Thanks to everyone that came to support the Autism Awareness Walk!

Well I figure its about time I put something up about the walk since it was a week ago. It was amazing to see how many people showed up to support Autism. I was even more impressed how many of my own friends and family came to support Gage. It really made me feel good that so many friends/family cared enough to come to the walk(of course I know some had to work and whatnot). I dont think they know, so I will say it here...It truly meant SO MUCH that you came out to the walk I cant thank you enough for supporting Autism and Gage. I of course didnt get to talk too much to anyone because I was busy being the official photographer, lol. I took SOOO many pictures, which I will of course post on here. I still have a lot of pictures to edit, but I have a sample of some of them done. I'll just add ones of Gage because I dont want to post any of people I dont know, just to be on the safe side.

Some of the friends/family that came out to support the walk (thanks again soo much)

Bridget, Beth and (I'm sorry...I forgot your name but thanks for coming! Erin, maybe??)


So where to start...I was supposed to be at the walk around 9:30..but Gage had different plans for me. I ended up there just before 10, found Tony and started taking pictures. It wasnt long before my mother came and started being my little assistant. She took my spare camera and went off on her own. She has no photo experience at all and actually just learned how to use the camera about a week before the walk. I knew I could edit things though, so I wasnt too worried. Well, together we took 524 pictures! I am now in the process of editing the last ones, adding my watermark, sorting out the undesirables and burning them to DVD. I have been a little slow getting them done..but I get sick of staring at photoshop for so long some times..

My little helper, lol (she would kill me if she saw this)


Again, I was really impressed at the volume of people at the walk, not just there for Gage..just there in general. You dont realize how much it affects the community until you go to something like this. I knew Autism was pretty prevalent up here, but didnt realize how much until the walk. Its pretty mind blowing to see how many families it affects. Not to mention the variety. I know its a spectrum but you really could see that spectrum that day. There were kids FAR worse off than Gage. I knew of course and have seen glimpses of kids that are more severe, but it really hit home how lucky I am at the walk. Gage didnt have one meltdown, no fits, no cries..nothing. He was awesome! I was pretty impressed and thankful that he was so good.

Gage got to run around and play...a lot. Everyone was grabbing him at some point. My mother took him, Justin's dad..everytime I turned around I was like "Where's Gage?" lol. People that didnt know Justin was there too must have thought I lost my son. Gage played in the sensory tent..and got soaked. I didnt get to see it, but he basically dunked his whole arm in the water. Good thing we bought him a hoodie.

Look how much fun he was having..


He also, surprisingly put his hand in some paint and put his hand print on a sign. He HATES his hands wet so it was fun to watch him do something new w/o freaking out.

A little help from his Mee Mee didn't hurt either..


Mandy and Hayden came too and I got an adorable picture of them giving each other a kiss. Just check out that pucker...


Speaking of kissing..I got a picture of Gage and Justin that I love..

Isnt that sweet?

There was a slide with balls in it..right up Gage's ally. He loved it and didnt want to get out. He even started pushing a kid because he was apparently too slow for Gage.


So much for being my gentle giant..lol


He also loved the bounce house..again..a big deal for Gage. It was something new, with a lot of kids and I didnt go in with him. He did it and loved it though.

(see..my mother is learning how to use the camera)

Over all the whole day was pretty good. Gage had fun, I took A LOT of pictures and a whole lot more money was raised for a good cause. Here are some more pictures...



Waiting for a ball to be rolled to him


Look! I found Rocket!!!

Two of Gage's wonderful therapists..Maribeth and Krystal

and of course..who could forget Tony..the one with the toughest job..Gage's speech therapist(poor guy gets the most tears of all 3 of them)



Now I also want to give a quick update. Gage is doing some awesome things! He is getting sooo much better with getting a bath, last night...so screaming! WOOO! I had a clean baby with no tears! I was pretty happy with that. Also, Gage is really getting good with a spoon..of course you wouldnt know by the video below..but he is. He is also talking some more. He said plane the other day and ball is coming back slowly, but coming back. The biggest thing though is that he is finally trying new foods. Besides a pretzel that he tried the other day, Gage tried cheddarwurst. I had some that I fried up with onions and bbq sauce. Well he kept coming up and sticking his finger on it and tasting it. So I let him, because if he wants to try something new..by all means he can stick his little finger on my plate. He did that for a few minutes then actually took a bite. I was quite impressed. Then last night I had some left over Chinese that I made and he was interested in trying it. I didnt let him though, it was General Tso's chicken and I didnt want to burn his tongue. Hopefully this trend stays and he eats more than hot dogs, chicken, sausage, grilled cheese and peanut butter sandwiches.

