High Line

On Saturday Paige and I joined my cousin Jessica and her husband Lance for brunch and to walk the High Line. The High Line was originally constructed in the 1930s to serve as a railway through Manhattan. Section 1 was just completed and had its grand opening a few weeks ago after 8 years of fundraising efforts. It now serves as a public park, and once all sections are completed will be a mile and a half long extending through much of Midtown's West Side. We felt fortunate to have moved here in time for the opening and will hopefully see the next two sections come to life while we are here.

Below you can see a sample of the flowers they have planted on the High Line. The picture doesn't do it justice as it really is a beautiful park.

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Sensei?

First MASTER SPLINTER sighting since we've moved to NYC.

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Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker

We just had our first celebrity sighting - Bruce Willis walking by Central Park with an incredibly good looking woman. Before we recognized him Paige said "oh she's only with him for his money" speaking about the lady. As they got closer she excitedly questioned "Is that Bruce Wills?!?" It turns out it was. We looked at him with a smile and a nod, and he returned a sly smirk very reminiscent of John McClane (Die Hard).

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Are you okay?

The other day I was running up the stairs to catch a train that had just arrived and unloaded a bunch of passengers thus filling the stairs. I tried to squeeze my way up the side of the stairwell amongst the departing passengers and preceded to trip up them, not once, but twice. Needless to say it was quite embarrassing. I have posted a picture of the carnage 2 days old.

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Joy Ride

If you've never seen the movie Joyride don't waste your time, but if you have you'll understand the title of this blog. It is a movie about some young people on a road trip when a psychotic trucker tries to kill them. This movie sums up our drive through Virginia.

In Virginia we learned a few annoying lessons. Two of which were -

1. They do not dare go above the speed limit

2. If there is a sign notifying of Road Construction ahead and the right lane is closed. They do so immediately leaving the right lane completely open.

This is how our drive became the movie, because in Atlanta we don't just leave a lane completely open because a sign tells us it may be closed ahead. We stay in the right lane until the end and hop over. So I followed that practice here and remained in the right lane passing a lot of drivers in their tracks nearly stopped in the left lane. As it turns out workers had re-opened the lane and the sign had just not been taken down yet. So a lot of drivers had wasted their time getting into the left lane and slowing to a crawl.

Therefore, about 10 miles up when we saw another sign warning of a lane closure we remained in the right lane continuing to pass other drivers. A trucker did not like seeing me coming up the right lane unobstructed and preceded to merge into the right lane blocking me and went about 10mph along with those in the left lane. He was doing this clearly to piss me off, and it was working. I waited for him to leave enough room in the left lane for me to pass him and made my move. I lagged behind a few hundred feet to have acceleration room and went for it. As I flew around his side he decided to take back half the left lane intentionally trying to run me off the road. I somehow held the truck in the lane and kept accelerating. We could see him looking down from his window with a facial expression of "what the fuck is this kid doing??" He finally relinquished and we passed him.

Not too long afterward we ran into some traffic and could see the truck coming up the right lane not too far from us. At this point I was pretty sure he had CB'd some friends and wasn't too happy that we didn't back down under his pressure. Callie and I began taking about the Joy Ride movie and I was pretty sure it was coming to life when Callie said 'well i flipped him off!" As he approached we noticed he never came next to us and cautiously stayed behind. Callie realized that he was probably avoiding us because of the mandatory "How am I driving #". This day I was very happy that sticker existed. Traffic let up and we pulled away to never see him again.

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The drive to NYC

Sunday morning Callie and I got on the road ~10 am. To give a little back story, Callie has never been to NYC before and has summer's off (she's a teacher) so she volunteered to ride up with me. This way I could have some company and she could hang out in New York for a week and check it out.

The drive to DC took a few more hours than projected and we arrived after 12 long hours where John Longmire had graciously offered us a free place to crash. We caught up with him for a while and then hit the sack. We were back on the road by 10 am and on our final leg to NYC. We made a stop for lunch at Geno's Cheese Steaks in Philly which solidified my dislike of their cheese steaks. They are far to dry in Philly - they can have 'em. We got into Hoboken, NJ where we would be storing our things for the month about 430 pm.

I had arranged for movers to meet us at the Public Storage facility in order to help me unload. As the day progressed they continually pushed out the time they would arrive. Callie and I decided to give it a shot and knock out the small things so once they arrived it wouldn't take too long. The small stuff turned into the big stuff and Callie and I unloaded the entire truck into storage by ourselves. THANK YOU CALLIE! This was not planned as it was a lot of work for the two of us, but we were so ready to be done and in Manhattan.

