes.

Finally I made it to The Cort Theatre where I waited in line with everyone else for about 15 minutes before the doors opened. My first Broadway experience was good and annoying. The play, Fences, was fan-freaking-tastic!! Goodness. I really didn't know what it was about, but it was so good. Denzel Washington has always been one of my favorite actors, and he proved to me why. He was just great. And Viola Davis? Please. The woman is just awesome! All the actors were amazing. I laughed and I cried, and just loved it.

What I didn't love were the staff members I came in contact with at the theatre. Can you say rude? Man. We know you have rules, we get it, but come on. You don't have to yell at people or have a tone. There was a lot of tone!! And as we were exiting, they were basically pushing us out of the building, and as I was about to step through the door, the snippy woman outside literally closed it in my face. She almost got a slap, but I was too high from the experience of the play to actually take her on. Seriously though. RUDE!!

I debated taking the subway home, but thought better of it. Then I was going to take a cab, but it seemed involved so I started to walk. And it was much cooler than it had been during the day, so I figured I'd just head down the road and grab one somewhere between 48th and 29th. But after a while, I decided it was silly to get a cab so I kept walking. And walking. But several blisters later, I made it in and soaked my tootsies in a nice tub of foot scrub I'd procured from Lush on Sunday. 

All in all, another great day here in the city that never sleeps. Tomorrow? American Idiot.

Blogging New York...Day Two...

First of all, let me point out that it's hot. And I don't mean, waaaah, it's hot. No, it's HOT. And HUMID. I think between yesterday and today I may have sweated off 4 pounds, which is not really a bad thing. I forgot how much I loathe real humidity. Most days I think it's humid in the Bay Area. Yeah. It isn't. It's just more humid there than Wyoming and Arizona. New York is HUMID. It was 92 degrees today with a heat index of 97. HOT.

But also, AWESOME.

I didn't wake up until about 9 this morning (still 6 according to my body) and lounged in the hotel until about 10:15 or so. Today's adventures included the subway, of which I am now a master. As I was plotting my course before I left, I seriously couldn't get that old song, "My baby takes the morning train" out of my head. That's right. Good morning Sheena Easton. Feel free to step down memory lane with me...

Anyway...got on the F train and got off in the vicinity of NYU. I love college campuses. I blame my parents for that. They love them too. That must be why I work on one. NYU is near Washington Square Park, so I wandered around and saw several sights I'd seen in movies, took a tour through the bookstore and had some real New York pizza. From there, I took the 6 train to City Hall. 

And that's when the Subway entertainment took place.

First, there was a quartet of older men singing in barbership harmony, and it was actually really good. They had a paper bag and also a bucket and people tipped them, they thanked them and said God Bless to everyone. At the next stop, a trio of younger guys got on with their boombox and proceeded to break dance as we rode. One did a back flip between two poles and also had some pretty good arm strength as he hoisted himself sideways on a pole and held himself up for a few minutes. They strolled around with their Yankee baseball hats and gathered tips, thanked everyone and got off at the City Hall station, which was my stop too.

I wandered through City Hall Park - man, New York has a LOT of parks! Very awesome. Looked across the park at City Hall and across the street to Pace University and the Brooklyn Bridge, which I did not walk across.

From there, I took the 4 train to Wall Street. Subway mastery in progress.

Now, I don't do anything that involves Wall Street, but my dad does, and I have to admit, it was rather cool to see the actual New York Stock Exchange. It was even cooler to see the Tiffany store. And yes, there was a purchase made.

After that, I got on the R train and came back to my hotel where I finally got cooled off - thank you hotel shower and air conditioner! I lounged for a bit and tried to evict the heat-induced headache and rest up for dinner, which was definitely the highlight of the day.

I got on the 1 train, went 2 stops south - subway, totally mastered! - and then walked to 355 W 14th Street for a divine dinner at Scarpetta with a friend from WVU that I hadn't seen in 17 or 18 years. Crazy, right? It was so much fun to catch up over a delicious feast by Chef Scott Conant, whom I met as we were leaving since my friend Mary actually knows him. He was very nice and the spaghetti with tomato and basil was without question the best spaghetti I've ever eaten in my life. I'd eat that every day if I could. Seriously. There's just really nothing wrong with good food. NOTHING.

So now I'm back in the hotel, thinking about tomorrow's adventures. Tomorrow night you can find me at the theatre seeing Fences with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, and I'm definitely excited about that!

Oh New York...I just may be falling in love with you...