He started off using a spoon..but decided his hand made a much better one...I guess he needed a shovel.

And finally.....My trip to the city, the sequel! (yes, its part 2)

Well even though the last blog was horribly long I figure I should at least finish the story. So I stopped last time with day 1 in NYC and the whole car debacle. For my 3rd day in LI we were going to go to the city again and hit up Chinatown, Little Italy and see what we missed in Times Square. So let me start with Chinatown....

I have to say I was VERY excited to, as I was saying, "rip Chinatown a new one" lol. I knew that it was going to be interesting and I had a list of what I needed to buy. I was looking for a few purses(for me and my mother), Tiffany bracelets, Rolex watch(for Justin) and basically all things Coach. So we get to the city and circle around Canal St. about 10 times until we find a place to park. So we get out of the car and right off this woman asks us "Handbag?" so we go in the shop. There was some ok stuff..but a bit too expensive for my liking. Brittany agreed and we left. So we go down the road and decided we wanted to eat first and then shop. We headed to Little Italy to get some pasta. We found a place that had an all you can eat for $9.99, so of course that was right up our ally. The place was a little cramped, the drinks were child size and the waiters/bus boys were less than great..they took the bread/forks/plates before we were even done with them. The pasta was good tough, I had fettuccine alfredo and you could really taste the Parmesan. I have to say though, not to toot my own horn...mine own alfredo isnt much different. Theirs was just smoother, I haven't quite gotten the "how much is too much" for cheese, lol. Anyway..after we had our fill we leave to go do some shopping..but not until after Brittany got her canoli. Now, I have had a poorly made canoli once, but I was a bit skeptical to try another one. I figure though, if I was going to try one it should be in Little Italy. Um..can we say yum? It was very sweet so I am glad I got a little one, but it was quite good. The shell is awesome. Then we had some Italian Ice..Brittany got canoli(haha..shes obsessed) and I got lemon and melon mixed. The melon was like biting into a fresh piece of cantaloupe. So.we head out to do some shopping and I was most certainly ready to do some ripping(hehe). I never new how exciting shopping could be! No matter where we were we had people asking us "Hey miss, handbag?" or shouting out "Tiffany, Rolex?" and "Coach, Gucci, Gucci, Coach...Prada?". These guys/girls can run like crazy too! If you say yes to one of them (specifically for purses) they have you follow them. Now, you could be say at point A and need to get to the shop which is at point B..well you have to go through the entire alphabet before you go back to point B. Then when you get there you climb up 1000 stairs just to go behind a false door, down more stairs, into a basement, through 3 other doors into a 2ft by 3ft room loaded with purses. I felt like I was in Mission Impossible. Things were prices a bit higher than expected. I refuse to pay $60 for a fake anything..especially when I could just go to the Coach outlet with my $60 and get something real. I learned how to haggle. One person asked me what I wanted to pay..so I spoke honestly and said $20. Dan starts laughing at me, because apparently you cant do that. Well..if someone asks you what you want to pay, and I only want to pay $20..shouldnt I say that? I dont want to pay $30, 40 or 50..I want to pay $20! Actually..I want it for free..but I knew that wasnt going to happen, so I settled for $20. After that I think I got pretty good with the haggling. I got a bracelet for $10...and gave some of them my "mom" look, which worked on the younger ones. The mom look is of course the glare of disappointment that you give until someone breaks and they bend to your will, lol. I only use it for good, I swear! I used it mainly when they said "I give you best price" which of course, is not.

So here is the best part of being in Chinatown/Little Italy...more car drama!!! Dan lost his keys. They ended up being in the restaurant, but still...

