July 16, 2004
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…booze, bois, and shopping…
Yes, what a wonderful combination! I’m at the halfway point of my NYC vacation and I’m totally having a blast! I decided that this year’s trip would be more touristy and, thusfar, I’ve followed through with my plans…
I flew out on Tuesday and had a 1 hour layover in Chicago, so it wasn’t too bad. The flights went relatively smooth, minus the annoying little kid who wouldn’t shut his yap on the way from Chicago over to Long Island. Once I got into Long Island though, we had to wait a long time because there was something wrong with the train tracks. Anyhow, it basically took me 6 hours to fly across the country, and then 3 hours to get from Long Island to NYC–yeah, fun. I was pleasantly surprised by my hotel though. I was totally expecting it to be this horribly cramped place with no air conditioning or something, but it turned out to be incredible! Not only was there ample space for both of us, but there was also a little pseudo-kitchen, so it was totally cool. We’re also on the 12th floor, so there’s a great view of other buildings that we see, so it’s really nice.
On Wednesday, we decided to start on our tourist plans. We visited the sea, air, and space museum aboard the USS Intrepid. It was rather fascinating seeing all de-commissioned aircrafts there, until I realized what some of them had done that is (i.e. killing people in wars, etc.). I also got to do some wall climbing. I tried the easy side first, and yes, it was easy. Then I tried the hard side, and not surprisingly, it was hard. I swear, they designed that thing for tall people because there was absolutely no way to reach some of those pegs unless you were at least 6′ tall, argh! It was fun though, but totally tiring. Anyhow, we had planned on catching an evening harbor lights cruise of the city, but a thunderstorm ruined that plan and sent us on our way to H&M instead. As if I minded!
H&M was, and is, the bombdiggity! Yeah, so I dropped like $200 in just that one shopping trip alone, and I’m soooo not done. I got some really cute things and can’t wait to go back!
We went to XL that night and it wasn’t all that. We both got buzzed out of our minds and then took a cab back to the hotel. We made it just in time because as we reached the hotel, the alcohol finally kicked in and we were both totally fucked up, lol. I was talking to a friend of mine while trying to take out my contacts, all the while I was drunk as all heck, which didn’t help. Anyhow, I wound up almost poking my eye out and dropping my left contact somewhere. I started to laugh (I don’t know why) and then I used my one good eye and pressed it to the floor to start looking for the other side. Sadly, I didn’t find it, but I had a spare pair, so I wasn’t too worried. While I was losing my contacts, Eric had done the same thing as well in the bathroom, but we were both too tired to bother really looking for it. Ah well, this is what happens when you’re drunk.
So yesterday, we decided to explore Chinatown and Century 21. Century 21 wasn’t all that this time, they really didn’t have my size available, but I was still able to get some nice things. Perhaps I’ll go back this weekend, but there wasn’t much there in the first place. Chinatown was cute though, busy as all heck as usual. On my flight from Oakland to Chicago, the only people I saw on my flight were black people, and then on my transfer from Chicago to NYC, all I saw were white people–where’d the Asians go?! Up until Chinatown, I hadn’t really seen any Asian people either, argh, where are my yellow people at?!
So after the shopping, we decided to go see a Broadway show: Bombay Dreams. We originally wanted to see Mama Mia, but those tickets are so absolutely expensive! I think they’re in SF right now though, so I’ll just wait until I get back into the bay area and get comps to go see them instead. Anyhow, we went to Splash last night and I heard my fill of gay dance music that’ll last me for the rest of this month. I swear, if I hear another dance remix again, it’ll be too soon. Josh would have loved it though, but yeah, it didn’t float my boat–nor did any of the bois…
The bois that I’ve seen here, in the clubs at least, haven’t really been all that. As a matter of fact, they’re not even that. Hopefully that’ll change tonight when we check out another club, but we’ll see. Some of my friends are supposed to join us tonight, so hopefully I’ll be somewhat entertained. As long as I have hip-hop though, that should be fine, but I swear, I’m soooooo totally irritated by the fact that most gay bois just don’t do hip-hop. I just don’t get it, it’s probably the only type of music that you can really bump-n-grind to, so why don’t more gay bois like it?! It’s not like you can really dance to house music; it seems as though they’re just willow trees swaying in the breeze because it certainly isn’t dancing. Maybe they need a point of clarification: just moving your arms is NOT dancing. Okay, enough of my complaining.
So before we went out clubbing, we went to the Empire State building to see the city skyline at night. It was absolutely breathtaking, which is more than I can ever say for any of the customer service here in NYC. The employees at the Empire State Building were totally rude and I honestly had never seen anyone be so blatantly asshole-ish in nature before in my life! Well, ok, not ever in NYC that is, until now. So I totally sympathize with people who have to deal with tourists all day, but there are just some things you don’t do in front of guests. One of the photo staffers, upon hearing that there was no one else in line and that they could pack up, began to shout, scream, and jump in jubilation about them being done for the day–all in that order. Not only could we all hear her, but she was also starting to pack up and then shut off the fan knowing full well that we were dying in there from the humidity and lack of an operable air conditioner. Was it too much trouble to keep the damn fan on?! UGH! Ok, so as if that wasn’t enough, then she shut off the lights and the back half of the line stood there waiting in almost darkness–not cool! Now I know you’ve had a long day girl, and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and attribute your imbecilic actions to the heat and annoying customers you had previously run into earlier that day, but come on now, you can only use that excuse so often! Either learn some damn customer service or I’ll have your job! Oh wait, I do…
Anyhow, today, Eric and I finally went on our harbor cruise. It was 3 HOURS LONG!!! Um, can you say, “WTF am I gonna do on a boat for 3 hours?!” Yeah, that’s what I was asking myself the whole time. The cruise took far too long, the narrator seemed as if he was spending more time worrying about people standing up and blocking the view of others than he was about narrating the cruise to us. He narrated perhaps a total of 1 hour and the rest of the time, we sat in utter silence–thank god for my iPod. Anyhow, I got to take a power nap though and Eric was totally getting hit on by this little boi from Oregon, hehe. The boi started up a conversation by checking out Eric’s camera, I’m sure that’s not all he was checking out, hehe, work it girl!
I was famished after the cruise though, so we decided to have lunch at Chevy’s. OMG, I ate sooooo much, and we both decided to get margaritas to wash our meals down with. Ok, so how come mine was like 3 times the size of Eric’s though?! Eric took a picture of it, and I’ll post it up later, but yeah, it was, by far, the largest margarita I’ve EVER had, but it was good. I’ve been eating a lot here, but we’ve also been walking a lot, so I doubt I’ll gain any weight from this vacation; ah well, a boi can dream…
A word of advice: for those of you who are into eating healthy and what not, try Wendy’s choice of salads! It’s totally great and at such a bargain price! The salads are awesome, but I still have reservations about eating their burgers though–square patties just weird me out…
Ok, enough typing, time for shopping!
