Monday! a day off...
I'm so behind on this blogging thing that I need to just start with now, and eventually work back to some other more general things when I have a slow day or nothing to say.
So...
I had a day off yesterday! And I went to NYC. I had tried to go into NYC a week or so earlier on my day off – Labor Day, actually – but here's how that went...
Sunday afternoon I talk my friend Josh into coming with me to NYC and between shows we run back to the hotel to get our stuff. We work the night show and get out around 9:30 and he thinks we're getting a ride with my friends – which I may have told him... - and I think we're getting a ride from his friends – which may have just been hopeful – and we end up getting left at the theatre with no ride. So we take the jitney – a shuttle service that runs between casinos in Atlantic City – and go to the bus station down town. By this point it's 10:30. We discover that the buses stop at every casino before getting to the bus station, AND it's a holiday weekend AND they oversell their bus tickets so there's no guarantee of a seat. So we decide to wait at one of the casinos instead, hoping to increase our chances, and walk down to the closest one. At this point it's 10:40PM and I have a one way ticket in someone else's name – they weren't going to use it – and Josh has no ticket because he neglected to buy one before he left the bus station and apparently you can't get them at the casinos. Even though you can get on the bus there, you have to already have a ticket in order to ride the bus. Isn't that efficient?
There's a mob of people outside the casino and after some questioning we ascertain that there are all kinds of destinations and lines for buses so we get in the NYC “line” (which is more like a wad, a people wad...) The last NYC buses are supposed to arrive at 10:45 and 10:55. Well, buses come and go with no signs on them. They leave half empty sometimes even though there are cascades of people in weird crisscrossing lines all over the sidewalks. 10:55 comes and goes and the NYC line isn't getting any smaller. But we're too far back in line to figure out what's going on. By 11:15 there appears to be a NYC bus that pulls up and people get on and when it leaves we definitely get closer to the head of the line. But by now Josh is just waiting with me to keep me company since he has no ticket and we can''t figure out what to do. Since we're clearly off any kind of schedule, it's hard to just leave. That may have been the last bus, or it may not. And everyone else is staying in line but what do they know? We're in line too and we know nothing!
We end up staying until 11:30 and then decide to walk back to the bus station to get the next bus there. But when we get back, we discover that the next bus to NYC isn't until 12:40AM. It's a 2.5 hour bus ride into the city and then we have to get on the subway to get to our respective homes – and Josh's train ride is about 2 hours from the bus station, so that makes it almost 6AM on his only day off before he even gets home. Such a bad idea...
So he makes some phone calls and gets us a ride back to the hotel and we decide to do NYC at another time. Like, say, this past weekend.
We decide to again leave on Sunday night after the last show. We go back to the hotel, grab stuff, shower, eat something etc. etc. and get a ride to the bus station, with a couple of stops in between. Josh's roommate, John, drops us off at the station, we walk in to buy tickets and the ticket person says “ok, but the next bus is at 12:40...”
Seriously!?? Somehow, even without all the casino people wads and the jitney and the missing rides and the walking we still managed to get to the bus station only in time for the 12:40AM bus! We looked at each other and said “no!' simultaneously. So Josh pulled out his phone and called John who wasn't far away and we ended up at the hotel. Again.
But this time we stayed at the hotel and then drove into the city on Monday morning with a friend of ours instead. And this is all to talk about dinosaurs, because I went to the Natural History Museum.
Cool, right?
I didn't stay there very long as it was sandwiched in between other things and people and stuff, but the dinosaurs were awesome.
I saw the African displays as well. It's actually a 4 story museum and the African animals are on the first floor but viewable from the second floor balcony/atrium type thing.
The displays of masks and sculptures and tools, etc. were really fascinating and beautifully organized and curated. But I think I've watched too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer because I look at those masks on the wall and half expect the eyes to glow green and someone to become possessed by an ancient spirit or start laying eggs or turn into a troll... Even through glass you can feel the power of some of those objects. There was a text posted on the wall next to some of the fetishes explaining that the Africans didn't consider the belief in their power to be a spiritual thing. They thought that the object itself had the power within it, therefore it wasn't a matter of belief that made it work. It was more like science or medicine. I found that interesting. They definitely made a distinction between the objects that invoke the spirits or were utilized in a spiritual manner and the ones that just fulfilled a function – of healing or protection or whatever – by virtue of some inherent quality within them.
So, a great day off all around. Got to see some friends, ate at the Shake Shack, had breakfast delivered in the morning, which is definitely my favorite thing about NYC. How have I lived for 35 years and not in a city where they deliver breakfast?? Imagine rolling out of bed, putting on pajamas, making a phone call and by the time your coffee has brewed there's a knock on your door and you have fresh scrambled eggs and bacon waiting for you! It's like room service in a hotel, only cheaper! It's like pizza delivery only waffles! It's totally the best thing about NYC, hands down.
And now I'm back at work for the week. So, more soon.
Xox
k
So...
