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| Amie joins us!! |
We had fun at the Daily Show Monday night, I
couldn’t believe that we got tickets, and I’m so glad that everyone else had a
good time there too. I looked for
tickets on a whim, and then jumped on them without asking the group just
because I was afraid of them going away – BP said that it was cool to see
anything taped, and he was funny – but she wishes that we could see a show
taped…. Ummm.. We just DID see a show taped… “No, I mean to see a REAL show taped... “ -
“Daily Show is a real show”…
“No, a real show.. Like Friends”…
well we would have to go back in time for that one. We’d need a TARDIS! (Wonder where we could find one around
here??) I realized we didn’t do a
word of the day for Monday – and not that you were missing it – but it was
pretty much our TV day. We did the NBC
tour, got on the Today Show for a nana-second, saw the Daily Show taped, and
then walked over to David Letterman’s theatre.
An accidental theme!
We like hearing from you guys out there in
reality… Brandy McCoy, I’m glad that we’re blowing up your facebook page
between the 5 of us – we weren’t sure if you knew that we were in NYC. ;)
And Stef Russell – we appreciate you joining in on the verbing creating,
she wished us all “Happy New Yorking”…
but the most real of all was my old roomie from Gallaudet, Amie
Fredericks, *actually* coming into our little bubble to say hey! She found a babysitter for her two little
ones, and took a 90 minute train ride into the city to hang out with us for a
few hours! We’ve always stayed in
touch, mainly when the Amazing Race is on because that was our favorite show to
watch together back in the day – but we hadn’t SEEN and touched each other for
7 years. Hard to believe that it’s been
that long!!
Today is kind of what we're calling our
Brooklyn day. We want to eat at Grimaldi's pizza which is
near the foot of the Brooklyn bridge on the
Brooklyn side, we want to walk across the bridge, and go to a shop over there that BMc has on her list, and go to a bar
called "The Way Station". It has a Tardis for a bathroom! C'mon! It is a bar though, and
it doesn't open until 4 - so we may have
to go back over for drinks at some point if we can't get it in today.
So the word of the day is “Brooklyn”.
McKay has told Mr. McKay that today is Brooklyn day and he responded
“No! Sleep! Til BROOKLYN!”… A little later Dana says “Well, if you can
make it here you can make it anywhere.. “ – so they’re trying to make a case
for this being called “Lyric” day. But
that will have to be decided later.
Becki and I are writing out own lyrics, but that was actually yesterday so I don’t
think it counts as part of our lyric challenge. Its the
Tomato, tomata song... We were talking about our different body temperatures ... I love it cool, that's why I sleep in
the basement...
B: oh I do too...
S: Oh see?! Something in common!
B: I use an electric blanket...
S: Oh. I use a fan.
I got up about 6 today and finished up the Monday blog - I haven't posted it yet because I like to read it to the group and let them help me remember things and fix stuff I got wrong. But it's now 8:30 and they're all still sleeping. BP's alarm went off at 7:30 (and again at 7:40) so I thought that she was getting up. But no, not really – she told me later that she DID get up and take a shower after her alarm… she got up at 8:30 and showered…. I’m not sure that I can see a direct cause and effect relationship once an hour has elapsed. Dana claims that I just don't sleep - and I do seem to be the last one to bed and the first one up every day. Not sure about Becki though, she could be in the running.
I’ve been in touch with Amie about when and where to meet up, and we’ve decided that we’ll meet her at 10ish at the metro stop right by our apt because that’s the line that we want to take downtown today. But at this rate, she may be coming up to the apt while everyone gets ready. I'm not sure how long people need to be ready or if they've already set alarms...so I’m a little cautious about actually waking them up. It all works out in the end, I’m not worried about a strict time schedule, just want to be sure that we get Amie in the right place at the right time. I’m actually the hold up in the end – I wanted to get the Monday blog posted before we left because it was done and we were going to be gone all day, so we took another minute or two for that to get posted, and in the meantime Amie came up to the apt to see it.
