Lest you think NYC was all fun and games, I thought I’d share a few behind the scenes details, including my favorite picture of the hubs all week. THIS is Josh – silly and goofy with a huge smile on his face. We make fun of each other constantly and laugh a lot – this moment was no different. We are sitting on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan outside of Duane Reade. This was about thirty minutes after we visited the 9|11 Memorial and it was 36* outside. Josh has no shoe on because he HAD to have an ace bandage stat.
Among other notable details to mention (some via SD’s many colorful Facebook statuses)…
Thursday, 4:30 p.m. The plan was that he would meet me at Grand Central Station after taking the TRAIN from Tuckahoe. After some unforeseen work-related issues, he found himself DRIVING to the Waldorf to drop off a colleague. This means he was in a rental car in New York City and trying to find me so that we could make a 7 o’clock reservation at Ground Zero. He was working in Connecticut that day and left the office at 4:30. My cell phone battery was severely depleted after a long day of traveling and lots of filming at Strawberry Fields. I was afraid to wander too from from GCS since I had no idea how long he would be. We decided I would turn my phone off and call him after thirty minutes to see where we were. In the meantime, I was enjoying a cup of coffee and a good book when approached by a very dirty man with the largest can of beer I’ve ever seen. He asked me for a dollar for the Subway, but I legitimately didn’t have one. I carried some emergency cash, but I didn’t want to flash it in the middle of the train station. He was rude and could barely stand up and it took forever to scare him off. Fast forward fifteen minutes and he approaches me again to say, “Have I already asked you?” When I try to get rid of him again, he asks the gentleman on the bench next to me to scoot down so we can sit together?!?! I tell the nice man next to me to stay and the beggar finally leaves. After seeing him coming for me a third time, I went to the second floor of the train station to wait for Josh – who finally calls me to say that he’s a block away and I need to hurry. I find myself running down the street with WAY too many people, on the phone with my husband, weaving in and out of shoppers, trying to catch him at the light before it changes. I know I haven’t made it when I begin to hear the horns blaring for him to move. Thankfully I catch up with him and we find a parking garage and pay $26 to leave the car. It is 6:45 and we are at least 45 minutes from our destination, so we abandon the plan and head for Times Square. Instead of spending our first night at the 9|11 Memorial followed by a yummy Italian dinner at a highly recommended restaurant, we’re in the busiest block in NYC waiting in line to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. The upside? I’ve seen my husband for the first time since arriving and we are both giddy to be starting our vacation, failed plans or not.
Friday, 11 p.m. We are finally at the hotel after a day of walking and sightseeing and ready to check in (we had a separate reservation for the weekend since it wasn’t part of Josh’s business trip). Not only is there a hopping party at the hotel bar, with loud music to boot, but they cannot find our reservation. It would appear Hotels.com did not fax our reservation information to the actual hotel and after being on hold, waiting for a fax that never came, talking with a hotels.com representative, yelling at that representative’s supervisor and securing a significant nightly discount and a voucher for our next stay, we finally checked in. Did I mention that I was finally able to give this speech to someone? It was only fitting since we’d visited his favorite coffee shop earlier in the day.
Also hilarious, was the conversation we witnessed at the hotel check-in counter while we waited:
Patron: Do you offer a government rate at this hotel?
Hotel: Yes, it is $129 a night.
P: Is that the best you can do?
H: Yes, that is the government rate.
P: Is that for one bed or two?
H: Two, sir, a King sized bed.
P: Is that the smallest bed?
H: No, sir. It’s the largest bed.
Now this entire conversation occurs while the man shifts his eyes from side to side and looks genuinely scary. We considered the possibility of a random act of violence. When we left him at the counter he was counting quarters to cover the cost of his tiny King sized bed.
Saturday, 11:00 a.m. Josh & I have both managed to hurt our right ankles. Mine is tolerable, but he is in pain. We find a shoe repair shop and buy an insert for his shoe, but he can’t tell if it helps. Instead, we take breaks throughout the day to eat and rest. It’s quite comical how ridiculous we are and we laugh at each other all day.
Facebook status from Josh, 12:14 p.m. To the subway ticket agent: “My metro card isn’t working” The agent: “do you know why it isn’t working?” Me: “would I be standing here if I did?”
Saturday, 5:30 p.m. We are verbally berated for being in the way as a New Yorker screams at tourists for preventing him from being on time to work. There was nowhere to walk in front of Rockefeller Center and as a non-tourist, shouldn’t he have known better than to walk right there during the busiest weekend of the season?
Not ten minutes later we witness a fender bender between a car and a cab. The driver of the car gets out of the car screaming at the cab driver to get out of the cab. We were certain it would break out into a fight and were genuinely worried for the man’s safety. Josh was praying it didn’t escalate because he didn’t want to get involved, but wouldn’t want the man to be assaulted. Thankfully, a lady nearby grabbed a cop around the corner and it was all in his hands.
Facebook status from Josh, 4:51 p.m. “Santa Clause stands for human rights.” At least that’s what the lady from Amnesty International was yelling at Grand Central Station.
Facebook status from Josh, Sunday, 6:44 a.m. The guy on the train: “ma’am, could you please lower your voice?” The lady talking loudly: “I paid my own ticket, if you want to train somebody, have your own kids. I’m not your kid.” The guy: “I’m just asking you to please lower your voice.” The even louder lady: “you are only asking this because of my language!”
In his defense, she really was screaming and it was so early in the morning. They yelled at each other for what seemed like an hour before someone finally grabbed the conductor to break it up. We laughed a lot during this train ride.
Sunday, 10:00 a.m. We find a Duane Reade so that Josh can grab an ace bandage because the insert isn’t helping and I’ve just made him walk about 10 blocks to take a picture with the Merrill Lynch bull. There may or may not have been an obscene photograph of him and the bull’s backside that I cannot share with you.
I am not lying when I tell you that we had the BEST time on our trip, but where Josh & I go, funny things will follow. I can’t say I expected anything less.
