A note to the nice man that sat next to me on the train: I made it home . . . JUST IN TIME FOR THE EARTHQUAKE! It was actually one of the scariest earthquakes I've been through in a long time. It felt really strong when it started, and it went on for quite a while. After the initial shock, I realized that meant the epicenter wasn't close. Nothing even moved in our house. Of course, the funniest thing was that my dog didn't even react. Animals warn you when there's going to be an earthquake, my ass.

[Sorry it took me so long to finish this; I've been away from the computer for a while . . . ]


So there I was in New York City, stuck with no way to get home and no more money. A little while after I arrived in my room, I checked my email to find that the Monday morning flight I'd been put on stand-by for had been cancelled. Now I had to figure out what to do for the next day and a half. By the time I learned about the second cancelled flight, my sister had arrived back at her home in Maryland. We spent a lot of time talking back and forth and with her on the internet. She helped me calm down and stop worrying so much.

The first thing I did was call the credit card company and get an emergency credit limit raise for two days only. That done, I called my sister again, and she was looking at the websites for both Amtrak and Jet Blue. Then I called Jet Blue to see if I could get on a flight from DC to Burbank or Long Beach on Monday afternoon. I was able to get the last ticket on a flight from DC to Long Beach. Then I called my sister back, and she was still on the Amtrak site. She found a train from Penn Station to DC on Monday morning. All I had to do was figure out how to get to Penn Station. She bought me my ticket online (thanks, Sis!), and we hung up the phone at around 2am.

So now I had a plan, but I was still so traumatized that I had a hard time sleeping. I was also scared that I would oversleep and miss my train. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours, but I wasn't really sure how long it would take me to get to Penn Station. So I got up and checked out of my room and took the hotel shuttle back to the airport. Oh yeah. Did I mention that the hotel had a shuttle that no one told me about? Yeah. That entire taxi nightmare could have been avoided. *sigh* Funny thing. While I was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for the shuttle, a pilot from another airline checked his airline's website on his iPhone and found that HIS flight had been cancelled but no one had bothered to tell him!

Back at JFK, I found another taxi stand, but it was nice and closed up. A traffic/security guard saw me and took pity on me. I must have looked pretty pitiful. He motioned for me to follow him and led me to the famous phone bank. He dialed a number and said, "Just tell them your last name and where you are. They'll take care of you." It was a car service that charged exactly the same as a taxi, AND they'd take my credit card. Soon the driver arrived, after I'd had to wave off the errant taxi that tried to get my business. "Just ignore them," the guard told me. So I did.

Driving through New York in the very early morning sure is different than driving through New York at rush hour. Still, the traffic doesn't ever seem to end. It took a while, but we finally made it to Penn Station. The driver felt sorry for me when I explained that I really was catching a train. It turns out that I arrived with two hours to spare before my train left. I got a snack and some drinks and sat down in the waiting area to read my book. Turns out that Amtrak has a nice waiting area for its customers. Everyone else has to sit on the floor.

My train arrived right on time, and I boarded the train with no problem. The train is a lot more comfortable than a plane, though of course it takes a lot longer. It also costs about the same or maybe even more than a plane ticket. The train made some stops, but not so many to make the trip annoying. I was even able to sleep for about an hour and a half, something I really needed. About halfway through the trip, a man boarded the train and sat next to me. He didn't say much to me until he heard me talking to my sister on the phone. Then he had to hear the whole sordid story, which I didn't mind telling. He told me something that Steph had said--that this was happening for some reason. He also added that maybe I would be missing a big earthquake by getting home late.

After about 3 hours, I arrived at Union Station in Washington, DC. My brother-in-law Ed was even there to meet me. We took the Metro to Silver Spring. Wow! Their Metro sure is a lot cleaner than the subway in New York! The trip didn't last all that long, which was good. We got to the Metro stop and went outside. Almost immediately my sister drove up! The day was getting better. We dropped off Ed at work and then headed back to get some food. We went to a local Chinese restaurant and ordered some food, then headed to CVS to kill some time while we waited. Our food was soon ready, and we went back to the house for lunch. I sat in the easy chair, ate good food, and rested. Thank God for big sisters. I felt so much better. I watched TV, printed out my boarding pass, and looked at pictures of Annie.