There is an interesting phenomena that we have called "The Brittany Delay".. Doesn't matter which one. We’ve been talking about it for a few days – but today is the first time that we actually tell the Birttanys about it. Here’s an example, we're walking along, heading to food trucks on Friday and Becki and I spot Bloomingdales. I say, oh the Brittanys are going to squeal over this is.... Count, 1, 2, 3.. "ooooh, hey guys!! Bloomingdales!!". But it happens every time that we’re out an about because we’re walking a little bit ahead and they can’t hear us very well. So it’s not a blonde thing – just a "great minds think alike, but just a little bit later" thing.
The most eerie one was the other night when we walked past the pizza place where BP and I found the good slice and cold coke. Becki and I are walking a few steps ahead - but just ahead. I say, "this is where we had pizza last night..." (1, 2, 3... we here “This is where we had pizza last night”). Becki and I chuckle. I say, "ok let's test this one... “This is where we sat..." (1, 2, 3... “This is where we sat...”). Whoa. Exact words and everything… Pretty cool. It happens a little today also, and I bring it up because now they know about it.
On our way over to Brooklyn we stop at Washington Square Park – it’s right off the line that we’re using to get to Brooklyn, and we didn’t want to get to Grimaldi’s too early, but we’re aiming for about 11 or 11:30 so that we get lunch, but we miss the big rush. We get off the subway and come upon some crazy shops – we of course have to check us (and Becki and Amie) in – and then decide which direction we should turn. I think I need a compass here to help we get my bearings. When you emerge from the subway it’s easy to get turned around.
B: oh I do too...
S: Oh see?! Something in common!
B: I use an electric blanket...
S: Oh. I use a fan.
I got up about 6 today and finished up the Monday blog - I haven't posted it yet because I like to read it to the group and let them help me remember things and fix stuff I got wrong. But it's now 8:30 and they're all still sleeping. BP's alarm went off at 7:30 (and again at 7:40) so I thought that she was getting up. But no, not really – she told me later that she DID get up and take a shower after her alarm… she got up at 8:30 and showered…. I’m not sure that I can see a direct cause and effect relationship once an hour has elapsed. Dana claims that I just don't sleep - and I do seem to be the last one to bed and the first one up every day. Not sure about Becki though, she could be in the running.
I’ve been in touch with Amie about when and where to meet up, and we’ve decided that we’ll meet her at 10ish at the metro stop right by our apt because that’s the line that we want to take downtown today. But at this rate, she may be coming up to the apt while everyone gets ready. I'm not sure how long people need to be ready or if they've already set alarms...so I’m a little cautious about actually waking them up. It all works out in the end, I’m not worried about a strict time schedule, just want to be sure that we get Amie in the right place at the right time. I’m actually the hold up in the end – I wanted to get the Monday blog posted before we left because it was done and we were going to be gone all day, so we took another minute or two for that to get posted, and in the meantime Amie came up to the apt to see it.
There is an interesting phenomena that we have called "The Brittany Delay".. Doesn't matter which one. We’ve been talking about it for a few days – but today is the first time that we actually tell the Birttanys about it. Here’s an example, we're walking along, heading to food trucks on Friday and Becki and I spot Bloomingdales. I say, oh the Brittanys are going to squeal over this is.... Count, 1, 2, 3.. "ooooh, hey guys!! Bloomingdales!!". But it happens every time that we’re out an about because we’re walking a little bit ahead and they can’t hear us very well. So it’s not a blonde thing – just a "great minds think alike, but just a little bit later" thing.
The most eerie one was the other night when we walked past the pizza place where BP and I found the good slice and cold coke. Becki and I are walking a few steps ahead - but just ahead. I say, "this is where we had pizza last night..." (1, 2, 3... we here “This is where we had pizza last night”). Becki and I chuckle. I say, "ok let's test this one... “This is where we sat..." (1, 2, 3... “This is where we sat...”). Whoa. Exact words and everything… Pretty cool. It happens a little today also, and I bring it up because now they know about it.
