Still Moving
Trip Start
May 07, 2004
1
4
64
Trip End
Jun 27, 2006
NY, New York, United States
Monday, June 21, 2004
We made it to New York. What a mission, though. Getting out of Boston took, what, four or five days? And really when we got there we just hung with all the same kids we'd hung with in Boston. Which was rad.
Jimmy, Natalie and I piled into the car mid afternoon on Thursday and finally rolled in at around 8 or 9. Or later. Traffic in that town really is insane. I would recommend flying into that city. Or taking the train. Or Jimmy would probably recommend going with someone who has a little more patience when driving.
So we showed up Thursday night, went out for drinks with Jimmy's friends who were graciously letting us sleep in their living room (has to be a requirement of living in New York, I suppose - letting random strangers crash at your place)
00_Summer in the city
. And Friday Nat, Joey and Anna turned up after work. Nine of us in a little apartment situated in the lower east side.Natalie's been awesome the whole time. We'd be walking down a road and she'd be like - this is the Harvard? This is the Madison Avenue? Is this the Central Park? Of course when I pointed out that she was going to be getting off at the Grand Central Station, she was like, "What's that"?
She was also the most motivated I've ever seen her. Usually even lazier than me, Natalie's one to sleep at every juncture, even when opportunities to explore Machu Picchu or Rio de Janeiro are calling her name, this was a Natalie I'd never seen before - up early, out at museums and Central Park and Ground Zero. She even took the subway by herself all the way to MoMA which is temporarily located in Queens. I was very impressed.
I, on the other hand, was content doing what I always do in New York - wandering around the streets aimlessly, maybe partially paralyzed by the fact that there will always be too much to do in that city, so best to do nothing besides bask in the fact that you're there.
01_Jimmy and friends tossing books around
Oh, and get a parking ticket for $65. 10 minutes after the meter had run out. Ridiculous. I figure if I don't take that car back into the city, there is very little chance that we will actually have to pay it.
We went to the party, though I think had we had the t-shirts made (nobody's surprised that they didn't get made, I'm sure) it would have made the stalking aspect of the event a whole lot funnier.
So I lie. I did actually make it to a museum. PS1 was pretty cool, although most of it was under construction in preparation for their summer Warm Up festival. It's really the concept that makes it a cool place - it's a public school converted into a museum.
We hadn't planned on leaving Jimmy, Anna and Joey stranded in New York, but we figured the drive to Canada from Boston was roughly the same as from New York, and we were having so much fun there that it would be silly to drive back to Boston just for one night.
Another night out and then it was Sunday
02_PS1
. The time had lasted forever - a rare thing to happen to you when you're having fun. Each day I had trouble believing that we still had so much time left on the trip, or that we'd only been there X amount of days.But finally the time came to say goodbye. I'm getting good at them - goodbyes that is. the only time I had the urge to cry was when I saw the tears in Anna's eyes, and I think I actually stayed relatively composed.
Our trip was over. We'd spent a week and a half in Boston and New York. We hadn't made it to Montreal. I had spent some good time with great friends, and Natalie and I had both made new friends.
No idea when I'll see them again, but I guess I'm used to that too.
We had an absolutely fantastic drive home. We got lost in New Jersey. Asked directions at a Burger King where the entire staff was nattering away at each other in Spanish. Got lost a couple more times before we got out of Jersey, but finally made it onto whatever interstate it was that we needed to be on.
Five hours into the drive and Natalie just opens her arms at the open road and exclaims, "This is the life!" Most people, I expect, would not think an eight to ten hour drive through upstate New York while hungover was "the life," but we had had such an amazing trip. And to end it hanging out with fantastic friends in the best city in the world.