Soon it was time to head to Dulles Airport. I was actually scared. But we got to the airport with no problems, and soon I was headed toward a very long security line. Oddly, however, when I approached the end of the line, a security officer waved me through to a station that had no waiting, and I was through in a matter of seconds. I had to take a shuttle to my gate, but I was soon sitting at the gate and actually had quite a bit of time to kill. I checked my email on my phone. I would have read, but I had already finished my book while in the train station. I wrote in my museum journal and then went to get some food. I found a place that had customized salads, but I bought a sandwich from them instead.

Finally, after a day of waiting, I boarded my plane to Long Beach. Since I had gotten the last ticket available (at least that's what the Jet Blue agent had told me), I had a middle seat, but even that wasn't too bad. The first thing that I noticed when I finally got settled was that none of the TVs in our row was working. All we had was static. The guy sitting in the aisle seat asked the flight attendant about it, but she gave us some vague answer and was really no help at all. He asked her again once we were in the air, and she was again no help but offered us cocktails to make up for it. I had no interest in a cocktail, but the man next to me sure thought it was a great idea. Over the course of the flight, he indulged in 5 cans of Heineken, though he did have to pay for most of them. I didn't really mind,except that by the time the plane landed, it smelled like I was in a brewery.

The reason that I didn't make a big deal about the TV was that I had planned to sleep for most of the trip home. Unfortunately, the baby across the aisle from us didn't think that was a very good idea. He decided to scream at the top of his lungs for most of the trip--loud enough to wake me out of a sound sleep every half hour or so. I think that's one of the reasons the man next to me kept drinking so much. After about 3 hours of trying to sleep, I gave up and worked on my advanced math workshop for the rest of the time--even though my advanced math workshop was going on in Pasadena without me!

The plane finally landed without incident at Long Beach. Then we taxied for a reeaaallllllllllyyyyyy llllllloooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggggg time. And once we got to the gate, it took even longer for them to open up the doors and let us out. People were getting really hostile, but I was just SOOO happy to be on the west coast! Pop was there to meet me when I got off of the plane, and soon I was home and sleeping in my own bed!

Sunday morning came soon, and I was eager to fit as much into the day as possible. I woke up a little later than I wanted to and got dressed and packed. I checked out of my hotel and walked down 52nd Street toward Madison Avenue. The street was being set up for a huge street fair thingy with lots of booths selling food and other things. If I had known that my time wasn't as limited as I thought, I might have stopped to enjoy the atmosphere. But I had another destination in mind. I found my way to a bus stop on Madison, where I caught the M1 bus uptown. I had to stand for a good part of the time, but I got to sit after a lot of the people got off of the bus at the Met. But I had another destination in mind.

I got off of the bus at 86th and had to walk just a little way to the Guggenheim Museum. I'd heard so much about the Guggenheim--from "It's wonderful" to "The building is cool, but the art is mediocre"--so I was eager to see it for myself. I found it quite amazing. And, yes, the building itself is the most impressive part. As usual, the front of the building had scaffolding in front of it. (I say "as usual," because this seems to be a thing whenever I go on vacation.) I stood in line and got my ticket and then checked my bag at the coatroom.

As I mentioned earlier, the Guggenheim is impressive. It's a big spiral, both inside and out, and to get to the galleries, one just walks up the huge spiral ramp. The ramp area is called The Rotunda, and it houses the less permanent exhibits. When I was there, that exhibit happened to be the works of Louise Bourgeous. I didn't really like her art. I found it weird and depressing, and it seemed to get more depressing as she got older. I did, however, like a lot of the other art, including the Kandinsky gallery and an exhibit called "Toward Abstraction." I did not, however,like the gallery that housed the completely black canvasses with some person on video explaining the depth of the art. There was also some spectroscope analysis to explain how the black was different in different parts of the canvas. Modern art can be so weird.

I had seen nearly everything when my phone started buzzing, telling me that my sister and family had arrived. I headed downstairs, because I wasn't allowed to use my phone in the museum. (By the way, cameras are also forbidden in the museum, which is really sad.) I called my sister from downstairs, telling her that I was going to the cafe, since I was really hungry. I had a delicious salad with grilled peaches, dried cranberries, and candied pecans. Cha, Annie, and Ed met me in the cafe, and we soon set out to explore the museum. I didn't mind going through the museum at a slower pace, and it was nice seeing it with company. The museum store is a little small, but I bought a stack of postcards, some gifts, and a coloring book for myself. We bought some hot dogs from a vendor on the street corner and headed to JFK so I could meet my airplane.