After we spend waaaaaay too much money, we go to see the things we missed the day before. We wanted to go to Letterman, but didnt get there in time. I really wanted to meet Rupert at Hello Deli, but that didnt work out either. He was closed. I got pics though!


We also checked out Ripley's..We couldnt go in, because we spent all of our money in Chinatown..but the lobby was neat. I met my future husband there..

Now on the way back..or maybe to..I dont remember..we were behind this couple. Now I am by no means in the position to talk about people's weight/style of dress/physical appearance..I usually spend my days in pajamas. With that being said, we were behind this couple..and boy oh boy..The guy looked normal from what I can tell, but the girl..oh my the girl. She was by no means a huge girl, but she wasnt no model either. If I had to make an educated guess, she was no bigger than a size 18 but no smaller than a size 14. She was mostly shapes..(yes, Dane Cook reference...hehe). Now I am all for people having a great self image no matter what your size, I wish I had some self confidence some girls bigger than me have. I do believe though, some clothes are not made for some people. Specifically if its a tight, hot pink skirt that looks like it was made for a 13 year old. This chick was wearing such a "skirt"...I think it was more of a scarf size..but whatever. It was so short that I could see the part where your butt cheeks meet your thighs. It gets worse though...You know when people are like big, big?? Like not just big girls, like BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG girls? Like girls that go on Maury, big. Well..you know how when they walk you can see like a chunk of meat go from in front of their legs, to being their legs? Well...this girl was no where near that large, but her skirt was so short that she was getting that floating meat between her legs. You could see all of it. It was one of those things where you dont want to look, but you just cant look away. I know this sounds horribly mean, but I was smaller than that girl and I have enough common sense to never be caught in something like that. It didnt flatter her AT ALL. It would be a different thing if she was wearing something that 1-fit, 2- looked good and 3- didnt make her look like a slut. I didnt get a picture, that would have been wrong. Lets just say though..I wasnt the only one that was like what the hell. Brittany and Dan were too..and in fact this random guy walking the opposite way had to do a double take. Not a good double take either. After that, we left and went back to LI..I think we were all worn out.
We also saw this near where we parked..


Day 4(I think...)-Easter/Day in Long Island

So Brittany and I wanted to get tattoos, but that didnt work out. Who would have thought you couldnt get a tattoo on a Sunday...except when its Easter..duh us! Brittany and Dan decided to bring me out to Montauk to see the light house. We start making the trek there and stop to get a snack. I got to see the Hamptons and places that were not the Hamptons. Dan's car was making a funny noise, but he figured out that it was a piece of material hitting the tire..so no big deal, he tucked it up and all was good. At least thats what we though. We get about 1 mile (is that right Brittany?) from where we needed to go when we feel a weird bump and then all of a sudden the car was all out of whack. I thought the tire blew or the axle snapped. I was going for the axle because of the way it felt. Brittany was able to safely pull the car over and we all get out. Well..we were all wrong. The tire fell off of the rim..let me repeat that. The tire FELL OFF of the RIM! Lug nuts were missing and the tire was shoved into the car.


If you look that the pics above you can see that 1- the tire isnt on the rim at all and 2- the lug nut broke off cleanly, almost like someone took a saw to it. Brittany calls AAA and after awhile we get a tow truck to come out and get us. Luckily we were able to get a ride for all of us, because at first no one wanted to make me or Dan. I guess we smelled or something. I was all prepared to pretend I was pregnant..I could have acted that no problem. Dan's mom(oh poor Dan's mom) has to come get us...again. The tow truck guy was nice enough to bring us to the next town so Dan;s mom didnt have to go so far. It saved us an hour of waiting. Wow was this guy a character. Brittany sat near him the first time(damn you for making me sit there the next time) and all he did was talk. Talk about farms, dairy farms. He works on a farm, his wife was with his daughter having dinner while he was working. He worked from 6 pm the night before until 7 am the next day...blah, blah, blah...he went on, and on, and on. Very nice man though, but you couldnt get a word in edge wise. Also, I had to laugh..he was a smoker and what did I see in his ashtray? Yep, you guessed it..an inhaler. I just dont get it. Brittany and I decided that Dan's car must be Jewish..or some other religion because it doesnt like Christian holidays. Good Friday we got towed and Easter the tire falls off.

