While I was in Seattle last weekend I mentioned to Maria how I was feeling homesick and that I couldn't wait to get back to work. Now it's Friday and I so want to board a plane or put a rental car in cruise control and get the hell outta dodge.
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So back to exist trace, that first night Maria managed to land two picks. The first one was an easy catch but the second one was kinda a funny story. It was from Naoto. She threw it in the air but somehow it didn't leave the stage but ended up back in the middle of the stage. Hungry eyes kept watch of the pick until the band lef
t for their encore. There was no barricade but a stage monitor was blocking the chicks next to Maria so as soon as the band exited she made her move for that pick. Score. Also during the encore, Jyou got down and patted my head. I see the reasoning behind this is because I wasn't try to grab on her like a hyena when the band would get in our faces.
Good boy.
After the dust settled we left and picked up some of the best mediocre pizza I’ve ever had. Usually after a show just about any food or drink tastes like Heaven to me but this pizza was honestly ‘meh’.
Back to the Best Western
Next day we get up early to make it to our 9:00AM Statue of Liberty ferry ride. I panicked when we got to the line around 9:10 thinking we wouldn’t be allowed on and shit, but I was just uninformed on how crazy the lines were to this shit. Luckily I had purchased the tickets before the trip and got to skip the common man’s line and proceed right inside the security tent. It’s all about that VIP baby.
Everything is UNDER CONSTRUCTION/RENOVATIONS in America these days. It has to be some tax evasion scheme.
From afar looking at the Statue I didn’t see what the big deal was but once I was as close as I could get to her it was awe inspiring. I was amazed by how massive it was. Someday I need to go check out Mount Rushmore.
Ellis Island was a snore-fest for me.
Except for when I found my family recorded on The American Immigrant Wall of Honor*
* = I don’t care my grandma says I was wrong about this and that my family actually came from Mexico in the late 1800’s.
What does she know?!
Cool Liberty merch.
Finished with the Statue tour, we picked up something to drink from one of those push cart vendors. Pretty awesome greedy ass squirrel kept running up to the seller and begging him for peanuts which the guy gave the squirrel. What a nice guy. He knew what he was doing though, putting on a show for the walkerbys. Easy money.
Hop in the car and drive to the parking garage outside Time Square but right next to Nintendo World. I was surprised by the volume of drivers.
When we made it to NW, we were struck by how small the place actually was. I was afraid to touch any of the DS’s they had available for demoing games on for the abundance of germs those handhelds must have been ripe with.
Maria just had to have this huge ass Bowser(her fav. Mario character)
Picked up some shirts and a couple of mugs.
Next was suppose to be our jog to Central Park to hang out with the NY yuppies at the Apple Store and check out FAO but our fucking feet were giving out on us so we headed to the closest destination which happened to be the Hershey Candy Store. Kinda sad that I missed out on the romantic carriage ride with Maria.......and Orlando. Maybe next time.
So yeah, back to the Hershey business....
As soon as we entered the store a lady handed us some Hershey Drops like they were the hottest next/current thing to hit the market. THAT SHIT SUCKED. Hershey w/ almonds anyday. After like five minutes scoping out the place realizing we aint buying shit we seemed to have lost Orlando. I give him a call and it turns out he’s hanging out with the LATEST AND GREATEST next rap sensation outside. These posers had tried hustling me earlier, putting their blank CD in my hand demanding a donation. Suck it. I wonder how much they can squirm out of a tourist's pocket on any given day. Reminds me of some scumbag at some random Dir concert selling me a “supposed” used drum head from Shinya’s kit. Where the fuck is that thing now???
After we rescued Orlando we made it to M&M World. This place has playing loud ass dance music. It felt like a nightclub and had three goddamn levels of chocolate goodness. I just loved all the architecture the place was packing. We scored some M&M’s(go figure) and Maria’s favorite article of clothing [SOCKS] and left.
Then we made it to the blocked off area of Time Square and the shit got real. Real packed. There was this huge ass line for something. WHAT WAS THAT LINE FOR?!?! Saw some Marriot and we here guessing how much a night would be there. After some later research later iit was like $300-$600 for a reasonable room at a night's rate. I’ll stay at my $100 Best Western next to the graveyard anytime.
So yeah, finally made it to the Disney Store. It’s like any other damn Disney Store out there, just with NYC marked merch. Picked up a lovely Statue of Liberty Minnie Mouse.
Settled into a McDonald’s. I was thinking that this place would be priced like one of the Smithsonian's in DC but no, it was priced just fine. Scored some seats on the upper level and enjoyed the time off our feet.
Scraping our plans to check out Ripley’s, we headed back the car but was ambushed by Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny wearing the worst hand me down costumes ever.
NEW YORK CITY!!
When we made it back to the garage we fucking realized we forgot the coupon and had to pay a heavy ass price. Of course I still tipped the driver making it even a bigger bill. FUCK!
On top of that we pay a toll to leave the city. Just unbelievable the balls they have to take money from you as you LEAVE.
Make it back to the jacuzzi suite and I proceed to take a two hour soak in a place countless others have done the deed in prior. Just send shivers up your spine, doesn't it?
I can’t even remember if we had dinner that night or just ate our left over McDonald’s/Pizza with someone’s torn apron in it.
Woke up the next day and made the short drive to Philly.
TRAFFIC TRAFFIC TRAFFIC
NEXT