I arrived in plenty of time to get my boarding pass and go through security. I knew something was wrong as soon as I got into the main part of the terminal. The food court and the area around the gates were both packed with people. People were gathered around the status board, looking worried. I soon discovered that a large storm front had interrupted air traffic around New York, forcing incoming flights to be rerouted and preventing departing flights from leaving. My flight read "on time," however, so I decided to wait. I got something to eat, checked my email, and sat on the floor to read my book. As I sat there, announcements about other delayed flights were made every few minutes.

Everyone on our flight got up and stood in a very long line to see what could be done. On a side note, while I was standing in line, I recognized someone a few places in front of me. Turns out that Cathy K from the church I used to work at was in New York for a wedding as well, and we were on the same flight home. We stood in line forever. People were getting very agitated, especially a woman in line (not directly) behind me. When I finally got to the front of the line, I was informed that I could not get onto another flight for about 48 hours. By this point I was frustrated but not really upset. After all, everyone else was in the same boat. At least I wasn't a part of this story!

I was fully prepared to spend the next two nights in the airport, but my dad told me to get a hotel. The people at the Jet Blue counter had told us that the best way to find a hotel would be to go downstairs to baggage claim and use the phones there to call hotels. I headed there and called several hotels, while I watched the lady next to me calling pretty much every number on the list. No luck. All of the hotels were full. I was willing to spend the night in the airport and to check again the next day, so I headed back to the gates. It was at this point that everything hit the fan. You see, when Jet Blue changed my flight, they also took my boarding pass. This meant that I could not get back into where the gates were until I got a new boarding pass, which I could not do for at least another day.

Though I had been very patient earlier, it was when this happened that I began to get somewhat hysterical. I sat on the cold, hard floor to figure things out. Then I remembered that the Palm homepage on my phone has a travel section. I was able to find the toll-free number for Orbitz and reserve a hotel room less than 15 minutes away. I headed for the taxi stand to get a ride to the hotel. By now it was after 8pm, and it had just gotten dark.

The taxi situation at JFK is surprisingly organized and relatively fast-moving. I got a cab after a while in the line and was on my way to the hotel. At least that's what I thought. The cab driver asked me if I was going into Manhattan, and when I said no and gave him the address, he seemed puzzled. Yet he took the address and got into the car and began to drive. He got on the phone with him home base and presumably asked for directions. When dispatch couldn't figure it out, he looked at the number, which was on the same page as the directions, and started yelling at me about how this place was in Long Island and he was not going to go there. He then pulled over to the side of the road and tried to call the number. When no one answered, he again started yelling about how this was a Long Island number. Oh, and did I mention that he left the meter running during this entire ordeal? While this was going on, I pulled out my handy-dandy Palm (did I mention how much I love my Palm Centro?) and found the exact directions to the hotel. When I told him I'd found the directions, he got even more upset with me. Instead of listening to me, he just insisted that the number was for Long Island and that I was wrong. "Look," I said, "you are charging me to yell at me instead of driving." He tried to B.S. me and tell me that the meter wasn't running. "I can read numbers," I answered. "And I am going to turn you in." That was when he decided to take me back to the airport where I could get another cab.

When I got back to the airport,I made it back to the cab stand, but I was determined NOT to stand in the line again. I had to make a bit of a fuss, but I managed to get to the front of the line without having to wait, and I was on my way again. The driver wasn't sure where the hotel was either, but I gave him the highway name, and he soon got me there. Finally . . . not quite!

When I tried to check in, there was a problem with my credit card. Turns out that I was too close to my limit to charge the hotel room on my card. I ended up having to give the man what was left of my cash to pay for the room. So now I had a hotel room, but I wasn't just stuck in New York--I was stuck in New York without any money!

NOW WHAT?!???

I must have been more tired than I thought, because I managed to sleep in Saturday morning. I wasn't planning to, but I underestimated how tired I was and the power of blackout curtains. I had hoped to spend the morning with the Chans, but that didn't work out. I was pretty disappointed about that, but I guess I needed the rest. I spent the morning getting ready for the big wedding and figuring out how to get there.

