“Hanging on the corner of 52nd and Broadway. The cars passing by, but none of them seem to be going’ my way. New York City, where I wish I was on the highway…”

Hey there faithful readers! still with us? I’m back at home, and thought that describing my wild Day 3 and Day 4 of my recent east coast trip might be in order.

On day 3, Wine and I both woke up early for some bagels and coffee. Then, we went our separate ways. The university we were staying at had a New Jersey transit stop right next to the dorms. I took this into NYC. Here’s a brief recap…

-took transit into Penn Station.

-In awe of Penn Station. Walked out onto 7th Street, next to both the Fuse Studios and Madison Square Garden.

-Contemplate briefly the possibility of LeBron living in Madison Square Garden. I am sickened by the possibility.

-After a 15 minute wait, I am retrieved by my uncle and two cousins.

-He takes us to lunch at one of his favorite Indian restaurants.

-Sign on the door says that…and I am being 100% serious here…the place was closed for an hour because the cooks were out to lunch!

-Settle for the Indian place next door. It had a completely vegetarian south-Indian lunch buffet for $7.99. A steal, if you ask me.

-Get driven around the city after we eat and catch up. My aunt, uncle and cousins moved from suburban CT to NYC on the upper westside. so I got to see their new place. They live in an apartment within walking distance of both the ABC studios and the Julliard School.

-At a random traffic light a few blocks away from their pad, I look at a plaque on a fancy-pants apartment. It informs me that Ulysses S. Grant lived and died on the very spot that this current building sits. Random.

-See their apartment. Beautiful. Overlooks the Hudson River and New Jersey.

-After a short rest, we load into the car. They’re trying to sell their old house in CT, so we head over there.

-Drove past the Natural History Museum, Central Park,and the Dakota Building/Strawberry Field into Harlem, onto Malcolm X Blvd. and past the Apollo (!) into the Bronx, passing both the old and new Yankee Stadiums. The traffic sucked, though, so the normal 1 hour drive took us 2.5 hours.

-In CT, catch up with my aunt, eat dinner.

-Have an off-the-cuff fancy wine and liquor-tasting after dinner. Glorious.

-Sleep

-Breakfast

-Train from their city into Grand Central Station. Nearly had a panic-attack. That place was fucking insanity…and it was off- hours on a Saturday morning! Can’t even imagine rush hour…

-Take subway then the L to meet back up with Wine and several mates. Drink vanilla tea at a hipster coffee shop.

-Lunch at Chelsea Market. Stir-fried eggplant with basil and bean sauce over rice. Lordy Lordy Lordy, was it awesome!

Resist urge to purchase $4 cupcakes with poodles and/or Obama images on it. Wine buys a cupcake and informs me that it was just “alright.”

-While sitting, I begin to look at the boxed cookies for sale. The ingredients read, among other things: “sugar, egg whites, flour, 1,683 hours of therapy, chocolate chips, milk…” I giggle at the subtle cleverness.

-Walk around aimlessly.

-Jump into cluttered, cramped bookstore to dodge the rain. Best decision (accident) we made all day! There were numerous books that I wanted, but in the end, settled for “Dangling In The Tournefortia” by Charles Bukowski. (Actually ended up finishing it a day later…nerd alert!)

-Took subway from lower westside to upper westide, back to our car.

-Drive back into Jersey. Again, it was scary.

-Made it in time to change for the poster presentation. Mingled, viewed posters, tried (unsuccessfully, I fear) to help cheer Wine up from his existential funk.

-Drove around for food/drink (mostly drink) options. Found The Office. A bar, not that silly television program. Had an amazing salad and veggie burger. And lots of beer. Hung there for at least a couple of hours. Chatted. Hung out. Put things in perspective. Somewhere between bites of sweet potato fries and Brooklyn Ale, Wine has epiphany regarding the aforementioned existential funk. Suddenly, he is not so down. Returned back to the dorm tired and satisfied.

-Sleep.

That, loyal readers, was my (incomplete and all-too-brief ) recap of Days 3 and 4. Maybe if youre all nice, wine will add his thoughts and perspectives. Maybe.

Day 5 – the final installment of our trip’s live journal will be posted tomorrow. Back to the daily grind.

Kisses,

-whiskey