California: Day 2, Monday September 1st

California Day 2

Monday, September 1^st

After waking up on a set of uncomfortable outdoor couch cushions, relocating to a bed inside, and falling asleep again, I woke up for good and headed upstairs for a breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs. We then gathered our painting equipment and headed to the post office: we had a wall to paint. Yesterday Grampy had explained that several years ago he and our cousin Kelty had painted the wall and that a few days ago the postman had asked him to paint it again. When asked what color he wanted, the postman said any color would do so Grampy picked a nice bright purple. Four hours and a half of a pint of paint later, we had a beautiful purple wall with a bright white mailbox in the middle.

After going back to the house we jumped into the endless current pool that Grampy had installed several years ago in his back yard (as if having the ocean a block away wasn’t good enough…). After getting tired of regular swimming, we brought out the boogie board and did some endless boarding in the current. Soon it was lunch time, so we headed in for some quesadillas.

Before long it was dinner time, and Grampy’s girlfriend Joyce arrived. I was excited to find out that she was a professional photographer and that she had just bought the T5i. We conversed for a while about photos and Photoshop, and then Carter and I played a little fiddle concert. After switching back and forth a couple of times (and apparently thoroughly impressing Joyce), the concert abruptly ended with the explosion of my E string. Dinner time.

The food was extravagant and delicious as per norm with mom: walnut-breaded tilapia, noodles, capreze, bread and cambizola, stirfry veggies, and a flourless chocolate cake to finish it all up. After gorging ourselves, Joyce and I took photos of the dinner gathering, each one missing the photographer. The plan was for her to take them home and do a bit of Photoshop magic, but I thought that I might as well use my new laptop since it was sitting right there. Ten minutes later I had a dinner photo with everyone in it which, to my content, passed Joyce’s inspection.

After Joyce went home we watched another episode of Phych, and headed for bed. 

California: Day 1, Sunday August 31st

California Day 1

Sunday, August 31^st

Today is the day: off to the sunny side of the country. We left the house at about 10:30am with hungry stomachs and luggage in hand. After a quick pizza-stop at Whole Foods, we were on our way to DIA – at least that was our intention. Luckily someone (read Mom) thought to check to make sure we had extra strings for our violin and guitar. Violin? Check. Guitar? Ummm… Not quite. We had broken a string earlier in the summer and then promptly proceeded to forget about it. Luckily Google found us a guitar store that happened to be open on Labor Day Sunday on the way to the airport. We got ourselves two packs of strings (which turned out to be cheaper per pack than buying the bundled three-packs, no thanks to my amazing mental math skills… Ha!) and were back on the road.

We arrived at the airport, checked in our bags, and got a large Screaming Orgasm from a nice lady at Jamba Juice (before you get too freaked out Google the Jamba Juice secret menu). It was epic, but not quite as delicious as the Thank You Jesus we tried last week.

After finishing our drinks, we proceeded through security to the train. We had planned out our timing to leave us two hours to play on the DIA train, but due to the string incident we ended up with only 45 minutes, which flew by in no time at all. We pulled in a respectable $36: good considering we played less than an hour but very pale in comparison to the $150 we achieved last year.

Grampy Bob picked us up in his new Tesla (Joking!) and soon we were at the much beloved green beach house. After settling in, we proceeded to satisfy our appetites at Shack Burger via their “world-famous” Shack Burger, topped with a hot Louisiana sausage. While waiting for our food to become done, we read the biography of Ernie the Milkman by Bob Krauch (Grampy Bob) that was posted on the wall. Who knew that after 42 years Ernie would still be getting up at 4:30am to deliver milk?

We returned home and introduced Grampy to Psych. After finishing one episode only to find both grownups passed out, Carter and I decided to take a nighttime beach run. We ran down to the beach and proceeded to make our way down towards where the airplanes take flight. Feeling a bit rebellious, we crossed the road and made our way up the barricaded street to the top of the hill and watched as 747s roared overhead, wing lights flashing and tails glowing.

We fell asleep on the sun deck with the gentle sound of takeoff floating through the cool ocean air. Day 1 complete.

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.

~ ~ ~

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.

  

Day 2: Transit Museum and a Failed Attempt at Busking

You wake up with nothing but underwear on sleeping on a strange bed covered in silky green sheets with a glowing purple ball staring at you and the noise of NYC outside. And then you get up and eat cereal. At least that’s what I did on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. After breakfast I hopped on the C and went down to Brooklyn to check out the Transit Museum. To say that it was the best museum I ever went to would only be partially a lie – I think it ties with the Intrepid, and the London Transit Museum. But by putting on the level of those shows just how epic it is, in my humble opinion. After getting my fill of dying workers, collapsing road structures, electric motors, and old subway cars, I headed back to street level to explore a bit.