I left my hotel room at around 12:30 and headed to the subway station. It was not a long walk, and the streets were busy with tourists. I was happy to discover that I didn't even have to transfer, as I had expected, and I even helped a man buy his metro card. I took the A Train straight to Brooklyn. The train was crowded through Manhattan, but it got much less crowded as we got closer to Brooklyn. I arrived with no trouble and walked the several blocks to the event venue.

I got to the community garden early, but it allowed me to help out Tanya a bit, so she could go get ready for the wedding. She and her crew (Uncle and I'm not sure who else) had already done a great job at making the place look pretty, so I just did some finishing touches with someone named Simona. My sister and family arrived after a little while, and we caught up on things. My relatives (Auntie, Uncle, and Tanya) seemed surprised that I was there, but they were really, really surprised to see Cha, Ed, and Annie.

The wedding ended up being really nice, though it started a lot later than anticipated. My relatives were really happy that there was family in attendance. I think especially Auntie was happy about that. Kiana and Billy's wedding was, of course, non-traditional. It was short on ceremony and long on party, but it fit them perfectly. It was a beautiful wedding, and it was a lot of fun, too. The weather could not have been better, and I only got three mosquito bites out of it all. I'm really happy for all three of them, and I know they already are a beautiful family.

Ed and Cha decided to drive me back to my hotel, even though it was a long drive. They were staying in Brooklyn. We got lost a bit, but I finally made it back to the Flatotel and my hard bed. I hadn't eaten much all day, so I considered going back outside to find some food. In the end, I decided to order room service so that I could eat on my bed in front of the TV. It was a good decision. :)

It was a trip with a lot of promise. What could be easier? Fly into JFK on Friday morning, do some stuff on Friday, go to the wedding on Saturday, see more on Sunday, and fly home on Sunday. Most of the trip went according to plan, so I'll start with the good parts.

I arrived at Burbank Airport early on Friday. My flight was to leave at 7am, and I had plenty of time to catch my plane. My seating companions were an omen of the trip to come. As I came down the aisle, I saw one of them sit in my seat and shrug her shoulders, as if to say, "I can sit here because I was here first." When I got to my seat and informed her of the fact that it was mine, both women rolled their eyes and moved over. They were clearly unhappy about my sitting there. Honestly, what the hell did they expect? One of them (the one who was now sitting my the window) decided to insult me by calling her friend on the phone and declaring that, "Somebody sat next to [whatever the hell her friend's name is] and is taking up all the space, and she is pissed." EXCUSE ME??? Taking up all the space??? If these people don't have the money to buy the seat next to them, then I actually believe that seat belongs to someone. Idiots.

The rest of the flight continued without incident, and, as I expected, we arrived at JFK a little earlier than scheduled. I called my car service and was told where to meet them. I went to the designated place to wait for the driver. The car drove up, and I moved toward the car, just as I heard a woman say, "That's our car; it has a 7 on it."
"No, that's my car," I said, but no one heard me.
"Are you going to the Flatotel?" asked the driver.
The woman clearly didn't understand him, because she answered, "Yes, the Westin."
"This is my car," I said a little more loudly. The driver looked at me.
"No, DEAR," the woman condescended. "This is our car."
I directed my question to the driver. "Where are you going?"
"Flatotel," he answered.
"This is MY car," I stated again. Finally, someone figured it out. The woman continued to insist that it was her car.
But the driver said, "You will have to wait for your car."
"But this was the confirmation number she gave me," the woman whined.
"Then call them," answered the driver as he put my bag into the car. Once in the car he apologized, though it wasn't his fault. He drove me into Manhattan and dropped me off at the corner of 6th Avenue and 52nd Street, about a half block from my hotel.

Flatotel is a medium-sized, medium-quality hotel in midtown Manhattan, close to Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue shopping. Does that sound like a commercial? It's not. I mean, it's an OK hotel, but it's nothing special. Some of the rooms are like apartments, so that's nice. My room wasn't like an apartment, but it did have a mini-fridge and a teeny-tiny microwave (which I never ended up using, though I had thought I would). The decor was modern and nice, although the bed was hard. I got settled but was soon out of my room to experience the city.

