so, we went to new york.

Oh goodness, where to begin. First we must introduce the cast. Our college friends Matt, Brenda, and Lizzie Alexander live in New York because Matt is a student at Columbia Univ. medical school. (Lizzie is a baby, so she didn't go to college with us in her present form.) David Overholt, also a Pt. Loma buddy, is in a Master's program at NYU called ITP...which means Interative Telecommunications Program. It's for arty people who are also techy. Also, Redding originals Cassie and Chris Jones are now in New Haven, Connecticut because Cassie is studying at Yale to become a Nurse Practitioner and Chris is a pro cyclist. THUS! we went to visit all our friends and see places we'd never seen. That said, you can view all the pictures here, but i suggest waiting til after you've read everything.

Thursday: flight was to depart 6:20, one lane of the southbound 5 was closed so we got to the airport with nary a minute to spare. Rushing, rushing, plane needed fuel transfer, delayed. :| Transfer in Phoenix narrowly made, we were the last ones on the plane. En route to NY, i got sick and threw up, which i didn't enjoy.

Friday: We got into NY around 6am and found our way to Brooklyn and David's loft, where we were lulled to sleep by the JMZ train that runs approximately 2 feet from David's window. Dave went to school and we eventually woke up and followed his directions to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), which is free the first Friday of every month, thanks to Target. (thanks Target!) We met Matt and Bren and Lizzie and that was a joyous reunion. Walking around MoMA with them was tricky because we'd be chatting away, catching up and then 'oh yeah, we're standing in front of a Picasso, guess we should pay attention to it. Anyway!' Got some goodies at the museum store and headed back out into the city. We forget how we transitioned, but we ended up at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, specifically the ITP building where David gave us a tour of his classrooms, haunts etc. We got to see a bunch of crazycool projects designed by the students and professors at ITP, stuff that would blow your mind if you saw it but would just sound goony if i tried to describe it here. It was good to finally grasp what it is David's up to these days, because it didn't make any sense to me before. After the tour, got a bite to eat with Dave's classmates, Alex, Sophia and Sandra and ended up on Alex's neighbor's rooftop watching the city twinkle and drinking wine. Here's a little tidbit the Redding folk might find interesting: in some parts of the world, businesses stay open past 9 and even 10pm! i KNOW, crazy.

Saturday: slept late (well, we only slept the recommended 8 hours, but 8 hours past 3am could be construed as 'late'), had gyros in Washington Square Park and got on the Staten Island Ferry to fill our quota of Necessary Tourist Activities. Observations from le ferry: the Statue of Liberty? It aint so big. Manhatten is quite tall and shiny, and that one building looks like a thumb. Cool views of the cityscape, worth the free ride. Picked our way back thru some of Central Park, saw the World Trade Center temporary monument, and landed in the Financial District, where Dave passed us off to Matt, Brenda and Lizzie (henceforth MBL) for more walking around and chatting-while-ignoring-surroundings. MBL took us to see ground zero which is pretty fully roped off and hard to see. Bought some nuts and a scarf on the street, fueled up at Chipotle, and saw Rockefeller plaza, the world's largest Macy's a giant iron bull and other fun stuff that i can't recall. Crashed at MBL's uptown apartment that night, which made Wahoo's week.

Sunday: spent about 4 hours getting from MBL's to Brooklyn to retrieve our stuff from David's and get back to uptown. Cleaned up and MBL took us to Central Park. i can now say that i get It, New Yorkers. You're right, Central Park is GREAT. (Your statue is still small, however.) We went to the turtle pond, saw Belvedere Castle, and generally walked around. Wandered out of the park and saw where Lennon was shot, saw where Brenda's fantasyboyfriend Bono lives, and got some hot dogs that are supposedly famous. It was Lizzie's bed time and Matt had school the next day, so the Alexanders went home and we went to the movies, mostly to get off our feet for a while. Okay, businesses in Redding may close painfully early, but at least movies here don't cost ELEVEN DOLLARS. That'sallihavetosayaboutthat. Afterward we wandered, bought books and treats, and ate in a lovely park that we have no idea the name of.