That night we decided to have a laid back night. Brittany and I went to a very sketchy 7-11 and went for Chinese food. China Buffet at home was much better! :) Then we went back to the house to watch a movie. We settled on P.S. I love you..which I LOVE and Brittany has never seen. I knew I was going to cry, I do every time. Brittany didnt cry! I didnt even see a tear and there I am next to get sobbing like a baby that had its bottle stolen. I know its no Notebook..but come on! Its so romantic and sad! It was a good night though..the next day we had to get up early, I was flying home.

Day 5- Going home..but to the mall first!

Brittany and I had already decided that before I left we were going to the mall so I could shop at the Disney store for Gage. I bought him some shirts in NYC..but what fun is that? We get to this mall, a pretty good sized one too, and head straight for Disney. Now when ever I get into a Disney Store its like I walk in and all I hear is "AHHHHHH". I could shop in there all day. I get a basket and go to town. I got soo much for Gage..but I will list all that at the end. From there we go to get this pizza that Brittany said was awesome. After finding an ATM because the pizza place is cash only(Who does that anymore??) we get our pizza and off to the airport we go. I of course get sauce all over my shirt. It wasnt bad pizza, but I couldnt eat it all.

We get to JFK, do our good byes and hugs and off I went. Again..HOLY CRAP is JFK huge! I had no idea where to go. I finally find my way, get all set and then get to wait. I get on the flight..which by the way I was feeling much better about, but still nervous. I get on the plane with my carry on, purse and HUGE Disney bag, the flight attendants asked what I had and I showed them the huge momo(Gage's way of saying Nemo) I got and they all ooh'ed and ahh'ed. I sit down and these two Canadian girls sit near me. They were ok, but a bit snobby...and I had when I'm near "those girls". Know the ones I mean? The giggly, prada wearing, nice but snooty girls. I took a lot of pics from the plane..here are a few.






So now let me tell you the best part. I get off the plane and told my mother to meet me at the baggage claim, but I knew she wouldnt. She was right at the end of the security thing with Gage waiting for me. I run up to him and it was just adorable. He got the HUGEST smile, starting bouncing up and down and lept in my arms. He gave me the biggest hug ever and then a bunch of kisses. Then, I pulled out the giant Momo and he went nuts. He started shaking he was so excited. He held it all the way out. I didnt get a pic(grr..I know!) but I have one of his with it that night.

Its about the size of him. He is still carrying it around and saying "Momo, ahh Momo". So I was glad he loved it. It was a good trip but I learned one thing...I am NOT a city person. I like the quiet more than the noise. I like having neighbors and a place where kids can run. It was fun, but its Brittany's turn to come up here!

So..now the fun part..heres what I bought this time around:
2 Coach purses
1 Rolex watch for Justin
3 Tiffany bracelets
1 Coach belt
1 pair of Coach sunglasses

1 Giant Momo
1 Little Einstein's drum w/ musical instruments inside
1 Little Einstein's shirt
1 Momo bath toy
1 Car's bath toy
1 Bruce(shark from Nemo) bath toy
and various stuffed characters from Little Einsteins and maracas

Part 1 of my trip to LI/NYC..warning..its HUGE with alot of pictures!

Oh where to start, where to start….first off let me explain that this is going to be a VERY long blog..I might just have to make it a series of blogs just so I can take my time to finish them..lol..

So if anyone had been reading my Facebook up to this past Thursday you would have seen that I was leaving on Thursday afternoon to fly to NYC. This was my first flight in a real plane and I was scared poopless. I have been in a plane before, but it was a 4 seater and although I was scared then, I had a mission for going up there. I had to take a picture of a building, so my mind was not stuck on my assignment..not the fact that I was in a metal death trap. Not to mention I was with 3 other people and I could see the pilot..so I knew he wasn’t drunk or anything. This time I didn’t have that luxury. I was fixated on the thought of crashing. So much so that I was up at night worrying. I even left Justin my passwords and usernames just in case. Now I realized I didn’t explain why I was going to NYC. It was a sort of spur of the moment vacation to visit my friend Brittany. Of course I didn’t plan it too well, because it was on Easter weekend when I left. I have TONS of pictures to post, but I am going to put a few on here…now those of you that are photo people…please excuse the poor photo editing. I honestly didn’t care to do them properly just for this blog, lol. Of course, when I do things with them, they will be done right..but for now I let the “auto” setting do its magic for me. Now, on to the trip….

