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Tuesday, July 05, 2011

NYC - A Week in Review - Days 1-3

So, you will likely be grateful to hear that I am doing some truncating of this trip.  I awoke (I swear, I will be truncating, I know starting with waking up does not seem like it) and discovered that having a leisurely departure time made me paranoid - that I had the wrong bus time, that buses were perhaps not running that day, that I had forgotten to book a hotel, and so on.  It turns out that most of the things it occurred to me to triple and quadruple check were fine. 

I did discover that the single tracking going on made my arrival, still early, but not as early as I had hoped.  However, since it turned out there'd been an issue with an earlier bus needing to go visit the mechanic, they were only just loading the bus from the previous hour when I arrived. 

I sat next to someone who was attempting through Maryland to sleep, although apparently sleeping sitting up didn't work for her so she would sleep, slump, wake herself up with the slump, and repeat.  Later she broke out her ereader. 

We made it to New York, where I checked into the hotel for my first part of the trip and then headed out to forage for dinner.  Found a lovely Thai restaurant.

The next day, my plan was to explore the village.  I had been unaware that I had accidentally managed to be in NYC for the pride march (one guy was very insistent it was a march, not a parade, despite the alliteration of pride parade) that was occurring days after the equal marriage vote.  I had watched the news the night before and discovered this, I just had not fully processed what a march in Manhattan looks like.  So, I arrived at the village and wandered around and discovered that the places I was trying to get to were all on the other side of the police barricade from me.  Being stubborn I kept trying to go up, over, and get through, but finally conceded that this was not the day for that.  (And yes, I realized I could have taken the subway, back one stop, but like I said, stubborn).  So, I grabbed a late lunch and then headed back to midtown. 

I was meeting a friend who had tickets to a community center event to raise funds for Japan earthquake/tsunami relief.  It was an interesting event starting with child performers (although there was one girl who danced modern and hip hop and zumba in such a way that we see her possibly taking over the world).  Then it progressed to the audience judging portion where the performers were, shall we say, older.  And the final section was professionals, which included hip hop and ballet.  It was a really interesting evening.  

Monday, I went back and wandered around the village.  After lunch I may have made my way to a yarn store - Knitty City.  Cute store, lots of Malabrigo, Madeline Tosh, as well as some Sweet Georgia and Wool Candy that I may have taken home. 

And then I headed back to the village (seriously, if I'd had a GPS attached, it would have looked weird, but I had a plan) and after dinner went to Lady Jane's Salon.  If you are in or near New York, I highly recommend this event.  Due to the impending RWA conference, they had more readers than normal, but the readings were great.  I loved chatting with the fellow listeners also.  And the Madame X bar, is something to behold too.