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!