Day 5: Exploring Times Square

Do you ever have a day where you just want to sit at home and do nothing? Maybe watch a movie and eat some noodles and drink some milk? Well what happens when you feel like that but you also happen to be visiting NYC? I guess you could say I was being lame for sitting in the apartment working on my computer when there is a cultural hotspot right outside the window, but screw it man! I was happy just sitting on a couch playing video games and watching movies and working on the Tara Tech Crew logo.

At about 4pm I started thinking about doing something real, so I took a shower, got dressed, and headed out into the city. First I stopped by a bar called 1 2 3, with 1 dollar burgers, 2 dollar shots, and 3 dollar beers. The part that they don’t say on the sign is that the minimum order of burgers is 3 for $3.75. I guess $1.25 is the new $1. They were pretty good and they had a bunch of sauces to smother your bambinos with.

Next I walked to the Times Square area and watched people for a while. I tried to pick up chicks by saying “Excuse me, I think you dropped something” and handing them a scrap of paper with my number on it, but two that I managed to give out yielded a paltry return of 0. Part of the problem, I think, was that as soon as I handed them the piece of paper I ran away with a look of terror on my face, quite opposite from the smile-and-wink that was planned…

I tried to use my Olive Garden gift card, but the dude said it would be 45 minutes, and I couldn’t leave the building. So I left and kept walking. After seeing at least three Iron Mans, a Captain America, and some Statue of Libertys, I found a 99 cent pizza place. I got a slice. It was damn good! To hell with 3 dollar slices at Sal and Carmine’s, this stuff is the bomb! As I was walking away I saw a homeless dude and I thought about the Roman Atwood prank where they get the pizza guys to deliver a free pizza to the “undercover CIA agents posed as homeless guys” (read homeless guys). I went back and ordered a whole pizza with the intent to give out slices to the brothers in need. Now, I’ll be damned, but finding homeless dudes when you are actually looking for them is one of the hardest things ever! I ended up having to eat 2 of the slices ‘cause I couldn’t find enough dudes to give them to!

After I had given away the last slice, I made my way back to the apartment, watched another episode of, you guessed it, Psych, and went to sleep in the luxurious green silky covers, this time a green ball staring at me while I dreamed.

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I will be attending a Tom Brown Tracker School class this coming week, so will be unable to continue blogging. I will, however, pick up in a week with a long post about Tracker School and continue with my vacation from there. Thank you for taking the time to read my humble rendition of a travel blog! Hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Cooper

Day 4: A Busking Success and an Epic Concert

I woke up, ate a yogurt, and wrote my blog post for the previous day. I’m finding it surprisingly easy to actually get this done – I had doubts about my ability to follow through with my idea. Then I looked around the interwebs and found an under 21 concert venue with fairly cheap tickets and some interesting bands. I marked it on my mind schedule and then grabbed my violin and took the train to Washington Square.

When I told Jenya about my not-so-lucrative busking experience on Wednesday, he told me that I was playing in the wrong spot and that Washington Square was the bomb. And he was spot on! Within the first 15 minutes of playing, I had been approached by a video/musician crew who wanted me to play with them and a troupe of dancers who all danced in sync while I play a reel. After an hour and a half, I had made a respectable 50 dollars.

It was now 2:30 and I was getting hungry. When my therapist had found out that I was going to NYC, he told me that l should go to a pizza place called Sal and Carmine. I caught the train to the upper West side and ate some pizza. It was pretty good, but not the best pizza I've ever had. The soda, on the other hand, was simply amazing. It was crème soda from a company called Dr. Brown.

I made my way back to the apartment I and after playing some Marvel VS. Capcom with Adaire, took the E and the L to the Knitting Factory, the venue where the concert was to take place. I bought my ticket and got a hand stamp and then realized that I had forgotten my earplugs. Damn. Well it was 7:45 and the show didn’t start till 8:30, and the band I wanted to see didn’t start till 9:30. So I took the trains back to the apartment. Nobody was home. Damn again. I called Adaire and she was eating dinner with her mother, Aunt Janet. So I walked over to the restaurant and said hello to them, got the keys, and headed back to the apartment. I grabbed my earplugs, and walked back to the restaurant. I said goodbye to Janet and took the subways back to Brooklyn to see my concert. I made it in at 9:32, just in time to see the last 4 or 5 songs of Tedesco. They were awesome! I had never been to a concert before, so it was pretty cool seeing a band live no matter who it was. I had a slightly awkward moment when I bought one of their shirts and asked them to sign it afterwards, only to find out that the shirt I bought was for the next band. Damn again again. Well, the band that the shirt was from came on next and they were fantastic! Absolutely loved them. After they finished, I got them all to sign my shirt and they gave me a free album and the singer got a picture with me.

I made my way home for the 4^th time that day, smiling and wearing a band t-shirt with 5 fresh signatures on it. Another episode of Psych and then to the green silky covers, a blue glowing ball staring at me as I fell asleep.

Day 3: Hotdogs, Sharks, Indians, Cremepuffs, Climbing, and Pork

After waking up and deciding my hair looked good enough to not take a shower, I ate some Rice Krispies from a glass (Angela thinks I’m super weird for only liking non-sweet cereals, e.g. regular Cheerios and Rice Krispies. Maybe I am weird, but I just can’t deal with those sweet cereals…) and then made my way to the upper West Side.

I first went to Gray’s Papaya, voted best hot dog in NYC, where I ordered two hotdogs with relish, onions, and cheese and a piña colada drink. I went to Gray’s Papaya in both 9^th and 11^th grades but in the later year they were very unfortunately out of my favorite drink so I had to get their famous papaya juice. I was immensely happy when the piña colada was back in stock this time.

After nostalgically eating my hotdogs on a bench outside of the station on 72^nd and Broadway, I walked to the Natural History Museum. I then proceeded to empty my entire wallet on a ticket for the museum plus a 3D IMAX film about sharks, which turned out to be awesome. After learning about the Great White, I proceeded to the Native American exhibit to fulfil my father’s vision for me, and was pleasantly surprised at how interesting it was. My favorite parts were the dioramas with the Indians wearing the clothes and the diorama that showed a winter house dug into the ground. After getting my fill of Native American artifacts, I proceeded into the rooms with the animal dioramas, my favorite thing at almost any museum. It’s so cool seeing the real-dead animals in their fake-natural habitat. With these epic dioramas available, why would you ever need to go outside???

I then made my way down memory lane and stopped at the Shake Shack, where I bought a caramel concrete. Then, as if a massive dish of ice cream wasn’t sweet enough, I found myself in the tiny aisle of Beard Papa’s, buying the biggest crème puff I had ever seen. I walked around the corner to find myself standing in front of Tara’s favoriteset hotel in NYC, the Milburn. I got a selfie for good measure.

Soon I was back at the apartment and soon after that Angela and I were making our way to the climbing gym. We met Angela’s friend, Jenya, who graciously lent me his shoes and harness (we happened to be the same size in both the footal and crotchal regions). I dangerously traversed my way up several walls and almost died several times, but luckily for me there happened to be a rope attached to me that saved my life. Then I gave the harness and shoes back and burned a solid 500 calories on the workout bike while Angela climbed.

After finishing up at the gym, Jenya took us out to dinner at a rib house where we filled ourselves with pulled pork and brisket. Yum. Angela and I said goodbye to her friendly Russian friend and headed home, for another episode of Psych and a night of rest on the silky green covers, with a peach colored ball staring at me.