So, as many of you may have missed. Me and Thomas decided to go to New York for the weekend. Spontaneously, and completely unplanned.

I went to see Thomas Friday night, asked him if he wanted to go to NY, he said it sounded like fun. We booked a hotel (within walking distance from Time Square), and we were gone at midnight, not to return till Monday morning.

We had a map...
Directions from google...
A portable DVD Player (courtesy of Steven Willis)...
and the first song chosen on the ipod, "Seemed like a good idea at the time" by OK GO.

Little did we know, that phrase alone would actually sum up our weekend in New York.

[Thomas' blog can be found here.] <-----not updated yet, check back for the link...this is just so you know that he has a blog coming.

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Things I learned in NYC:

1. Just because the hotel is within walking distance from Time Square doesn't mean it's a good one.

Now I know that it was a Howard Johnson hotel, but I still expected it to be decent.

But first impressions proved me wrong.

First off, we had a hard time finding the place, mostly because we couldn't find the number for the building.

Reason being...it was a printed number on a peice of paper taped on the glass door. Not to mention that they didn't have a sign saying "Howard Johnsons" anywhere (they later got those on the same glass door printed on similar paper.)

So this place can't afford numbers or signs, and they were very unprofessional.
Not to mention the Lobby was pretty much empty besides the desk.

Either way, it was a place to sleep.
We couldn't check in till 3 in the afternoon though, so even though i just stayed up all night driving, I wouldn't even get that for another 8 hours...it's going to be a long day.

2. There's no such thing as Free Parking on Manhattan Island.

Well, that could be an exaggeration, because I'm sure if I drove around enough i could've found someplace to park for free, but not close to where we were staying.

So by the end of the weekend I would've paid a garage 72 dollars to park my car for two nights. Just more money that I have to sacrifice to have my fun in New York, but i chose that fate so I'm not complaining.

I will complain that the people parking my car don't speak English very well. not to mention that on the drives going up to the next level, there's cushioned corners on the walls just in case they drive the cars too close.

Now sure I should be happy that they're playing it safe so they don't scratch up my car...but then again I shouldn't have to worry about that either right?

Not to mention you could tell it was worn from their past experiences. We'll just pray nothing happens to make me regret this decision.

3. The honking never stops in New York. I kid you not.

4. Walking in places like Time Square is an art.

This much me and Thomas mastered after the first 10 minutes of experiencing NYC traffic...maybe less.

It's both very frustrating and dangerous.
But if you do it right then you will get to your destination without a problem.

It takes skill, and quick thinking.
Not everyone has it...and those that can't keep up will be left behind.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

5. No joke, there is a Starbucks on 'almost' every corner.

6. If not Starbucks, then it is a McDonalds.

7. Volcom stores don't exist in Time Square...this is most likely a focal point of Thomas' Blog...so read that for more angry rants.

8. Those people handing things out on the street, advertisements and what not.
They know what they're doing...and they know how to sell a product.

Thomas almost bought a fur coat...without even knowing what he was going to buy.

9. THE END IS AT HAND!!!

10. Don't judge a Hotel by it's first impression.

So i take back number 1, because when we went back to the hotel to check in, they told us that they had just opened up THAT DAY!

That explains why they don't have much yet, and that also explains why everyone was unprofessional...because they were all new.

Me and Thomas were the first people to ever check into that hotel.
They upsized us from a queen to a King.

and put us on the top floor.

Only problem was that they didn't have our tv set up...but that's cause they were new and the Direct TV guy hasn't come by yet.

The bathroom was clean though, in fact I really liked the bathroom...it was nice.

We didn't have a view though, but that didn't matter cause we weren't in the room much.

But like I said, don't judge them because they are a hole in the wall...they can't help it...much...

11. yes...it does cost that much.

12. yes...those are pirated movies being sold on the street.

13. No...I won't give you money for a beer.

"Why lie...I need a beer."

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What we did:

Pretty much, me and Brett didn't go to NYC to go sightseeing.
We just wanted to do what we always do...hang out and live life.

Cept this time we were doing it in a different place.

So don't blame us if we didn't do anything interesting.

1. Watch a movie...

IN NEW YORK CITY!!!!!