We dropped off the Penske truck and met Paige about 8pm at our corporate housing on 24th and 7th in Chelsea

I was now officially living in New York City.

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Festivals

Only in New York will you be released from a building where there was a bomb scare to walk 2 blocks and stumble upon a packed outoor festival on a Friday afternoon.

There's a BOMB

Bomb scare two blocks from me going on. Streets closed and nobody can leave the buildings. Good times in nyc!

Loading the truck

--trying to find time to go back and post about the move and first week here since it was so hectic and we had no time to post anything --

The load began on 6/13 saturday morning after I dropped paige off at the airport. We had probably gotten 90% of the loft packed and ready for moving so I had a couple hours to prepare the rest. Jonathan Trost, Dietz Ellis, and Mike Wilt graciously accepted the request to help so I figured we could knock it out pretty quickly. This isn't the first time I've been incorrect on my time estimates in regard to moving (sorry white).

Jonathan, Dietz, and Mike arrived between 12-1 and we were underway. We loaded a majority of the truck by 3 without many issues and then we got to the few remaining items. This always seems to be the worst part. The maid had arrived to begin cleaning, and I was in a rush to clean our remaining things out of the loft so she could do her job.

The final two items to finish up were the plasma tv and the storage room. By this time Gerndt had arrived after his test and Dietz and Mike had gone. So the three of us (Gerndt, Trost, and I) put the plasma in the very expensive box I had to purchase for it and I sent them off. We were going to meet up at Gerndts in a few hours for a bbq. Once they left I unpacked the storage room and somehow managed to fit those items in the already crammed 16 foot Penske truck. We were finally loaded, thankfully!

I drove up to Gerndt's for a little bbq action with Gerndt, Callie, and Trost, and per usual Gerndt and Callie provided a feast which was quite tasty. Living in New York I'm not sure how often we'll be able to enjoy grilling - so thank you both for that!

After a couple beers and some highly competitive pool and cricket we called it a night. Callie and I had a long drive ahead of us the next two days.

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First Grocery Experience

So while Paige was at work I decided to venture out on the first real grocery store experience in NYC. I google mapped the nearest store, which happened to be a Gristedes, and nervously made the couple block walk. I was only going to pick up lunch stuff and other one off items to make do until the weekend when we can get a full list together. First off, there is not much of a selection and secondly, there is not much of a selection. These stores are a 1/4 of the size of a normal grocery store in Atlanta while attempting to carry a wide range of products. After checking out I left with lunch goods for a week (i.e. wraps, turkey, mustard and mayo), 2 bags of salad, salad dressing, chicken, bottled water, and some deodorant for $66.41. Yes, I was a little sticker shocked.

I have decided for our first shopping experience after we move into our actual apartment (the big stockpile of items) we should probably rent a Zip car and drive into Brooklyn for the Target Superstore. It will work out to be cheaper and provide a selection I am used to.

A side note: I felt somewhat like a leper when the cashier asked me if I had reusable bags or if I'd need plastic bags. Also, I'm pretty sure everyone was staring at me walking the few blocks home carrying groceries in plastic bags. Reusable bags are a must!

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Freeman's

I had dinner with David last night at Freeman's, which is a new restaurant sandwiched between the Lower East Side and NoLita. The restaurant brought life to an unused Freeman Alley off the Bowery and appears to be home to a mixed clientele comprising of hipsters and socialites. Oddly David saw, just prior to me arriving, Leslie Fram (a former 99x DJ) finishing up her meal.

Our meals were pretty good, with the highlight being an incredible Hot Artichoke Dip appetizer. It was extremely tasty. Also, David introduced me to what might become a great desire this year - Dry Rosé Vino. We shared a bottle of 2007 Country Line Rosé from Anderson Valley and I may be hooked. It was perfect for such a warm night.

The primary reason I'm blogging about this dinner however, is that it is another reminder that I live in New York City. David was in town for work and we met for dinner because I live here. It hasn't sunk in yet.

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BlackBerry Posting

This is a test blog entry after enabling mobile blogging on my blackberry. This will be very useful as I can create a blog entry while I am riding the train and not have to wait for spare time at home (which is severly lacking!). I hope this works as I have many, many updates to post.

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manual labor

Paige and our friend Priscilla are currently packing up the kitchen while I sit here in the recliner researching jobs. While I wish I already had a job, I am thankful for not having to wrap plates and bowls in bubble wrap. Thank you ladies! :)

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Some of our good friends Jonathan White and Lisa Chau got married in Healdsburg, CA