I headed to Rockefeller Center to find something to eat and to look for the Palm store. I needed an adapter for my Centro, since the Centro headset plug is 2.5mm, and a standard plug is 3.5mm. :( After walking around for a LOONNNGGGG time, I decided to give up. I did manage to find 'wichcraft and grab an onion frittata breakfast sandwich, though. YUMMY! Though I would have preferred more onion. Haha. I headed out to 5th Avenue and nearly ran right into the Sprint store. I went in and asked a very nice man for some help. He didn't have what I needed, and he also informed me that Palm has closed all of it's physical stores, because people buy Palm products either from cell service providers or online. Makes sense from a business point of view, but it doesn't help me. :(

I decided it was time to go to the Met. I had been wanting to do this since my last visit to New York, so I was pretty excited. The question was, How do I get there? I didn't have a map, so I asked someone in the Met store at Rockefeller Center for help. He told me the correct bus route, but the problem was that I didn't have any coins for the bus, and I didn't know where the nearest subway was so that I could buy a metro card. I decided to start walking, and if I happened to gain either of those things, I would hop on the bus. Thirty blocks later, I arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, tired but happy to arrive.

The museum's suggested entrance fee is $20. Technically, you can pay any amount you want to get in, since the fee is a donation. I willingly paid the $20. If I had known about what was to come, I might have saved my money. The Met is HUGE! I only had about 2-1/2 hours to see the entire thing, so I walked through very quickly, trying to absorb as much as possible. I saw SO MANY things that it's impossible to describe it all here. I especially liked the musical instruments, the armor and weapons gallery (which was surprisingly interesting), and the Renaissance stuff. I will post pictures when I get them downloaded. I even had a chance to stop by the store and pick up some postcards and a cute bag. I could explain even more, but you just have to experience the museum for yourself. :)

I had only $1.50 in coins, and I needed $2 for the bus. I got change from a mother and daughter outside of the museum, and waited for the bus. The bus was pretty easy, even though I had to stand for most of the time. I bought a gyro from a street vendor on the way to my hotel, bought some more supplies from the hotel store, found my room, and turned in for the night.

My first day in New York was, although a little annoying at points, was relatively uneventful. Oh, if it could have stayed like that.

It was hard to believe that our New York Adventure was almost over. We overslept on Saturday morning. Both of us thought that we'd wake up around 7 or so, but we didn't wake up until past 8:30. That seems like a good time to wake up on a Saturday morning, but not when you only have a few hours left in New York City. We got ready quickly, packed up our bags, and said good-bye to our hotel room. We left our bags with the concierge so that we could walk around the city more freely.

Lorei had been in meetings all week, so she didn't really get to see much of anything. She wanted to go to St. Patrick's Cathedral to light a candle for her friend, so we headed back up 5th Avenue. The cathedral was a little busier on Saturday, and there were even some christenings going on in the chapel. Nevertheless, we were able to light several candles, take a lot of pictures, and enjoy the ambiance of the cathedral. While we were there, we also got a call from Kiana, who were were supposed to meet later that day. We made plans to meet in Manhattan instead of Brooklyn, to give me and Lorei more time in the city instead of on the subway.

After our visit to the cathedral, we decided to go to H&M, since neither of us had actually been inside of one--I, because their clothes don't fit me, and she, because she lives in the woods (LOL). We were pleasantly surprised to find that the clothes weren't all made in China (though most of their accessories were), and that the clothes were actually cute. We didn't spend much time there, though, and we didn't buy anything either.

We walked back to Grand Central Station, stopping at Rockefeller Center along the way. The subway turned out to be an interesting experience. We had figured out what to do by then. Unfortunately, we had not counted on the weekend tourists all in the station trying to figure it all out. Oh well. We made it onto our train with no problem and headed to Union Square.

Union Square hosts a beautiful market on Saturday mornings, and we took advantage of the nice weather to look around. Soon Kiana arrived with Zach and Billy. Wow! I hadn't seen Zach in at least 5 years, probably longer. And it was great to meet Billy (especially now that I've learned that he's going to be a part of the family!). After looking around the market for a while, we decided to have lunch at Republic. Republic is a cool, trendy noodle restaurant there in Union Square. The food is really good, and the company was even better. It was very cool to hang around with Kiana after all of these years (and when we're both considerably more grown up) and to get to know Zach and Billy.

