nyc

[supercheesegirl]

so friday i left work at 1:30, after only eating like a quarter of the aforementioned popcorn-for-lunch because it got cold and gross. i caught the bus back to central and didn't have to wait near as long as i thought i would. then i caught the T to downtown crossing and found the place where i needed to get the bus at 3:30. it was 2:30 at the time, so i wandered around a little bit looking for a place where i could sit and wait. i found a dunkin donuts but by the time i had purchased a muffin all the seats were gone. i finally ended up at a mcdonalds with some fries, and sat and finished my jane smiley book. then i wanted to use the bathroom one more time before getting on the bus, but the ladies' room had someone in it who was taking forever, so i went in the men's. i had finished my business and was picking up my stuff to leave when the door opened--the guy had pushed hard enough that the lock didn't hold. i was like, hold on a second! and he was like, oh sorry! but then he says, hey this is the men's room, what do you think you're doing? but there was a woman standing the hall also, waiting to use the still-occupied ladies' room, and she said something like, you wouldn't like it if you had to wait a long time for the bathroom, mister. so i felt better. woman power, yo.

so i head back to the bus stop and i'm there at 3:25. so i wait, and i wait, and i wait and i wait. the crowd waiting for the bus gets larger and larger. the bus pulls up and there's no order to the crowd at all, everyone is shoving to get to the bus because we're realizing that the company has oversold the bus and someone is probably not going to get a seat. shove, shove, shove. there's a guy, maybe in his 50's, with a broken arm, and he's purchased two seats so that he can have a place to rest his arm on the trip and not be jostled sitting next to somebody, and he's being loud and asking for help, and he doesn't even have his ticket out. so the chinese girl from the bus company holds up the line so that he can get on and get his two seats, and we have to wait even longer because he's got two big suitcases and a backpack and another bag and he has to ask for help loading the suitcases because he can't lift them one-handed. poor planning on his part. so the suitcases get loaded into the cargo thing and he gets on the bus, and we're back to the shoveshoveshove. by the time i get on the bus, there are two seats left. the bus is set up like such: two seats, then the aisle, and then two seats, except in the back, where there is the bathroom and then three seats with one in the aisle. the last two seats are in the back row next to the bathroom, and a kind of creepy black guy is sitting in the window seat. i sit down in the aisle seat nearest to the bathroom because i don't fancy getting cozy with mr. creep. (later my suspicions are sort of justified when he starts surreptitiously drinking out of a paper bag and then drawing with his finger on the window and talking to himself.) so there's a seat between us, and a vaguely irish guy comes back and climbs over me to get to the seat. that's fine by me, but then because there's no seats left his buddy can't ride the bus, so the irish guy gathers his stuff again and leaves. now i'm thinking, cool, empty seat between the creep and me. but the chinese girl from the bus company comes on to see if there's any empty seats left, and she spots the seat and lets another guy on. he's this big black dude (big like a track star or a basketball player, not big like ruben on american idol), and he's got really long legs. girls in the second-to-last row have reclined their seats all the way back, but the back row seats don't recline, so the creep and the empty seat don't have a lot of leg room. in my head i staunchly refuse to give up the aisle. the leggy black dude climbs over me to get to the seat. later we chat, and he's a nice kid from CA looking at schools in boston. i consider relenting on the seat ish, but then the creepy dude starts with the drawing pictures on the window and i don't make the offer. oh well. i curl up next to the bathroom and listen to my discman the whole way to new york, because even though i have a book there's no individual light for the aisle seat, just for the ones in the actual rows. i also doze off for a while, and call missi when the bus stops in new haven. the girls in the second-to-last row think we'll get there in an hour to an hour and a half, and they're pretty much right.

so we arrive in chinatown in new york. i get out of the bus and call missi to see where she is. it's maybe 8:45-9:00. missi and mike are in chinatown looking for chrystie street. they say, hey we're in chinatown! and i say, hey so am i! and then we start trying to figure out where in chinatown we are and how to find each other. i'm at the corner of chrystie and hester, and they're also on hester but aren't sure which way to go. i walk up a block and find bowery street, which seems to help, and they ask for directions and promise to meet me in just a sec. meanwhile, the guy with the broken arm has gotten off the bus and gotten someone to help him with his suitcases. now they're piled on the curb, and he's trying to hail a cab. every cab that goes by already has people in it. i'm trying not to look at him so he won't talk to me, but he comes over anyway and says all plaintive, do you know why the cabs won't stop for me? i'm like, sorry, no. he has this air about him as if he's saying, i'm injured and therefore everyone should assist me. i had felt bad for him at first, but by this time i'm annoyed and just thinking he's a jerk for not planning ahead here. i wouldn't have brought two big suitcases like that on a long trip if i had the use of both arms, let alone a broken one. even when i was in europe for long trips i only packed as much as i could physically carry, and usually less than i could carry in case i bought something on the trip and needed an extra hand to bring it home. this guy was only on the $10 bus from boston to new york. either postpone your trip, dude, or pack sensibly, and don't act like it's everyone else's fault you're having problems.

so missi and mike find me, and we get to walking up canal street to the subway stop. canal street is really cool, lots of people and neat chinatown stores, except for one cross street which contains about a two-block section of little italy, which was really cute. as we get to the subway, missi's phone rings, and it was colleen on her cell, but when missi tries to call her back she just gets the voicemail. missi says hmm. coll and laur were leaving to drive to nyc from hatfield at 7:50, so missi and mike thought they'd have plenty of time to come and meet me and get back before laur and coll arrived. it's maybe 9:30 now, not even two hours from when they left. on the subway uptown both missi and mike get intermittent messages that they've missed calls, but can't do anything about it because we're underground and can't get a signal. at one point mike's phone actually rings and he answers it, but he doesn't hear more than "mike? it's lauren" before the signal cuts out. (at that moment, lauren keeps talking, and realizes a few minutes later that mike isn't responding. colleen laughs at her.) a one point, missi and mike and i all have our cell phones out looking to see if any of us have a signal, because we're worried laur and coll have had an accident or something since they're frantically trying to reach us. mike's phone suddenly gives him one bar and he hits dial, and then is able to give coll some quick directions and figure out that they're not really very lost. we call them again when we get aboveground and get them back on the right track.

missi gives me the tour of their apartment (they live in manhattan on 105th street), and then the girls arrive. mike goes out to meet them, and coll comes in with her bags while mike helps laur find a parking spot. when he and laur come in, there is much rejoicing. we stay up chatting till around 3:00am.

in our next installment: we wait in many lines, only to discover that at the top of the empire state building, cary grant isn't waiting for lauren.