Monday: Matt had school (he's a hater when it comes to opthamology, we learned) and David had to work, so Brenda and Lizzie took us to our hotel to drop off our stuff and then to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. B & L went home to greet the grocery delivery (a part of city life we of course found fascinating) and we met Matt and David for dinner at Serendipity. This place is famous (as in, Guiness World Record) famous for its desserts, so we ordered minimal grownup food so we could skip to the monster bowls of chocolate the size of our heads. They have a sundae that costs $1000 and contains edible gold. Just think it over. Afterward we went to Strand Bookstore (18 miles of books. EIGHTEEN MILES!) and then to a pub to watch the New Yorkers watch the Yankees lose, which was quite satisfying.

Tuesday: We saw Grand Central Station on our way to Connecticut; it was cool. Didn't see the spot where Kevin Costner chased the baby stroller down the stairs in the middle of a gunfight though. The ride to New Haven only took 2 hours, and it was nice to just sit and veg instead of pound the pavement all day. PLUS, it was cloudy and chilly once we arrived!!! Soooo much nicer than the heat and stickyness of NYC. We grabbed lunch and met up with Cass and Chris (hereafter C/C) at a Mediterrannean resteraunt where we got to watch Indian soap operas. (There were no subtitles, but passion and betrayal transcend lingual boundaries. Either Sir Mustache had an evil twin, or he was stepping out on his wife with that piano playing hussy) We got to see their condo, then they took us APPLE PICKING at Lyman Orchards, where they had alllllll kinds of apples under the sun and you just select the ones you want and pay $1/lb. They also have a corn maze and pumpkin patch, where C/C selected their favorite harvest gourd. We also hit up a the market and had cider donuts (bliss). Afterward we stopped by the top of a hill and saw all of New Haven and most of Connecticut in general. The trees are just starting to change so you can imagine the view, and the day in general, being pretty darn pretty. Next we got The Famous Chris Jones Tour of Yale, which i recommend as more fun than any stuffy programmed tour by a hired Yalie. Much like the ITP projects, i could NOT get my brain around Yale. It was THAT COOL. Favorite part: the rare manuscript library, where we saw the Gutenberg bible and as we were looking at it, angels began to sing. No really! music students were making use of the building's acoustics and there was a cello and two opera singers. It was just this side of surreal. Also, the Yale dining hall? totally the Hogwarts Great Hall from Harry Potter. i want to die and be reincarnated as a squirrel who lives on the Yale campus. After the tour C/C took us shopping and then to dinner at a pizza restaraunt and bar called Bar. It was gooooooood. Caught the train back to the city and hit the hotel hay.

Wednesday: Woke up, packed up, and lugged our luggage onto a couple subways before having a goodbye lunch with MBL at a Jewish deli. Rode the bus to the airport, and basically re-lived Thursday again as we rushed to a plane that was delayed, then sat on the tarmac for over an hour after we boarded. :| As we approached our stop off in Chicago, the flight attendant got in touch with the people on the ground and told all "Sacramento- and Dallas-bound passengers" that we'd essentially have to sprint from the end of concourse B to the opposite end of concourse A in order to make our connecting flight. We didn't sprint, but we did get shin splints, altho the moving walkways making a good effort to help. Let's see who can guess what happened next: if you said "the Sacramento-bound plane hadn't even arrived in Chicago yet" you'd be right. So we walk-sprinted for NOTHING. That plane was quite late too, obviously, and we had the fortune of sitting in front of Miss Sac State Keg Stand 1999 and two men that were hoping she'd sleep with them in her next life. The more they drank, the louder they got. It was a loooooong four hours.

So that was it! (longest. blog. ever.) We can't thank David, MBL, and C/C enough for being GREAT hosts/guides/friends. The point of the trip was to spend time with you all, and we were able to do that and more. With the exception of airport shenanigans, we wouldn't change a thing. Can't wait til you all live on the West Coast again and we can hang out without changing time zones.