All too soon we had to leave. So we hugged everyone and took the subway back to the Roosevelt. We picked up our luggage and rearranged everything while we waited for our ride to the airport. I even had time to download pictures from my sister's camera. Our driver soon arrived, and we were on our way to JFK. All I have to say is, I had to work really hard not to watch where he was going. SERIOUSLY scary driving! But we managed to make it to the airport in one piece. We made it through security without incident and found our gates, which were pretty close to each other. I went to the food court to find something I could eat later for dinner, and then we just waited to board. Lorei's plane left about an hour before mine did, and I ended up spending some time talking with the nice lady who was sitting across from me.

Finally my plane arrived, and we boarded the plane. Hallelujah! The flight was less than half full, and nearly everyone got an entire row to themselves. I read, watched TV (probably Top Chef), ate snacks, and slept. Sometime in all of that, I also managed to get very airsick and was only praying for the sweet relief that solid ground would bring. At last we reached Burbank airport, and my New York City adventure was over.

So it looks like I may be able to go back sometime this summer. Maybe then I can do the other two things on my list--visit the Met and finally meet the Chans. :)

Friday was a little overcast, but I was determined to make the most of my day. I had actually done almost everything on my list, except visiting the Met, which I had already decided to put off until another visit. So I decided to visit one of my favorite places, the United Nations building. I walked down 45th Street from my hotel. The UN was not that crowded when I arrived. There was a fast-moving line through security, but overall it was not too bad. Since I'd been there before, I decided to forego the tour and instead just hit the bookstore. Of course! And what a bookstore it is! It's really several bookstores, as well as an international shopping extravaganza. :) I spent quite a while there, but had to leave because of the lack of respectable eating options. I ended up not even buying anything. The only things I really wanted were either books that were too heavy to bring home or things that were too expensive.

Anyway, I was eager to get back to meet my sister for our lunch plans. We walked around the corner to 'wichcraft, a delightful sandwich place that was the concept of Tom Colicchio. I had a delicious meatloaf sandwich, and my sister had an onion frittata sandwich. YUM!!! We then walked around the corner to Barnes & Noble. How can we resist any bookstore? My sister bought a couple of things and then had to head back to her meeting.

I decided to rest for a little while, since I knew that it would be a long day. But I couldn't stay down for long. I really didn't have a destination, so I just kind-of wandered around the surrounding streets, looking in some shops but not buying anything. I even ended up at Barnes & Noble again. I felt the overwhelming need to buy a hot dog from the corner vendor. It just seemed like a "New York" thing to do. It was OK but not that great. I should have gotten a bratwurst instead.

My sister came back from her meeting, and we got ready for our night out. We braved the subway again (not novices anymore!) and made our way to Times Square. Lorei had never been to Times Square before, so it was something new for her. It was also pretty much new to me, since it had been at least 10 years since I'd been to NYC, and the whole place had changed. It was packed, as expected, and SO HUGE! We found the Hershey's store, which I'd been wanting to visit since I saw it on Project Runway. The store was even more crowded than the street! Also, the music was way too loud and completely unnecessary. After looking at everything in the store, I settled on Hershey's Kiss cookie cutters and Bubble Yum lip gloss. After all, I figured, I can get the candy almost everywhere.

Then it was time for us to find somewhere to eat. This turned into more work than we anticipated, though we should have. After all, it was a Friday afternoon just before curtain time. We really wanted Chinese food, but the Chinese restaurant was packed. So was the next restaurant we ducked into. We ended up in front of Junior's, which is a New York legend. My sister remembered seeing the restaurant on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Junior's is a diner/deli-type place with a HUGE menu. They are well-known for their bakery, especially the cheesecake. The restaurant was so full that I almost got smacked in the head by the revolving door because we couldn't get all the way inside. We offered to sit outside (it was COLD!) so that we wouldn't have to wait. We were soon seated, after a little confusion with our name, and we looked over the very extensive menu. We ended up ordering sandwiches, which turned out to be enormous. In retrospect, we decided that we should have shared. In fact, we were so full that we decided to put off dessert until after the theater.

