New Year, New York, New...some other Y word

Just got back from 5 weeks of leave in Phoenix, and it really was nice. I relaxed, visited and hung out with family and friends, did some Recruiter's Assistance, worked a day or two with my parents and their company, got some reading done and thought about my future plans. And the weird thing is that it went by just right--not too fast, not too slow, just right.

Oh, and did I mention my trip to New York? Yeah, that was somewhere in there, I think it was around New Years or something. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The people were so cool and the city was amazing. I'm so glad it worked out. I had originally started thinking about it at the end of October/early November. I made the plans with a buddy of mine in Phoenix, but he flaked out (I had a feeling he would, which is why I paid the extra $15 for the cancellation fee waiver for the hotel). Then, my friend Kim really wanted to go, and she tried to pull it off, but it was too short notice and the flights were so expensive, so that didn't work out either.

Finally, on Christmas Day, just before I made the call to cancel the hotel res, I was talking to my buddy Brian (Parker) who had just arrived at his permanent duty station in Maryland. I asked him what his New Years plans were, to which he responded, "Oh, I was thinking about going to Times Square". WHAT?! I told him that I had a hotel room reservation for up to four people in Manhattan (we ended up squeezing five in there), and he told me to come out. I used my free round trip voucher with United Airlines that I got from my trip to Korea last year, and I flew to Maryland on the 30th. I stayed the night at Brian's along with the other three that were going with us, and we left early morning on the 31st for NYC.

We got there about three hours later, drove the wrong way on a one way street once looking for the hotel, and finally made it to the hotel about 5 hours before check-in. Was that a problem? No! Because New Yorkers are awesome; they got us in our room right away and I couldn't have asked for nicer or more helpful service. If they couldn't've gotten us into a room when we got in, they still would have taken our bags and parked our car. We left our crap in our room and went to Ground Zero, which was right by our hotel, and walked around for a bit. Then, we walked back and took a nap. Then we overslept. For about an hour and a half. So, we got fixed up a little and took off toward Times Square.

We walked a long part of it, because my dumb ass thought it wasn't going to be too far. We finally caught a subway around Soho, and met a cool couple who were going to Times Square as well, and the girl was from Manhattan so she knew what she was doing. They took care of us and lead us to where we needed to go. Once we got to the area, it was crowded as hell and the streets were closed off. We had to search forever for a spot, but the police were very professional and helpful. Go NYPD! We found our spot, and stood there--for 7 hours! It got cold, it got boring, but I was in New York with a couple good friends a couple new ones and I was happy. There was a vendor selling large cheese pizzas to the tune of $25 a piece, and though we were tempted, we passed. We played games and talked to the people around us to pass the time. There was a mock-countdown every hour on the hour starting at 6pm, if I remember correctly. We were several blocks in front of Times Square, and though we could see the monitors, we could hear nothing except the people around us.

Gradually, the New Year approached, and when it finally arrived, the streets erupted. The police started clearing the area right away, and we started walking back to the hotel. The whole way, people were yelling Happy New Year to everyone they passed, out of taxis, into taxis, out of bars and restaurants--everywhere. One man yelled Happy New Year to someone passing by him and, when the person he yelled it to flinched, he yelled with his accent "This is New York! Don't be embarrassed!!!" It was hilarious! We tried to find a restaurant, but of course it was slim pickin's at the last minute, so we stopped at a convenience store to get some snacks and head back to the room.

The next day was rainy and foggy. We went back to Times Square and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe (I got a t-shirt, to compliment the one I got from San Francisco, and a shot glass, to compliment my alcoholism). Our waitress talked to us quite a bit. She lives in Harlem, and she gave us a place or two there to check out, which was cool because I was wanting to go there anyway. We'd all heard about Harlem and how rough it is supposed to be, so I asked her if there were areas we should avoid. She explained to us that it is no longer a dangerous place, that even 3 years ago we might have had to worry about people yelling at us to get out of there and that we don't belong there, but now it's a much safer and more welcoming place. So, to Harlem we went. Granted, it wasn't the nicest place in the world, but I liked it. We were by far out-numbered as whiteys, but walking around there was like walking anywhere else--we were largely ignored, except for a panhandler who, after being refused money by us, nicely told me that I looked like 'that motherf*****' quarterback' (to which motherf*****' quarterback he was refering to I can't be sure), a woman that was walking in the opposite direction towards us chanting "Happy New Year. Please don't move up here!" (Was she reading my mind??? She stopped chanting it after she passed us), and the two very nice ladies that we asked directions to the Apollo.