DAY 1- “FLYING TO NYC/I’M GONNA POOP MYSELF”

I started the day getting up around 9. Justin let me sleep in because he didn’t have to work. His boss was going to NYC that same day. I was already all packed (by the way, space saver bags are AMAZING!), except for the things I was using that morning. Justin’s mother brought me over to Vermont to catch my flight. We were joined by Gage (of course), Alyson (Justin’s Niece) and Morgan (His other niece). It was a good ride over, we chatted and joked..and of course I picked on the girls. Justin’s mom gave me something to relax me when I get on the plane because I just cried when ever I thought of getting on the plane. I just was simply terrified. So we stop at a little store in Vermont. I think everyone stops at this certain store, because they have some darn good baked goods there. So Justin’s mom and Morgan go in first while Alyson and I wait with Gage. They come back and it’s our turn to go in. Well..while they were in the store Alyson confides something in me that I won’t say, because I don’t want to break that trust. Well, either way it was something I already knew, because her mom told me (Linda, you should know what I’m talking about..). So that was all fine and dandy, she told me and I was like ok. I asked her a few questions and we talked for a little bit. Then I told her she could always talk to me if she needed to. Then we go in the store. Well…while in there she asked me some stuff, nothing big, just stuff. Then it got interesting. Again, I won’t say what she said, because it’s personal and she trusted me and I am glad she felt like she could talk to me. Let’s just say what she asked me, floored me. It caught me completely off guard. I will say though, I was surprised how I answered it, I think I did a good job..maybe a little more mature than needed, but it worked. Now I am just trying to figure out if I should break that trust she had in me and tell her mother or not. Now, if it was something I thought was dangerous, harmful or anything like that I wouldn’t hesitate to tell Linda. Trust or no trust, I wouldn’t want her getting hurt, but it’s nothing like that. So, anyway..on to the trip. We get to the airport, Alyson and I talk some more while Justin’s mom, Morgan and Gage were parking the car. She helped me bring my bags out and we waited on the sidewalk. It really is amazing how much older and mature she is. I met her when she was 2 turning 3 so it’s just odd to see her now, she is totally a mini Linda. So we go inside the airport and I go up to the JetBlue desk and the first thing out of my mouth was “I have no idea what I am doing, I’ve never flown before and I am scared to death.” So the nice lady helped me figure out what I needed to do, but I felt like a dumbass of course. We get to the security checkpoint and I take a few pictures of Gage and the girls.

I know this is a crappy pic, but Gage's smile is adorable

Gage just wanted to run around the airport and get chased. He would start to run away and look behind his shoulder and start giving that little devilish grin he has. So I asked the security people what I needed to do and start to explain how I was so nervous I could poop myself (yes, I used those exact words) and they told me what to do and that JetBlue is a great way to fly..blah blah… I finally have to get where I need to leave and I start crying. Gage didn’t care, he wanted to run some more. So I get a forced kiss from him and a hug from the girls and I am off to wait to get on the big metal death trap (as I liked to call it). I went thought he whole ordeal of taking your shoes off, separating everything and going through the metal detectors. It made me think, how embarrassing would it be if you had a genital piercing and went through those. They you had to explain, no you aren’t a terrorist you just have your cooch pierced. Anyway, lol.. I sat in the holding area with the other passengers for what seemed like 13 hours. I’m sure it was only 1, but if felt like more. Good thing the anti anxiety pill started kicking in, because I was terrified. I did talk to a nice older lady and some guy about the flight. They told, as did everyone else that JetBlue was awesome. I told them I was going to poop myself. All in all a lovely conversation..lol. I boarded the plane, told someone else I was going to poop myself and then got to my seat. I chose a window seat because I figured if I was going to fly, I might as well see the sights. There was no one near me, but there was a guy in the other seat. He was very nice and yes, I told him too that I was going to poop myself and sorry if he heard my camera clicking constantly. I must have been a joy to be around. He was very nice pointing out things outside to me and whatnot. There was also an adorable baby girl that kept looking at me, so I kept making her laugh. I think the people that could see me, but not her though I had a problem. I took TONS of pictures.