Another advantage of eating at Junior's was the fact that it is just around the corner from the Shubert Theater, where SPAMALOT is playing. We got to the theater pretty early and couldn't figure out why people were lining up to get in. So we went into the gift shop and took some pictures instead. Soon we were allowed to enter the theater. We had to climb up some relatively steep stairs to get to our seats, and then we decided to climb all the way down to use the restrooms before the lines appeared. On our way back to our seats, we decided to stop by the concessions table and see what they had available. My frugality earlier in the day proved to be justified. We ended up spending a lot of money at Spamalot. I bought a shirt that says "Fetchez la vache," a button that says "Ni. Ni. Ni.", a program, and a small rabbit with big pointy teeth. Our seats had a good view but were very uncomfortable. There was barely any leg room. Even my knees were touching the seat in front of me--and I am short. But the show was GREAT!!! I love Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and this was almost like that but a MUSICAL! It was so funny and silly and fun. It really made me happy just to be there in that theater.

When the show was over we went back to Junior's to get a slice of cheesecake and a black and white cookie. We pushed our way into the crowd in Times Square and took in the atmosphere. It was crazy; I can't even imagine being there for New Year's Eve. A regular Friday night was packed enough. We took the subway back to our hotel and ate cheesecake in bed. A perfect ending to a perfect day. :)

We awoke early on Thursday morning. Lorei went to her meeting, and I got to spend some time getting ready for my day. I walked down 5th Avenue (this time in the opposite direction) and soon found myself at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I love churches, so this was a treat for me. As is usually the case when I visit a historic church, the front of the building was under scaffolding. The inside of the church was beautiful, though smaller than I expected. I took some pictures and lit some candles. The gift shop was somewhat of an ideal. Shaped somewhat like an aisle in a grocery store and not anywhere near as wide, the gift shop is not built to handle shoppers. Nevertheless, I was able to buy some postcards, a CD of organ music, and a few other things.

I left the cathedral and continued down 5th Avenue toward the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The museum doesn't open until 10:30, and I arrived just after 10. So I was surprised to find a very long line that filled up the entire lobby and extended outside. The wait outside was a little long, but once they opened up the cashiers, the lines moved rather quickly. I paid my $20 and checked out the map. I then headed to the 5th floor, which has some of the more famous works of art (and a cafe). The cafe was closed, and the galleries were packed. I walked into the first room and came face to face with a collection of Impressionist paintings. Impressionism??? I was very confused and decided to try another floor. I took the escalator to the 6th floor, where I found a very strange exhibition called "Design and the Elastic Mind." I'm still not really sure what the point was. But hey, I did want to see modern art. Across the way I found "Color Chart," which was slightly more interesting but also weird. Some of the paintings were enormous copies of pages from a Pantone paint fan book. But some of them were nicer than that. I also saw Warhol's famous Marilyn paintings. I decided to give the 5th floor another try and headed back there. I was happy to find that the room of Impressionism (as much as I like the Impressionists, it WAS MoMA, after all), there was a very nice collection of well-known modern works. But by then I was really hungry, so I went to check out the cafe. I must admit that this was my favorite part of my visit. I had a lovely view and had a delicious lunch of a turkey sandwich, tomato soup, fresh berries, and hot tea. I could have lingered in that cafe all day, but it was time to explore some more of the museum. The 4th floor was a lot like the 5th--a lot of well-known works. The museum was getting a little more crowded, so it was hard to get just the right view of most of the art. But I was thrilled to see a lot of things I'd only seen in books. Warhol, Picasso, Rothko, Kahlo, Pollock, . . . and more! It was pretty cool. My next stop was the sculpture garden. The garden was smaller than I had expected, but it was still beautiful. As much as I loved the garden, it was time for me to visit the bookstore. And what a bookstore it is! There were so many things that it was really, really, really hard for me to decide what to buy. But I tried to practice restraint and didn't break the bank--though I easily could have.

It was time for me to head back to the hotel, so I walked back down 5th Avenue, stopping by Rockefeller Center on the way. It was packed, as I expected, so I just snapped a few pictures and continued along.

I met my sister back at the hotel (after a short rest), and we decided to brave the subway. I've ridden the subways in London, Paris, and Washington, DC, but never in New York City. We found the subway to be a little less user-friendly than others we've ridden, but we finally figured out what we were doing. We found ourselves at Kiana's office to visit and check out her surroundings. I even got to have a session, which was pretty cool for both of us.