I had a day off yesterday! And I went to NYC. I had tried to go into NYC a week or so earlier on my day off – Labor Day, actually – but here's how that went...
Sunday afternoon I talk my friend Josh into coming with me to NYC and between shows we run back to the hotel to get our stuff. We work the night show and get out around 9:30 and he thinks we're getting a ride with my friends – which I may have told him... - and I think we're getting a ride from his friends – which may have just been hopeful – and we end up getting left at the theatre with no ride. So we take the jitney – a shuttle service that runs between casinos in Atlantic City – and go to the bus station down town. By this point it's 10:30. We discover that the buses stop at every casino before getting to the bus station, AND it's a holiday weekend AND they oversell their bus tickets so there's no guarantee of a seat. So we decide to wait at one of the casinos instead, hoping to increase our chances, and walk down to the closest one. At this point it's 10:40PM and I have a one way ticket in someone else's name – they weren't going to use it – and Josh has no ticket because he neglected to buy one before he left the bus station and apparently you can't get them at the casinos. Even though you can get on the bus there, you have to already have a ticket in order to ride the bus. Isn't that efficient?
There's a mob of people outside the casino and after some questioning we ascertain that there are all kinds of destinations and lines for buses so we get in the NYC “line” (which is more like a wad, a people wad...) The last NYC buses are supposed to arrive at 10:45 and 10:55. Well, buses come and go with no signs on them. They leave half empty sometimes even though there are cascades of people in weird crisscrossing lines all over the sidewalks. 10:55 comes and goes and the NYC line isn't getting any smaller. But we're too far back in line to figure out what's going on. By 11:15 there appears to be a NYC bus that pulls up and people get on and when it leaves we definitely get closer to the head of the line. But by now Josh is just waiting with me to keep me company since he has no ticket and we can''t figure out what to do. Since we're clearly off any kind of schedule, it's hard to just leave. That may have been the last bus, or it may not. And everyone else is staying in line but what do they know? We're in line too and we know nothing!
We end up staying until 11:30 and then decide to walk back to the bus station to get the next bus there. But when we get back, we discover that the next bus to NYC isn't until 12:40AM. It's a 2.5 hour bus ride into the city and then we have to get on the subway to get to our respective homes – and Josh's train ride is about 2 hours from the bus station, so that makes it almost 6AM on his only day off before he even gets home. Such a bad idea...
So he makes some phone calls and gets us a ride back to the hotel and we decide to do NYC at another time. Like, say, this past weekend.
We decide to again leave on Sunday night after the last show. We go back to the hotel, grab stuff, shower, eat something etc. etc. and get a ride to the bus station, with a couple of stops in between. Josh's roommate, John, drops us off at the station, we walk in to buy tickets and the ticket person says “ok, but the next bus is at 12:40...”
Seriously!?? Somehow, even without all the casino people wads and the jitney and the missing rides and the walking we still managed to get to the bus station only in time for the 12:40AM bus! We looked at each other and said “no!' simultaneously. So Josh pulled out his phone and called John who wasn't far away and we ended up at the hotel. Again.
But this time we stayed at the hotel and then drove into the city on Monday morning with a friend of ours instead. And this is all to talk about dinosaurs, because I went to the Natural History Museum.
Cool, right?
I didn't stay there very long as it was sandwiched in between other things and people and stuff, but the dinosaurs were awesome.
I saw the African displays as well. It's actually a 4 story museum and the African animals are on the first floor but viewable from the second floor balcony/atrium type thing.
The displays of masks and sculptures and tools, etc. were really fascinating and beautifully organized and curated. But I think I've watched too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer because I look at those masks on the wall and half expect the eyes to glow green and someone to become possessed by an ancient spirit or start laying eggs or turn into a troll... Even through glass you can feel the power of some of those objects. There was a text posted on the wall next to some of the fetishes explaining that the Africans didn't consider the belief in their power to be a spiritual thing. They thought that the object itself had the power within it, therefore it wasn't a matter of belief that made it work. It was more like science or medicine. I found that interesting. They definitely made a distinction between the objects that invoke the spirits or were utilized in a spiritual manner and the ones that just fulfilled a function – of healing or protection or whatever – by virtue of some inherent quality within them.
So, a great day off all around. Got to see some friends, ate at the Shake Shack, had breakfast delivered in the morning, which is definitely my favorite thing about NYC. How have I lived for 35 years and not in a city where they deliver breakfast?? Imagine rolling out of bed, putting on pajamas, making a phone call and by the time your coffee has brewed there's a knock on your door and you have fresh scrambled eggs and bacon waiting for you! It's like room service in a hotel, only cheaper! It's like pizza delivery only waffles! It's totally the best thing about NYC, hands down.
And now I'm back at work for the week. So, more soon.
Xox
k
posted by KBARRETT at 10:30 PM
1 Comments:
k...you are hilarious. why didn't we order out breakfast??!! that's what i want to know. 32 years and still waiting!
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