Where The Ball Drops…

After a quick power nap, we were up and at em again and ready to take on NYC at night. Although we still weren’t exactly loaded with natural energy due to lack of sleep and jet lag, the adrenaline of being in one of the world’s greatest cities counterbalanced that pretty well.

Our first stop was Times Square, a place I’d actually never been, due to the fact that on the previous trip I’d decided venturing out to the Statue of Liberty with my father was more important than traipsing around midtown, which is what the rest of my family ended up doing. I’m certainly glad I came back, because it is definitely a cool place to see in person. It’s somewhat like the Strip in Vegas when it comes to the lights, but on a much grander scale. Since the street isn’t as wide, the buildings tower much higher around you, and the neon rises far into the sky. The really weird thing is visiting these places you’ve seen on TV a thousand times, and being able to actually see what the cameras are filming from your own perspective. I still don’t think I’d want to mess with Times Square on New Years Eve when its wall to wall people, but being able to watch the ball drop on tv and see places I’ve actually stood or walked is a pretty neat thing. One thing we noticed though was restaurant prices are like doubled in the area immediately surrounding it. Our initial attempt at a late night meal was foiled by $20 TGIF entrees, and we eventually ended up at Sbarro or however it’s spelled, for those yummy and amazingly unhealthy stuffed pizzas they have. Afterwards there was just a whole lot of wandering around and staring, at the lights, the people, and the billboards. Two in particular caught my eye personally, one was an underwear model I didn’t mind staring at for a while, and another of an Infiniti G35 coupe, what I consider to be the sexiest car on the road at the moment. Isn’t that the true representation of a guy, being able to stare at a car almost as long as a beautiful woman. Almost.

Eventually my company was able to tear me away while making various comments, and after snapping a few pictures we headed a few blocks over towards Rockefeller Center. This is yet another famous place that is fun to visit in person. It’s featured in a truckload of movies, including Home Alone 2 as I remember in particular. It’s the place they go nuts with at Christmas, with the monster tree and massive lighting setups, as well as where they put in the ice skating rink in front of the famous sculpture fountain as I recall. The main building of the Center is lit up at night from surrounding buildings, and is really a dominating presence. The flags of what seems like all of the world’s countries line the square, and the sound of water from the various fountains emanates throughout. We actually ended up spending a long time there, just sitting at a central location in front of one of the fountains, looking across at the expanse of the square, with the dramatic skyline above. As it had become much later, there were few people wandering around, so there was a drastic difference in atmosphere between it and Times Square. Instead of car horns and the sounds of multiple languages, the ear was greeted with running water and a cool breeze. This was actually one of my favorite moments of the entire trip. Just sitting someplace, stopping to smell the roses, and not only having random good conversation with someone, but also having an equal amount of enjoyable silence. That is the best comfort level to reach with someone, where you don’t feel the need to fill space with babble, but instead can just enjoy each other’s company without saying a word.

I didn’t keep track of how long we actually sat there, but soothing was definitely the word to describe it. Eventually we tore ourselves away and decided to go wandering. She had wanted to go check out a club her friend mentioned, but on the way towards its supposed location we kept running into stores that were closed but that she loved, and thus had to stop and glue her face to the glass for a few minutes each. Eventually it was decided we'd just continue to wander until we get tired. We hit up a good portion of 5th Ave and Park Ave, and just sort of aimlessly picked routes around the city. Strangely enough even though it was like 1am or something at that point, there really wasn't the kind of scumminess abounding that I was expecting. At this point we both figured out we had a stack of voicemails that had appeared over the last few days unnoticed, so we returned a few calls. Whereas she had a great time with "GUESS WHERE I AM" questions, I chose to be a little more discreet until my return, since there are a few people directly related to me who tend to worry about their offspring in foreign cities. I did keep various people informed as I mentioned previously though, so its not like I was doing anything majorly stupid. Spontaneous, but not stupid.

Eventually we caught a subway back to the hotel, hoping to find a slightly cooler room. It wasn't, so we had fun attempting to sleep until the next day, when we'd be hitting up the Statue of Liberty and taking a cruise around Manhattan, as well as trying to snag tickets to the Broadway production of RENT. To think this was technically only the end of day one of three.

Just to update on the rest of my life, taking various midterms, attending various classes, doing various workouts, and being variously bored. If anything exciting happens I'll be sure to post about it in between sections of the story. It just aint happenin.

Erm, Short Intermission?

Okay I'm horrible. Almost a week gap, so lame. Unfortunately been busy with midterms. I have some more of the story typed up though, will post tomorrow sometime.