After finding the Apollo, we headed to Central Park. Freakin' huge, 'twas. We passed several art museums as we walked the sidewalk on the east side of the park, most of which were closed on Mondays. The Guggenheim Museum was open though, for another 45 minutes anyway, so we went in to the lobby and looked around. Afterwards, we crossed through to the otherside of Central Park and took the subway back to Soho. After walking around there for a bit, we walked back to the hotel for a night of drinkin'. Drinkin' lead to silly but fun drunk talks and games, and finally sleep.

We got up the next day, packed up and, to my sadness, left. Afterall, I had a flight from DC to catch back to Phoenix, a flight I would end up missing. I almost missed the one that left 45 minutes after it, because it had a seat available but no checked luggage was allowed, and I had two bags and a laptop. I was looking at an unplanned overnight stay near our nation's capital at Washington Dulles Airport, but I looked at the agent and said "Look, bitch. You get me on that motherf****** plane or I will kill you and everyone you have ever had the slightest affinity for in your life." And by that, I mean I looked at him with my best puppy-dog eyes and said, "I understand that you guys have policies for carry-ons and that they're there for a reason, but both my bags are carry-on size and I wouldn't normally ask for an exception, but is there ANY way I can get on that next flight with two carry-ons?" I thought about squeezing out a tear, but I thought that might be going a little far.

Fortunately, I didn't have to anyway, because he typed some stuff into the computer, printed out a boarding pass and said "I can't guarantee anything. This will get you to the gate. Talk to the agents there, and see if they can let you on." I heaved a small sigh of relief, but I still wasn't on the plane. I got through security and started rushing toward the gate, only to find out that my particular gate was in a part of the airport that required a long shuttle ride to get to. So, I got on the damn shuttle and pretty much mentally kissed my chances of getting on the plane good-bye; not because I had an extra bag, but because the plane was going to be in the air before I reached the gate! I finally got to it--I was the last one--and the agents were like "You need to get on there!" And I was like "I know". And they were like, "Come this way." And I was like, "Ok, but I have an extra carry-on and the ticketing agent told me to ask you to let me on." And they were like, "Well it's a full flight. How big are your bags?" And I was like "They're both carry-on size." And they were like, "That should be fine. Have a good flight!" And I was like, "Thank you so much!!!" Phew! I was on. Of course, this new flight was heading to LA, and I would have to connect there to get to Phoenix, and I wasn't going to be home till after midnight, but I was on a plane and I was happy. Thus ended my trip.

Since then, I've pretty much just been hanging out with whoever can stand me, reading, playing my Wii (still playing Zelda, but my sister and her boyfriend got me Ultimate Alliance for Christmas. I will play that after I show Zelda who her daddy is), and watching movies. I saw A Scanner Darkly with a couple of my friends, and I was suprised that I liked it. First of all, it has Keanu Reeves and he is normally a horrible actor in my opinion. But he was good in this. And the movie was first shot like a normal movie, and then animated, so it has a really interesting look. And on top of all that, the plot was actually pretty good. I recommend it.

I'm still trying to digest the book I've been reading, Varieties of Religious Experience. I'm a little over half way through, and it's way over my head. But, it's a wealth of insight and information, and it's exactly what I've been looking for. Oddly enough, it practically jumped out at me at a bookstore. And now I'm freaking out because it looks like I may have lost my copy in my travels from home. I can't find it anywhere! And I've dog-eared the hell out of it in all the places that I wanted to come back to and rethink. I hope I find it. I would tell you that there will be a blog when I'm done reading it, but you should already have expected that.

Happy New Year everyone!

Watching: A Scanner Darkly on DVD