Soon we had to leave, but not without making plans to see her again on Saturday. We took the subway back to our hotel, got freshened up, and took a taxi to our next destination. The taxi ride was funny. Because it was rush hour, it was actually very difficult to find an unoccupied taxi. Finally, one stopped, and the driver motioned that his passenger was about to get out. Then we waited for a LOOONNG time while she dug around in her belongings, I guess to look for money to pay the guy. She finally got out of the taxi, and we were on our way. We were entertained by the driver who criticized the afore-mentioned passenger for not being ready. This became a diatribe on how White people aren't as smart as Asian people and how the government is out to get Asian people. We did a lot of noncommital nodding. Too funny.

And then we reached our destination. Les Halles, a wonderful restaurant owned by the one and only Anthony Bourdain. It was small, crowded, and noisy. But the food was absolutely delicious! I had a warm potato salad with goat cheese and olives for a starter. I could have eaten a gallon of it. My entree was lamb chops. They were so tasty and perfectly cooked. For dessert we shared a "fallen chocolate souffle." It was as wonderful as you might think it would be.

It was raining as we caught another cab back to our hotel. It had been a good day.

I left home at 5:30am to catch my Jet Blue flight from Burbank airport to JFK. I was surprised at how awake I was, but I was also glad. Pop drove to the airport much too fast, but otherwise everything was pretty uneventful. I didn't have any luggage, so I checked in pretty quickly and was through security relatively quickly as well.

The guy sitting in the window seat and I were hoping that the person sitting between us wouldn't show up, but we had no such luck. She showed up almost last, holding her coffee cup and whining about how she was just getting something to eat and didn't hear the announcement--as if that were somehow the airlines' fault. Then she proceeded to tell us that she "hates" sitting in the middle seat and "was so pissed" to find out where she had to sit. I'm not sure of her reason for doing this. Maybe she thought that if she pouted a lot, one of us would, out of the kindness of our hearts, offer to switch with her. Sorry, chica. You were sitting between a straight woman and a gay man, batting your eyes and pouting isn't going to get you squat. Once she saw I wasn't impressed, she pretty much ignored me for the rest of the flight, and I ignored her.

So we arrived in New York without any incident, and even earlier than scheduled. I had scheduled my car to pick me up almost an hour after my flight was supposed to land, so I had some time to kill. I found a place to get some lunch and even got to use Jet Blue's free wireless access in the terminal. I called my car service to pick me up and also had a chance to talk with my cousin Kiana on the phone. We planned to meet up later that day.

My driver took my into Manhattan. It was kind-of cool and funny. I actually recognized the names of things from watching "Law & Order" for all of these years. We arrived at The Roosevelt Hotel, and I set about finding my sister. She got out of her meeting and met me in the lobby. We went up to the room and soon after left to visit some shops around our hotel. We looked at some shoes and some very nice leather jackets (on clearance!).

Kiana texted that she was at our hotel, and we met her outside. Then we walked over to Cosi, a little salad/sandwich/coffee place, and had some dinner. It was really nice to catch up with her, since we haven't seen her in at least 5 years. (She looks great, by the way!)

After our short visit, Kiana went home. Lorei and I decided to walk around and explore our surroundings. We went to the Fossil store and then kept walking down 5th Avenue. We really had no specific destination in mind, so we were very happy when we arrived at the New York Public Library. I've always wanted to see those big lions in person. We took some pictures and experimented with being artistic. Then we continued our journey down 5th Avenue.

We soon arrived at Lord & Taylor, which is, I believe, owned by Macy's now. The store is something like 9 stories tall and is HUGE. We looked at shoes and random things, and then I realized that I didn't have a wrap for Friday night. So we decided to take advantage of the major sale that L&T was having and look for something to wear with my nice dress. Score! I found a jacket that was marked down to $140, but when the salesperson scanned it, it came up at $40! :)

We decided to head back to our hotel. After a short stop at the drug store for snacks, we went to The Roosevelt and settled in for the night. I tried to log onto the internet and ran into some issues. After a call to the service desk, I decided to give up for the night. So we were very surprised when someone from the hotel knocked on the door to help us out with the connection. And I was in my pajamas! Good thing I had my flannel pj's on. He never did manage to get it fixed, but he did try for quite a while. "It's OK," I told him. "It's almost time for Top Chef anyway."

(Hope it doesn't take me too long to get to part 2, but don't hold your breath waiting.)