Monday morning my mom, dad and I all packed up the van that we rented and left the city around 11 a.m. I spent the majority of the car ride to New Jersey just sitting there watching the scenery, listening to music and of course, thinking. My topics of thought included, but were not limited to Kristen, the rest of my family, Billy Joel, Tim, and oddly enough, halter tops. I couldn't focus enough to read or really do anything productive. My mom showed me a clue from her crossword puzzle that was "Billy Joel hit" and it was "Blank-Blank-Blank-Blank-S-Blank-Y". I spent a good portion of an hour making a list of all the Billy Joel songs I knew, trying to determine which one it was. Later in the trip, I popped in 52nd Street, one of my CDs that I haven't listened to yet, and immeadiately hear "Honesty". Riddle solved, but my Billy Joel crown is now tarnished. We stopped at a gas station right along the Jersey border, and I went in to use the bathroom and look for gum in the store attached to it. As I was washing my hands, the machine on the wall caught my eye. The sign on it boasted four "fabulous scents". Lip gloss perhaps? Maybe even cough drops? No, ladies and gentlemen, this was a condom machine - With the flavors of grape, strawberry, vanilla and banana for 75 cents each. My question is, what if you happened to be in this gas station looking for a condom for your New Jersey border action and you wanted a non-flavored one? Then you're pretty much screwed. More so than you already would have been. Needless to say, I did not purchase one of this flavored "treats" and proceeded on to the convience store to search for gum. My ears had been plugging up and popping the entire way there, so much that I was having difficulty hearing. I wanted plain Bubble Yum or Bubblicious, so I headed over to the gum rack, where they had at least twenty five different varieties of gum. They have strawberry, they have watermelon, but no plain. This gas station was definitely not the place for those of us who like our gum and condoms plain. Around eight o'clock, we arrived at my grandparent's house in New Jersey. My sister met us on the walkway to their front door. She looks even skinnier, and a bit blonder. My grandparent's house is gorgeous - It's all on one floor, but it's huge, and has a lot of land. The end of the back yard borders a river and they have a dock and everything. There are so many windows in that house, and such a beautiful view. The big house was occupied by a lot of people on our first night there. My aunt, uncle and two cousins from Atlanta were also there, in addition to us. So after dinner and listening to my seven year old cousin talk almost non-stop, I had to sleep on the floor of the room my sister was using for the week. It was nice because we got to talk for awhile before we fell asleep, and I was so exhausted that I had absolutely no problem sleeping on the floor. Tuesday we all went out to lunch at this place that is known for it's "famous" hot dogs. So of course, I got grilled cheese. You can take the girl out of her state, but you can't take the non-red meat eating out of the girl. I was stuck at the table with my family and my grandfather. You have to understand something about my grandfather - he's not only very patronizing, but he likes things done in a certain way. Restaurants are a typical place of tyranny for him, but this time he met his match in our waitress. She shot down all his requests, stating that she was too busy, "This is how it is," and "ALL our hot dogs are well done". I wanted to hug her for that, but she probably would have just kicked me. My aunt, uncle and cousins left around 2:30 for the airport, and my mom, sister and I attempted to go see "Bend It Like Beckham". However, we had problems getting to the theatre, so we wound up just going to the mall. Wednesday we actually headed for NYC. We drove up to the train station and then took the train up to the city. The ride's about an hour long, and I didn't bring a book because I didn't want to lug it around all day. So I spent the entire trip watching the information board which posts each stop on the way to the city, and looked around the train. My sister and I found a disturbing advertisement on the front of our train car. It was this poster of a guy named "Carlos" who was a fares inspector for the train line, and the quote at the bottom read: "Fares aren't the only thing I inspect". And the really scary part, as my sister pointed out, is that you cannot see where Carlos' right hand is, because the poster cuts off just below his waist. We get off the train and come up out of the station and enter the actual city. New York City is crowded. And loud. Everyone moves like they have fire underneath their feets, they start to move out into the streets before the cross walk signs even change. And no one looks happy, almost no one. I can now understand why so many songs are written about escaping from there, or slipping in un-noticed to the city. You could completely lose yourself and no one would care. We first went to my sister's building and she took our change of clothes upstairs while we waited in the lobby. When she returned, the bazillion years of walking commenced. I enjoy walking, don't get me wrong. But I like it when it's at my own pace, and when I have my cds to listen to. This was definitely not practiced on Wednesday. First of all, both Kristen and my dad have long legs, so they walk like speed demons, whereas my mother and I have short stubby legs and are left in their dust. By the end of the day, I was hot, sweaty, and sore. But as much as I dislike the actual city of New York, I can't help but be amazed by my experiences there. For example, I got to go into St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is an absolutely breathtaking building, gorgeous and huge. It was very spiritual to me, and there were all these candles lit all over the place. But it seemed so huge that I wouldn't want to attend services there. Seems like it might de-personalize it. We also went in FAO Schwartz, the Disney Store, the library, the NBC Store, Times Square and had lunch at Burger Haven. Eventually we headed back to my sister's place so we could all get changed for "Movin'Out". When we first got to