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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

New York: The Final Chapter

The sun from the skylight in the boat shone brightly in my face the next morning. I woke up and make the long cold trip down to the club to shower and get ready for the day. When I got back, Shane and Dr. NY had bought us all bagels from a shop down the road. They were delicious!
Our first order of business for that day, was to visit the Bronx Zoo! I had been dying to go since I have an animal science degree, and I have always wanted to work in a zoo. So I thought it would be awesome to check it out. I also knew it would be a great opportunity to take some awesome photographs of the animals. So the 3 of us drove out to The Bronx for a cold day at the zoo. We spent about 3 hours there, and it was awesome! Definitely the coolest zoo I've been to so far. And I got tons of amazing shots!
Afterwards we started discussing dinner plans. Dr. NY said he had some friends who wanted to eat Chinese. The supposedly knew about this great authentic place in Queens. So we decided to join them. We made a pit-stop at Yankee Stadium to take a couple pictures. In Evans pictures, he flicked off the stadium. Lol. Hey! We're Texans!
So the restaurant was definitely unlike any I've ever been to! They had this all-you-can-eat meal deal for 25 bucks which included beer! It was basically a huge, boiling pot of stew, with as much raw meat as you could eat, which you put into the boiling stew to cook. And they had a buffet of different sauces, so you could mix your own to dip the meat in. It was so cool! We were a pretty big party; me, Evan, Shane, Dr. NY, his friend John, his friend Kent, and Kent's girlfriend.
Kent, it didn't take me long to figure out, was a very long-winded guy. I mean he was mildly amusing at first, but he obviously just liked to hear himself talk. And he did not shut up through the whole meal...which was very long. The meal deal had a 2 hour time limit, which we exceeded by at least 2 hours. And not by choice either. It was obvious that we were all ready to go, but Kent just kept ordering more meat! Evan and I kept exchanging anxious looks. I mean, this was going to be our last night in NYC and we didn't wanna spend the whole night in a Chinese restaurant in Queens. So finally, by like 11 pm, we got the hell out of there. And we had all ridden together in Dr. NY's car (it was a very tight squeeze), so we started walking back. And Kent is already talking about how he wants to go to this club a few blocks over. Shane and I were practically horrified at that thought since we were still in our zoo clothes. Evan wasn't too keen on it either. Plus I still had a huge bulky camera case, with over a thousand dollars worth of equipment! I wasn't just gonna leave that lying around.
Well sure enough, we get dragged to this club, because stupid Kent insisted on going! And it would have been cool, except that no one asked our opinions, we weren't dressed properly, and, to top it off, nobody in this club even spoke English! They all spoke Polish!! A guy actually walked up to me and started speaking to me in Polish, and I just gave him a blank stare and said, "What??" Then he said, "Oh, you speak English." as if he was disappointed or something.
"Well of course I speak effing English! This is freakin AMERICA!!" I yelled after him. I was pretty irritated by this point. And the people in there were so pushy! I mean, usually when I'm out in a crowded place, if I bump into someone, or push them, I say "I'm sorry", or "excuse me". But no! Not a single apology from these people as they were literally running me over!
Then, some bitchy bartender was giving me an attitude because my purse was on the bar, and she wanted to dance on it! (Completely oblivious to all the people waiting for drinks). So she literally shoved my purse at me, knocking it over, and spilling it's contents onto the bar. I was so pissed! I saw that same bartender later, walking through the crowd, so I purposely ran into her. Hard. Hahaha. She turned around, flipped me off and started mouthing off something to me. At this point, I was honestly ready to throw down with the bitch! I threw up my arms and said something along the lines of, "What!? Come back over here and say something! Bitch! What the fuck?!"
She didn't come back. Lol.
Shane was grabbing my arm and telling me to calm down or we'd get kicked out.
"So what?!" I said, "I didn't even wanna come here in the first place!"
Evan was laughing. Finally, it was 3:45, last call. So we went to get our coats from the coat check. The line was like 6 miles long! Then they lost 2 of our coats, and Shane had to go back and look for them. By the time we got out of there, it was 4:30 am, and Evan and I were both pissed off and tired as hell.
But it doesn't end yet.
Stupid fucking Kent decides it'll be a good idea to go to an afterhours club! And Evan and I are in the back seat with him, and his girlfriend, saying, "No...I think we should just go home. We have to pack and fly out tomorrow." And guess what Kent says to us!
He says, "Nah, you guys are just gonna come with us. Go with the flow, you konw. It'll be cool."
I was literally seething. Steam might have been coming out my ears.
"Well, we'll just get a cab then, and go back ourselves." I said with a less than polite tone.
And we did. But that wasn't an easy task either! We ended up at some hole-in-the-wall 24 hour Mexican food place, where of course, there are no cabs anywhere! So Evan I get all our stuff, and start trudging down the street in search of a car company. Then it starts snowing! Ugh...it was horrible, you guys. You can't even imagine! Finally, we found some guy to take us. I fell asleep in the car while poor Evan kept trying to give the guy directions. But the driver had no idea where we were staying, or how to get there, so it took us a good hour to get back. And when we finally did, we both laid down in our beds, and screamed! As loud as we could!
So much pent-up frustration...
"Good night Evan." I said after I took a deep breath.
"Good night Peyton."
And we both went to sleep.

The next morning, we were supposed to sail around the Statue of Liberty, but since it was snowing, that wasn't really an option. Oh well. We were both just so exhausted by this point. So we decided to tour NBC studios instead. That was actually really fun! We got to see the sets of SNL, and Conan O'Brian, and I got some cool souvenirs, and gifts for people back home.
Before we knew it, it was time to drive to the airport. Shane stayed an extra day, so she and Dr. NY drove us to the airport. The flight was ok, I think I slept the whole way. Evan and I both decided that next time we go to New York, we won't depend on anyone but ourselves! Definitely a good plan.
I didn't speak to The Model the whole time I was there either. Although I did text him on our first night out, but he never responded.

So all in all, New York was great! Except for that last night...but oh well. At least I never have to see Kent again!!

Mitch Of The Day:
"I was in a convenience store, reading a magazine. The clerk told me, "This is not a library!" "OK! I will talk louder, then!""

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