2. Go to broadway...specifically: Rent.

Because Les Miserables wasn't doing any Sunday shows, and Rent was our next choice.

It was very good, and I really enjoyed it.

The movie was good to, but both of them are good in their own right.

You can't compare them.
and you don't need to see one if you've seen the other...it's the same, but just a different way of telling the story.

But I liked the broadway better...always will.

3. Hang around the two story borders.

Because, let's face it, books are fun...and girls hang out in book stores...get it?

4. NOT go anywhere fancy to eat.

Because that weekend everything had a long wait, atleast an hour. So we didn't bother. Fast food was good enough for us.

5. Walk around and shop.

Though I didn't buy anything...but if was still fun to browse around.

6. Thomas got his hair straightened.

By a nice lady...I liked her...if I had $125 I would've bought a straightener just because of her.

7. Buy Chich-cabobs from the corner vendors.

If you want an idea about what they're like.

Well it's like the funnel cakes at the state fair.

I'll never go to the fair without getting a funnel cake...and I will never visit NYC without getting a Chich-cabob...ever.

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New Year's Eve:

The cops come out in droves...whatever that means.

No, we weren't in NYC just to do New Year's Eve, but why not kill two birds with one stone...sounds like fun to me.

Unfortunetaly our chances were shot down once we triedto enter Time Square.
First off, they close down almost ever street save the ones they're going to use as an entrance.
Second off, no one knows what street will be the entrance.

The cops only take care of their section, and don't know what's going on past that.

So we get to 39th street...they tell us to go to 45th street.

45th tells us to go to 51st...and they tell us to go to 56th...and they tell us to just keep walking.

Fortunetally Central Park cuts us off at 59th, so once we turn the corner there's only one street to go down, and we finally find it, along with everyone else trying to get into Time Square.

We were lucky, because they had just started letting people in, so we would be able to get in with the first thousand or so, and be close enough to see the ball (or something) and just have fun.

Again, this was too good to be true.

For once we got to the entrance to get searched, we were told that we couldn't bring out backpacks in....-.-
We can have a purse,
or a shopping back,
but no backpack.

So you're telling me that I have to walk all the way down back to 36th street and 10th avenue, go up to the top floor just to drop my backpack off, and then come back?

Well we weren't going to waste our time...and we knew that it would be very crowded and that we wouldn't get to eat for a while. So we stopped for food to wait for the entrance to not be so crowded.

Bad Mistake.

We got back to Time Square...only to find that they've already sectioned off every place close enough to see the ball, and they were working on filling sections even farther away from that.

We didn't know till later that we were 2/1,000,000.

So, it seemed that we were out of luck.
Hotels were checking room keys at the door,
and all the other tall buildings were closed.
So there was no way of sneaking onto a roof to have some fun.

So we walked around for 5 hours, but most everything was closed after 9 cept for food places.

It's a shame, but New Years Eve was no fun.
New York was...just not on December 31/January 1.

Oh, and to top it all off, we couldn't even watch the ball on t.v.
Know why?
cause our t.v. didn't work...remember?...now I regret accepting that when I checked into the hotel...

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Canadians: [just for thomas...cause according to him I'll be stuck on this for a while...but after this blog I'm done talking about it...maybe ^_^]

Even with the events that happened our last night there, I'm still content with the weekend.

This is because of one great situation: having two cute girls sit in front of us at Rent.

Now, there are plenty of cute girls around New York...and everywhere else for that matter...but of course having me and Thomas go on a trip...we're going to be focusing on this more than anything else.

It's not like we were going to do anything crazy [like buy flowers and hand it out to girls randomly with a note tied to each one saying something witty and willing of a deserving smile...maybe...]

No, I just wanted to wait for the opportune moment (as Jack Sparrow would say.)

And that moment came, during Intermission.

Useless story short:
They enjoyed talking to us.
Yes, we did get names.
No, they didn't have time to hang with us afterwards [I don't like family]
Yes, they were cousins
No, we didn't manage to get digits.

But that doesn't mean I wasn't happy about it. I quite enjoyed it. And again, I was content.

It made my weekend...literally.

ahhhh...canadians.

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In Conclusion:

We saw a small dog getting put into a purse so he wouldn't have to walk anymore.

Otherwise...

Everything was pretty much covered.

Have a nice day.