Ladies and Gentleman your in flight entertainment will be Prince's Raspberry Beret...

Just leaving Vermont

The clouds were awesome

Can you believe how crowded it is?

I have no idea where this is, lol

This looked like Pacman

Dont know where this one is either

It actually was a decent flight. The views were amazing and the weather was good. No turbulence but the landing made me jump and make a noise that made everyone look at me, lol. We finally landed in JFK and we were about 20 minutes (I think) early. JFK is like its own little city, it’s unreal. I get off the plane and call Brittany to see where she is and tell her to meet me at the luggage thingie. I was a little disappointed that my brand new luggage was so dirty after the flight…I mean it was brand new and a lovely bright green. Now it’s all scurfy. So anyway…we head out to make the hike back to LI. I got to see some of the city while driving by it. We also saw a car that amused the crap out of me (no pun intended..You’ll see).

Dan

Brittany

JFK

Now…what I am about to write is not to offend anyone, by any means…just in case people are inclined to get offended…

I had a little cold/allergy problem when I flew in, so I knew that it was going to be a pain. I also knew that Brittany, Dan and his mom all smoked. Now, of course I don’t care that they do. It is their bodies and money. I just am not used to being around smoke at all; I usually avoid it because I am a little allergic to the smoke (that’s why I had such a sore throat and coughed so much). I didn’t want to tell them that, because I am a guest and wasn’t going to put anyone out or anything. I think it was just a big adjustment for me physically to get used to the smoke. The house didn’t smell like a smoking house by any means, which I was glad about….and you would have NEVER guessed there were 5 dogs there. The house was very nice and I wish my house was that clean, lol. The smoking did take a toll on me. I was stuffed up and had a headache for the first day and most of the second. I felt rude coughing, so I tried my hardest not to. I know I froze Brittany a few times with the window down. It was mostly so I didn’t get car sick, because that happens a lot to me, and because of the smoke. I didn’t want to have my allergies act up and ruin the trip. I will say though, boy does Dan’s mom like wolves! They were EVERYWHERE! Lol..she has quite the collection. I loved listening to her talk too. She had the thickest Long Island accent. Thicker than Brittany or Dan, and they most definitely have an accent. All I could think about when she talked was “Welcome to coffee talk”. It was adorable. She was adorable, so tiny. You could just put her in your pocket and walk around. Speaking of adorable…a dog in diapers. How funny does that sound? Well, they have one and it’s adorable. What was its name? Dopey, right? Well..Dopey is fricken adorable. Let’s see if I can remember their names, Dakota, Dakota (yes, they have 2 dogs w/ the same name), Dopey, Scruffy (that’s what I called him), Magic, Doc, Sneezy, and bashful. Is that right? I kid, I kid… J They were all sweet dogs and the huskies were beautiful dogs.

Once we got back to Long Island Brittany and Dan brought me to the beach. Of course we couldn’t swim or anything because it was chilly (or freezing if you are Brittany, lol) but we figured I could get some pics and see some stuff there. Well..there were deer in the parking lot! Call me stupid, but I didn’t think they had deer there. I got pretty close to the deer. The beach was all closed off because the water was so high, but I managed to sneak a few pics in and we even got to play an impromptu game of hopscotch!

The Beach

More beach

One of the many deer

Check that out, I caught it w/o any legs on the ground

This car made me laugh

DAY 2-“SEEING THE SIGHTS OF NYC/DON’T TRUST ANYONE WITH OUT A GUN”

On day 2 we had a list of places to go and it was pretty much mapped out.

