New York! New York! What a wonderful town

Woke up this morning feeling super excited about my trip to NY. I don't know why but everytime I get to go there, the butterflies in my stomach sh!t their pants...I love it! I also decided to buy me some new polo shirts. I did my math and decided that I could probably afford 1 shirt comfortably without resorting to living on chicken pot pies and tap water until pay day. I refuse to use credit cards, they are evil!

Stopped by JC Penny, huge department store or is it a clothing store? I've never really bothered to look around. Tried a couple of shirts...I hate spending money on clothes ugh! I would've probably walked out with nothing *too many damn options, its overwhelming*...thankfully I zeroed in on a 2-for-1 sale. For the price of a polo shirt, you get a free T-shirt..brilliant!!! And get this, they had them matched up for you, they had the right colored T-shirt already inside the Polo so you didn't have to play stylist for an extra 30 mins...that sealed the deal right there. It was obvious, this sale was speaking to me in my language. Picked up a cool polo, white with horizontal blue and green stripes *I can wear horizontal coz i'm slim hehehehe* and it came with a tan T-shirt. Was it a good look? Who the F cares, I'm not one to pass up a good deal to make a fashion statement. Got in my car and immediately changed into the shirt and polo...I love the smell of new clothes and I thought they not only smelled nice, they fit right too :)

I met up with Mike, Kathy and .... can't remember her name...hmm.... lets just call her Ms. B - *B for boringain'tgotnothingonme*. We all got in Kathy's car and drove off. She was undecided about driving back to New Jersey because her parents lived in NY and she hadn't seen them since school closed. Mike like the loving wanna-be boyfriend told her to "stay with her mother" because "I'm sure she misses you so much" *oh brother gimme a bloody break, they speak on the phone every freaking day and NY is only an hour away*...I was thinking how my ass was going to get back home if she decided to stay...by train no doubt but considering all the cash I knew I'd be spending in NY, I was going to make Mike pay for the train ride back *spending money in NY is the easiest thing to do, you only have to blink and you'd swear the money spends itself* ...I can be unreasonably cheap and cruel I guess.

Kathy drove us to her parents place all the way in Queens but didn't park in front of it, in fact I still don't know where she lives because she didn't go in to see her folks or point the place out to us. I suppose she didn't want her parents meeting us for whatever reason ... and certainly not with a black boy *I'm sorry but i couldn't help thinking this was part of it although it probably wasn't*. Mike made a little fuss over this...I didn't care, just wanted to go to Manhattan...Ms. B was still with us *I may never mention her again because she was always an after thought through out the trip*.

Still standing close to her house, Kathy declares that she's hungry *girl we're standing right next to your place i thought, go in and feed! I didn't say this but I came close*... she suggested we catch a train .... was it uptown or downtown... I can't remember, anyway it landed us smack in Chinatown. It seemed like I just walked into a third world market place, it had all the familiar symptoms...open shops selling cheap goods...people milling about through narrow over-crowded roads...the over bearing smell of food in the air...WTF was I doing here, I didn't come to America go see this mess...this was what I was running from ugh! I asked Mike if this place in any way resembled China and he said yes *note to self, take China off your list of places of interest*. After practically chasing Kathy through the streets occasionally bumping into random people, she led us into a little cafe. It was small, cute...and crowded! The doors to the place were left open so you could observe everything going on outside weather you wanted to or not...this also meant there were no air conditions...i can't imagine they needed ovens to cook, the food probably cooked itself on its way from Kitchen to customer, it was that damn hot!

We also decided to take pictures here...we took a bunch...in nearly half of them, I was a black splotch in a white shirt and jeans. They didn't say anything when they saw these pictures even though i swear the most visually gifted person could hardly tell where my hair ended and my face began. They of course glowed like angels in everyone of the shots...curse of the African!

After Kathy had her fill, we took another train out to Times Square...actually, i believe we stopped at 42nd street and walked towards Times Square...I'm not so sure anymore, these streets confuse the heck out of me. On our way we decide to rest a little at Bryant park. I've never been in there before...as I walked in, I thought it look like a huge painting albeit in 3D. just imagine the hustle and bustle of crazy Manhattan and then picture right smack in the middle, a pristine litte lawn with people sitting around in little groups on restaurant type chairs some laying down on the grass looking into the sky, very quiet, very peaceful. I had to smile a bit at the odd-ness of this place...and then very quickly I thought to myself...these people are so F!ING lazy...it just felt like there was so much out there going on and here were these bunch of "losers" laying around doing nothing! It pissed me off for a second...or I think until I got me a chair and became one of them.

We took some more pictures, I was still a black splotch in most...

After Idling away about a half hour we continue our trek towards times square, taking pictures along the way of street performers...the things these break dancers can do while balanced on their heads are nothing short of incredible. We got to the heart of NYC...the lights were on and it looked spectacular....I felt like screaming...something very exciting about this place and I think beyond the razzle dazzle of the neon lights , its the people there who are equally marveled by it all, that elevate the experience. I came to spend a day in NY with nothing really planned out but at that moment I felt like Time Square was the reason I came.

After I snapped out of my hypnotic gaze and wiped the drool off my mouth, we proceeded to have a drink at a small cafe nearby...Mike bought a six-pack and we played a very corny game of "dare"...I'd explain it but it's not necessary, it was very corny.

here's a quirky "betcha didn't know..." about me...

I don't know why but I can't get by any reflective surface without checking out my ass...I just have to look at it, maybe to make sure its still there or hasn't flattened out lol. So while we were playing this inane game, i decided to use the toilet. got there and there was this huge mirror off on one wall...well I ended up just checking out my ass in the mirror *no i didn't take my pants off*...it looked good, i was satisfied with it :)

I have to end this entry...Kathy ended up driving us all back thank heavens and I'm home about to curl up in bed and doze off...I love NY, I'm going to live there someday....something about it excites me like New Jersey never has.