On our way over to Brooklyn we stop at Washington Square Park – it’s right off the line that we’re using to get to Brooklyn, and we didn’t want to get to Grimaldi’s too early, but we’re aiming for about 11 or 11:30 so that we get lunch, but we miss the big rush. We get off the subway and come upon some crazy shops – we of course have to check us (and Becki and Amie) in – and then decide which direction we should turn. I think I need a compass here to help we get my bearings. When you emerge from the subway it’s easy to get turned around.
We find Washington Park Square and the first thing we see is the
chess area! That was one of our goals,
so that’s cool! I get a few pictures,
but Brittany wants to play chess with herself – just like the old guy from the
Pixar short movie. That’s a fairly easy
photoshop job, so we take pics of her on each side – I just sent her the
resulting picture, so I’m waiting to hear her squeal. Here it is… what do you think? There were a few people actually playing chess there, and they looked at us like the tourists that we were...
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| CHESS in Washington Square Park |
We head further into the park and see the Arc – it’s based on
the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but was built to honor the victories of George
Washington. It’s also the first thing
that we really see in NYC in “When Harry Met Sally” – this is where they part
ways after the long road trip across country.
There is a puppet show happening, and Beck considers sticking her feet
in the fountain… but we’re fairly quickly on our way. On our way back out of the park BMc notices a
guy with a chess turn timer, sitting alone… “He’s playing with himself!” (you see, she’s excited because that’s what
she wanted to do, and doesn’t yet realize that what she’s said might carry
another meaning)… but she got it pretty quickly when we all busted out
laughing.
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| The Arc |
of the system, we needed that! yay BP.
We walk to Grimaldi's from high street and the view of the Brooklyn Bridge is just gorgeous. We can see Tower One in the background too. We get in line and its about 12 now, a little after when we wanted to be there, but we're about 20 people back in line and its moving
quickly.
I'm always at a loss for what to order on a pizza here, I'm not a good topping decider, I need like set pizzas to choose from like a margherita or the house special or meat lovers... But McKay is really good at it. I declare her in charge of ordering pizza. We get 2 small pizzas, at six slices each that means that we all get one slice of each kind (since we’ve added Amie we’re a part y of 6! One was a mushroom and ricotta (loving his cheese on a pizza!) and the other was pepperoni and extra cheese. Their mozzarella isn't grated, so it's nice "blobs" of gooey cheesy
goodness. Delicious! Becki used to live in Italy and so she speaks/understands a little Italian (or “EYE-Talian” as BP likes to say it) – and she’s dying to hear Becki speak a little eye-talian… we are more focused on getting BP to stop saying EYE-talian. She doesn’t say “EYE-taly” (no, of course not, that would be silly).. ok try saying “Ital… lian” Nope. It’s a no go.
Its been great to catch up with Amie! So impossible to believe that it's been 7 years since we've seen each other! She has to catch her train back at 2:00 from Grand Central - so she has to head out. Hugs! (and I get comments about how weird it is to see me offering hugs ... What ev.)
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| The Bridge, and Grimaldi's (the white building) |
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| Are you tired of pizza yet? Nope. |
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| Junior's Cheesecake |
Now we head to Juniors for cheesecake – We
haven’t really planned our Brooklyn trip to be the most efficient, we’re just
going from place to place by plugging in the next address into google maps on
our phones. We take the bus to Juniors
– and each time we struggle just a little with the way the metro card goes in
the machine. If you try and follow the
picture, that people with a 3rd grade education could follow, then
it seems more confusing – there are also arrows on the card to tell you which
way to do it. And yet, we
struggle. Juniors is like downtown
Brooklyn – we go in and ask what is their most popular cheesecake, there are SO
many to choose from - an apple crumble,
red velvet, carrot cake, raspberry, strawberry shortcake, fresh strawberry
“pie” (which confuses us since it’s cheese CAKE)… but that one turns out to be
the most popular. So 3 of us order it. I’m picturing just a cheesecake with fresh
strawberries over it – but it comes out and its actually like a layer of
cheesecake and then a layer of strawberry pie!