We had planned to visit:

Autism Speaks, Times Square, Rockefeller Center (I think) and a few other random places.

Now, if you can’t guess..it didn’t quite work out the way we planned..but I’ll get to that in a minute. First things first..I can’t get too random on you now. On the way to the city I have to mention the car we saw. At first all you could hear was an boom, boom, boom..so I look back and it’s this guy that keeps taking off is steering wheel and honking it. The music was blaring and to top it all off..he had an Elmo on the hitch of his car. Yes, a small stuffed Elmo. All I could think was, wow I’d be proud to have had him as my kid, lol. I mean, blaring music (I’m sorry, if you do this, you’re an idiot), taking off the wheel, beeping the horn and oh yes..dancing. He looked like a buffoon. We saw a lot of buffoons. On the way there I saw the ship from Men in Black and the sky line was nice.

Skyline from the car

Men in Black Ship..from the world fair

So we get to the city and finding a place to park was interesting. Parking so SOOO expensive, $12 for a ½ an hour?!? That’s crazy! Well anyway, we found a place to park..again, more about that in a minute. We decided to go eat something at Hard Rock Café. I have never eaten at one, so I was excited. OH MY GOD! The sandwich I had was SOOOO good! It was a pulled barbecue pork thing. The sauce was almost as good as the barbecue sauce in Memphis, and that was amazing sauce. I was getting annoyed with the screaming waiters, but not enough to ruin the experience. It was neat to see all of the rock memorabilia. I got some fun pics. I didn’t know it was located in the old Paramount theatre, so that was neat. We also saw some interesting characters on the street.

Brittany picking Jerry Garcia's nose

No one likes the Skanky Yank-me's

Me and Brittany(note to self..NEVER wear that bra again! lol)

Part of the guitar wall

After that we looked around Times Square, it was awesome. Everything is just so big and bright. After some pics we decided we better head to Autism Speaks, because it was good Friday and they would most likely be leaving early. So I knew it was on Park Ave and either number 1 or 2. I was so excited to go there, because well, because I was J. I just wanted to see what they had, if they had a gift shop (on the site they have these puzzle pins that I wanted) and just because it’s a huge organization for Autism. Well..it seems that no one knew how to get to Park Ave. We asked some guy and he told us to take the subway to somewhere. Well, we did that and the lady in the station told us to take a different train. By the way, the subway had some adorable little figurines in it. Also, I was kind of excited when I saw a sign on the subway that said “Made by Bombardier, Plattsburgh, NY”. I thought that was cool, but I couldn’t get a pic some guy’s head was too big.

How cute are those figures??