I hopped on the first bus I could find and chatted it up with the driver for a bit and when we got to the end stop I got off. I soon found myself on a pier overlooking the East River. Or is it the Hudson by then? Anyways, I then started playing the high five game (I’ll post a video soon) and waving at all of the “Friendly Yorkers”. As you might imagine I got about 5 waves out of the 25 to 30 people I waved at.

Soon I was back on the subway to the apartment. I grabbed my violin, tucked in my shirt, and caught the R to Union Square. I played for about 45 minutes at a couple different places and made an astounding four dollars – how generous these people are. I made my way back to the apartment and began a search for nightlife in NYC for the under 21 variety. I found a place that said it had a party-thing going on that was free to get into, so I hopped on the M and found myself walking through dark streets and ended up at what was called the Show Palace. I went in, but there was no one inside, just some really loud music. I looked at the Facebook event again and realized that the date was Saturday, not Wednesday. Damn. Back to the apartment.

I returned to a drunk cousin, which was quite a sight. After she made it to her bed, I watched a couple episodes of Psych and then Angela came home. We ate cheese and birthday cake Oreos and caught up on each other’s lives for the past lifetimes. Angela went to bed, and I watched another episode of Psych and then fell asleep in my silky green covers, this time with a turquoise ball staring at me.

Day 1: NYC and the Cousins

After only semi-frantically packing and searching for my missing rain coat, I was on the way to DIA. Mom had decided she wanted to walk me into the airport and get me checked in, but Departures doesn’t have a short-term parking lot so we had to circle back around and go to Arrivals. We had a mini freakout when my backpack was too fat to fit in the carryon sizing thingy, but soon remedied that by stuffing my check-in even more.

As per the plan, I was an hour and a half earlier than I needed to be, giving me time to play some fiddle tunes on the DIA train. My brother and I had been hugely successful last summer, raking in over a dollar per minute – slightly better than a good night on Pearl Street. This time, however, I thought it would be more fruitful to play in the train boarding room. Then every single person flying through Denver would have to pass by me (unless they decided to be boring and take the walkway to Term A. Who wouldn’t take the train???). I had been playing, to the varied satisfaction of travelers, for close to 45 minutes when I saw two menacing looking security guards aimed at me. Shit. I stopped playing and asked if there was a problem, to which their response was along the lines of "move or the cops will have to escort you out". So on to Plan B – Ye Old Train. I figured they wouldn't really care about me playing in the train, and hey, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Soon I was boarded and soon after that I was board: The pilot was taking his pretty little time ambling around the airport and didn't board the plane until 15 minutes after takeoff time. Well, he eventually arrived, and we took off. I slept through the beverages which always makes me really pissed. If I'm paying to a plane ticket I sure as hell want that half-can of Sprite. With an hour left of flight time I started watching Divergent – an epic movie, especially in 1080p on my new ThinkPad Yoga.

Soon we arrived in Wilmington, which has now become my new definition of Ghetto. The airport was literally a large-house-sized building with flaps in the walls for the luggage to be dumped through. You then walk 20 feet and your standing in the road. I'm not even sure if they have Security. Soon I was in a taxi, chatting it up with the driver about what size violin he should get for his 12 year old daughter, and then after parting with enough money to buy 6 Subways I was at what the driver called "the Chinese bus station". If there is any question as to what this "bus station" is like, the name pretty much says it all - It's what appears to be a vacated Chinese restaurant (yes, there is still a Chinese food menu in the window) with a tiny checkout counter in the back corner. When I showed the assistant my emailed receipt, she illegibly hand wrote a note with my confirmation number and departure time and told me that it was my ticket.

I finished Divergent on the bus ride. Really good movie, watch it if you have a chance. (Also, side note, but if you’ve seen The Fault in Our Stars, Shailene Woodley plays the main characters in both movies and Ansel Elgort plays her brother in Divergent and her lover in Fault. Interesting relationship twist). The seat was pretty comfortable, and there were little adjustable foot rests hanging from the seat ahead of me. The bus was operated by a Chinese couple, the man driving and the woman carrying her purse around and collecting tickets. When the bus had finally pulled up, half an hour late, I was surprised to see that it was bright pink and had no markings whatsoever. Or maybe I wasn’t surprised, looking back on what the “bus station” was.

Once in NYC, I bought a weeklong Metro card and hopped on the N. Unfortunately Angela and Adaire live in the middle of the West side where the closest subway station is a 15 minute walk. Not too bad on a normal day, but I was loaded down with a massive duffle bag, backpack, and violin. Add to that my sprained ankle and it was quite a long walk. Adaire met me at the door and an hour later Angela came home. It was great seeing them again, I think the last time I saw them was five or six years ago at a family reunion.

We ate spaghetti, I napped, we went shopping, ate dinner, watched Man of Steel (throughout which I kept dozing off… probably missed about half the movie), and went to sleep on bright green silk sheets with a glowing face next to me. Goodnight NYC.