Way yummy! Becki gets the
raspberry and BP gets the red velvet – and the layer of cheese cake in the
middle of that is just solid and crumbly and perfect. If we get cheesecake again (WHEN we get
cheesecake again) I’m just getting the plain.
Gotta be a purist on this in NYC I think. As soon as everyone gets their cheesecake
we’re taking pictures; Dana, Becki and BM are posing together with their
plates, and just as I’m about to snap it, Dana’s plate up ends and her
cheesecake is suddenly splatted (new verb) on the table – her mouthing gaping
open. Now I am the queen of
schedenfraude, but even I could not take that picture… we assured her it would
taste the same and she gets it back up on her plate. Take two!
But if you look, you can see the red remnants of the crime scene on the
table.
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| Hot Subway |
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| Sad face! Closed!! |
We head back to the subway (google maps is SO
our friend),and head to “Lee Lee’s Valise” – it’s a second hand clothing store
that Brittany has seen on reality tv and really wants to go to. It’s quote a trek to get to this one it feels
like, but we’re truly in no rush because it’s about 2:30 and the bar that we
want to go to doesn’t open until 4:00, so we’re right on schedule. We get there and as we approach we see bars
on the front – it’s a Tuesday afternoon…
and it’s CLOSED. Britt reads the
hours on the sign and, oh yah, they’re closed on Tuesdays. Of course they are. Who would be open on a TUESDAY – what are
you, some kind of weirdo thinking that a store would be open in the middle of
the week like that? BM is sad, we feel
just a little defeated that we worked so hard to get here (the trains were just
especially slow, and the subways just a little more steamy. We’ve also had some weird experiences on the
subway – one homeless guy in particular was going along and asking for money,
but he was singing to people and droning on and on and on – I thought BM might just
lash out at the guy as he made his way toward us. He looked just a little impaired.
But we back track toward the subway, and on the
way we see a bathroom in a nearby park.
From all accounts (didn’t experience it first hand), it was the nastiest
bathroom on the planet. And BONUS, on
the way back, Becki see what seems to be a red ball bouncing on the roof of the
bathroom… wrong. WATER BALLOON –
bouncing toward her and SPLAT!
Nice.
Back on the subway and now we’re heading to “The
Way Station” – for the specific purpose of seeing a life sized, nearly
functional (if not for it’s original purposes, definitely as a bathroom)
TARDIS. Now this is where you ask, “Susen,
what is a TARDIS?” - well it stand for “Time
and relative dimension in Space” and it’s a Time machine/space ship of Doctor
Who…. And it’s at this point that people
usually ask, “WHO???” - Exactly. It’s a television show on BBC (It’s British,
ok?!)… anyway BP, BMc, myself and even
Becki are Whovians and when we saw this on Facebook we knew that we would be
making a trip to Brooklyn.
Get off the subway and there are a lot people
sitting out in front of their stores people watching as we walk by. One guy that was on the stoop said, “Hello
again ladies” as we walked back by him on the way back.. and there was a guy
handing out flyers as soon as we get off the train, and BM tells him that we’re
from out of town – and when we come back he tells us to have a great time while
we’re here. Brooklyn seemed very
friendly and in touch with their surroundings.
There was one scary moment when the Brittanys thought that they saw a
guy conceal a weapon in his pants as we walked by – I didn’t see it – but Dana
said that it was coke bottle, not a gun.
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| Jim and the TARDIS (with props) |
Anyway, back at the back… they have drinks on the menu that are Doctor
Who drinks – (only people who know the show will know what this means, but
River Song and Captain Jack have drinks, as well as Sonic Screwdrivers for the
10th and 11th Doctor).