Well, we ended up in Greenwich Village. So then we asked some guy in front of a hotel, he said he had no idea where it was. Neither did the Russian sounding people in the dry cleaners. Ok..It’s not like we were asking for Bob’s Fish mart on 34^th St. Its Park Ave people! Come on! So..after going into another subway station we found some police guy with a gun, we noticed people with guns knew their way around a lot better than those that didn’t have a gun. He pointed us in the right direction, now we had already wasted, what? Like 1 ½ hours or something? Either way, we wasted a lot of time. We found a Fed Ex guy and he helped us even more. We got to the building and finally went in. Now here is where I get disappointed. We go in and go to the desk. They take our ID’s and tell us we aren’t on the list so we can’t go up. A list? Huh? So I try to call up there, but everyone had gone home. Now, Autism Speaks is a HUGE non-profit organization. I am sure, many people with an Autistic child like myself, when visiting NYC would want to stop there. Why would we think of a fricken guest list? Seriously, a guest list? Grrr! Well, I left a message for one of the family service directors..no call back. I was quite disappointed in them, they should have had something. Even a table of info, something. So after all of that walking we had to walk back. Somewhere in there we got something to snack on, I bought a pretzel (yum!) and I think we got some hot nuts (haha). By the way, those nuts are amazing! I don’t care if it isn’t sanitary, they are awesome. They are honey roasted in a kettle on the street. I got regular nuts and cashews. I think the whole trip Brittany and I ate a lot of nuts (lol). They had these kabob things too that smelled good, but I wasn’t feeling brave enough. We decided to stop by the car to check on it, since we were so close. Now..let me give you the back story. We parked near a meter, but Brittany’s boyfriend Dan decided to skip paying and opt for a ticket. This is because last time he got a $20 ticket and that would be cheaper than paying $60 in parking. So, we did that…now…here is where it gets interesting. We knew we parked by that huge button and needle (or as Dan calls it, the damn thimble). Well..we couldn’t find the car, anywhere. After looking and panicking, we find out it had be towed. Yep, towed which Brittany and I agreed it better than stolen. We find out that we have to go to Pier 76, we are on I think E. 45^th St. Maybe something else, I don’t remember. So we start walking and walking..and yes, more walking. I snapped a few pics on the way. Come to find out we had to go near the Javits center, which I have been to before for a Photo convention. So it was neat to go there again. Outside of the Javits center they had a Kia Expo, there were a lot of the new Kia model outside and they all had pretty neat paint jobs. We finally get to the tow pound and there were A LOT of people there waiting for their cars. Dan finds out it is going to cost $185 just to get the car back. $185! Well needless to say we didn’t have that. So Dan gets his mother to come from LI to bring it to him. We were there waiting for 3 hours total for everything. Now during those 3 hours we all got a little bored so I started shooting some more stuff, but here is the funny story. While we were outside waiting for Dan’s mom this HUGE guy started to walk towards us. Now, it’s getting dark and all I can think is oh boy, here is where we die, lol. Well this guy (Malik was his name) asked us if anyone had a valid driver’s license. Apparently his was suspended so he couldn’t get his car and he had to be to DC that night. So I was like I’ll do it, he gave me $20 to drive his car out of the tow pound. You should have seen me drive it, he had to be 6’2”, 300lbs easy…so I get in his car and can’t even reach the pedals. I was just about sitting in the back seat. So I got to drive in the city and made $20. Fun times. I forgot to mention the lady inside, she was a real peach. We are sitting down waiting and this chick and her friend come in and she starts bitching. They ask what kind of car she has and she said, as loud as can be, “It’s a Volvo, a brand new, nice, beautiful Volvo” uhh…I just wanted to gag. They she proceeded to look at everyone and roll her eyes. Beeyotches!

we sat by this for quite some time

These were all over the city



Some of the painted cars

We finally leave, like I said..3 hours later, and decided to go to the M&M store and Hershey Store. Now on the way there we see a bum (as Brittany called him, to his face, lol). He had a sign that said “Hey man, can I have a beer.” It was priceless..so Brittany and Dan got their picture taken with him and Dan held a sign that said “Me too”. Now at this point Brittany had to use the bathroom, so we figured McDonalds..because they always have bathrooms. Well..I never knew a McDonalds would have a security guard. This McDonalds was 3 stories tall and in order to go upstairs to use the bathroom you have to be a customer and Brittany couldn’t go up until we had the purchase in hand. How crazy is that? Now the M&M store was pretty neat, there was so much stuff! The candy was too expensive. It was in the Hershey store too. I can go to Wal-Mart and get the same thing for $10 cheaper. I forgot to tell you about this guy that passed us in the street. We were walking and he was singing and dancing while walking. He started yelling “Hey Pinkie” but we ignored it..then he passed us and looked at this girl and was like “Yo cute hair, what’s up?”. Lol he danced around her and she looked confused. This vendor looked at him and looked at us and was like what the hell!?!

the "bum" lol


the "timble"

All in all it was fun, but we now know to not just park. Lol.

Things bought:

Lots of Nuts

Pretzels

Blue M&M shirt for Gage

2 M&M Key chains

Peanut M&M Antenna topper

“My first Hard rock Café shirt” for Gage

Hours wasted thanks to Traffic Cop:

About 2 ½ hours walking time

3 hours waiting time

8 miles walked (just while searching for Park Ave)

I never counted the miles while we were sightseeing. Now we didn’t leave the city until 1 am and got back to LI at like 3am and went to bed at 5am. I haven’t been so tired in a LONG time! I think this is the end of this blog. It’s already long enough and I am only at the beginning. Stay tuned for part 2- Chinatown and Little Italy!