our seats, I was kind ofupset because we were extremely far back in the theatre. But it turns out that those seats are at a better angle then the ones directly below it, so we did get our money's worth. And once the show started, I didn't care about anything other than what was going onstage. The show had very little dialogue, except a couple lines from a drill sergant in the first act. Aside from that, the story was told through dance and Billy Joel's songs. The pit orchestra was on stage, on a platform that moved up and down depending on what was needed for the particular scene. All the songs were sung and accompanied on piano by the same person, Michael Cavanaugh. He was absolutely amazing. I especially liked the way he did "Summer, Highland Falls". Not to mention the amazing choreography - My favorites were "Pressure/Goodnight Saigon" which involved Vietnam soldiers coming back from the dead, and "Captain Jack," a drug-induced seventies nightmare. I don't even understand how it was physically possible for the dancers to do these things, but they did them. And have I mentioned that I love Michael Cavanaugh? He's my new secret famous boyfriend. After the show, we took a cab to the Tick Tock Café where I consumed a piece of carrot cake and half of a turkey sandwich. It was entertaining because I was all hyped up from the show and couldn't seem to calm down. I didn't wind down until the train ride, which was actually very nice. A few times over the course of the ride, the lights in the train went off (which is supposed to happen), so the train got very dark and all the exit signs glowed green. The train gets quieter in those moments, and it's really quite peaceful. I finally got to bed around 1:30. Only to wake up at 7:45 the next morning, to shower, eat, and head back out to the city. This time we drove the van out there so we could put all of Kristen's stuff in there. I fell asleep on the way there, waking up only for the Lincoln Tunnel. Kristen got moved out within a half hour, and my parents drove the car back to my grandparent's house, while Kris and I stayed in the city. We shopped at H&M, where I purchased a pair of green pants and a red skirt. I also bought a "Movin' Out" t-shirt and ten postcards for one dollar, but that was at another store. We went to Central Park, where we saw some goats, but had to stop watching the goats when we were trailed by a creepy man. It didn't help us much that I was wearing orange pants and my sister was wearing a yellow skirt. We lost him after the park and managed to wander around for a bit longer. We split a sandwich at a place called Pick-A-Bagel, and then we headed over to the Ed Sullivan Theatre to see the David Letterman show. There are two show tapings on Thursday, the first for Thursday night's show, the second (which we were attending) for Friday night's show. So while we were waiting to enter for Friday's show, we happened to see some of the stuff that went on for Thursday's show. First we saw one of the motorcycle jumps an X-games competitor performed in the street alongside the theatre. Letterman usually makes this one Late Show intern, Stephanie, dress up in various costumes to assist with the part of the show where he answers letters written in from fans. This week she happened to be dressed as Little Bo Peep, and even had her very own sheep. But Letterman decided that he wanted Stephanie to go outside the theatre with the sheep, which is how we came to see her. And then he made the two of them get in a taxicab. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in my life - A sheep with its head sticking out of a cab window. How many people can say that they've seen a sheep get into a taxi? We finally were allowed inside, where they placed us in-line in the lobby. We stood around there, until someone came to talk to us about what was going to take place, and what not to do. It was then that we learned that on this show would be David Duchovny, Brett Butler, and the New Amsterdams. Eventually we were allowed inside the theatre, and we took our seats in the second row of the balcony. It may sound like those seats were high up, but the view was unobstructed, and we were very close to Paul Schafer and the CBS Orchestra. Before the show and during the commercials, we got to watch clips from previous shows, which were quite hilarious. It's kind of hard to go into detail about the show, so I'll just tell you these two things - Brett Butler talked about her dog named Earl, and the show was "freaking awesome"! Afterwards Kristen and I headed back to Pick-A-Bagel to buy muffins and drinks. We rode the subway to Penn Station. I bought a soft serve ice cream cone (a bit melty, but damn was it exquisite) and we almost got on the wrong train, but I saved the day because I saw the name of the next stop, and didn't recognize it. On the way home we played hangman, and I managed to get muffin crumbs over the entire seat. Mom and Dad picked us up at the train station, and we drove back to my grandparent's house. I stayed up fairly late, watching Letterman, writing postcards, and packing. In the morning, we said our goodbyes and left. The car ride felt like it lasted ions and ions. We stopped at Perkins around 3:00 for lunch/dinner. I fell asleep afterwards and my sister proceeded to give me two "tattoos" on my back Chicken Boob Dog, and a heart with two arrows through it that read "Tim" in the middle. God bless water and soap to wash the ink off. We finally got back to our house at around 9:30. So it was better than I thought. The city was strange, the experience was great. But the oddest part about the trip was that when I came home, it didn't exactly feel like home. All the comforts were the same, the things about your house that you get use to. But sleeping in my bed isn't the same, nor are some other things. Perhaps I know that this is temporary. I unpacked Saturday, and now I pack for school. "I've seen all the movie stars
In their fancy cars and their limousines
Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens
But I know what I'm needing
And I don't want to waste more time
I'm in a New York state of mind"
- Billy Joel, "New York State of Mind"
~ Larua KB.
Before - After
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