We have to try one of each, of course – so Becki gets a River, I get the
11th and BM gets the 10th – we love them all, and they’re
so BRIGHT and colorful! We get our
picks with the Tardis, and we’ve been chatting up the bartender, or he’s been
chatting us up, or whatever. But we
learn that he’s from St. Louis! Born
and raised in St. Ann! He hooks us up
with props to pose with the Tardis, and even poses for a picture with all of us
with the Tardis. Dana is a little afraid
of the sonic screwdriver (it extends), and is not quite sure what it is – but her
mind is in the gutter. Jim, the
bartender comes over to our table and talks to us and tries to think of things
for us to do while we’re here, but once we tell him where we’ve been and what
we have planned for the next few days, he’s pretty speechless, “Wow, you guys
are doing a lot – I don’t have anything else to tell you to do!” – that’s
because we rock (in case you were wondering).
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| The green is 10th Doctor, red is River, and orange is the 11th |
It’s now about 5:30 – we hit the Way Station at
the perfect time, just as it opened, and now it’s still light out. Becki is “marathoning” on the way back to the
subway and the Brittanys are being pretty vocal about how fast she’s
going. We try to slow her down by
telling her that her shoe is untied, but it’s only a momentary advantage before
she has once again pulled ahead. At the
subway station I have a little issue with the turnstiles that are like grated
revolving doors – I slide my unlimited metro card, and then push through, and
it locks up! I’m still on the wrong
side of the turnstile – and now my card won’t work because it’s recently been
used. I was a little panicked at first
because it didn’t work, but more so because I didn’t see a machine to but
another ticket, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to get anywhere. But then I see one and buy a single ride
ticket and this time I make it through alright.
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| Just gorgeous! That's the new WTC tower in the back ground |
The sun doesn’t set here until about 8 or 8:30,
so we have plenty of time to find the pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn
Bridge so that we can walk across it. I’ve been here a few times and this is
something I’ve always wanted to do but never got the chance. It was totally worth the wait! The walkway across is wooden, cars zooming
by below us, Manhattan skyline stretching out in front of us, and the beautiful
structure of the bridge above us! BP
and I hang back and take our time, taking lots of pictures – Dana and Becki
marathon across, even running at one point to be able to say that they ran on
the Brooklyn Bridge, and BM was somewhere in between.
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| The Bridge |
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| GPS Tracking of our walk |
The bridge was amazing – beautiful! Great experience! We walk off the bridge and start walking to
a train that we can ride uptown (Dana starts singing Uptown Girl, but I tell
her that I’m not sure that we have enough lyrically references to qualify this
as “lyric” day… we’ve had 3, and she had 2 of them). We find a bathroom at Checkers and make a
small purchase for the right to use it – had some toilet paper issues – but manage
to get things take care of. We’re in
the home stretch now, and good thing cause we’re BEAT! Long day of subwaying and walking all over
Brooklyn! When we started out this
morning they asked what we would do after we were done with the bridge, but
they’re not asking that now. J We’re so ready to be home.
The Brittanys make a small detour once we get off of the train
and they head to Staples to print off the order that BMc made for the Cake
Boss. She ordered a crumb cake from
there and is going to pick it up tmw morning!
For dinner we decide to chill at the apt and order in. There are SO many choices of places that
deliver to us – BP orders Chinese, BMc and I get Mediterranean (braised lamb
for me, yah, baby!) – and Dana and Becki make sandwiches. We thought about going back down to the
plaza below and getting some frozen pink lemonade, but that doesn’t
happen. We are tired and our feet are
swollen from being on them all day (all week!) - I don’t blog one thing and I go straight to
bed – zzzzzzzzzzzz….
Wednesday
is Cake Boss and Tribes!!
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| BP personal Chinese buffet |
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