Entry 82: NYC

We went to NYC last weekend to visit some of friends. When S was growing up, her parents were really good friends with another Indian couple who have two boys, N1 and N2, in the same general age range as S and her sister. Now they are both doctors in New York, and they're both cool dudes. It was N2's birthday last weekend, so we used that as a good reason to head north for a visit. I had met N2 in Bangalore during the wedding festivities, but this was my first time meeting N1. We stayed in his apartment. He gave us his bed and slept on the couch, which was very nice. S tried to argue that he should keep his bed, and we would sleep on the couch (the only other option being a hardwood floor), but he was like, "Are you crazy? You can't both fit there," and was like, "Are you crazy? We can't both fit there!"

The drive from DC to NYC was long, like usual, but not too bad. S wanted to take the bus, which normally I might be in favor of, but we left Friday in the evening, because I had to work during the day, and my work is already an hour north of DC, so in order to take the bus I would have had to have driven back to DC, and walked or taken the metro to the bus stop. Once on the bus, we would have traveled at about 75% the speed I drive. Basically, we would've added around 3 hours to our trip -- not even kind of worth it. Instead, I picked up S and her friend L, at a stop along the way, and we all drove up together.

[The entrance to Beauty on Essex.]

It actually turned out to be a fun ride. L is an attractive upper-30s divorcee, who is always discussing her current boy-related mini-dramas with S. Every now and then, I chime in with some advice "from the guy's perspective", like I'm Dr. Drew or something. There was a bit of traffic, but it wasn't too bad considering there is always some congestion (especially getting into the actually city of New York) no matter what time you go. Whenever I complained about traffic, S would pipe up, "I told you we should have taken the bus," which I repeatedly pointed out doesn't make any sense -- it's not like the bus has Go-go Gadget wheels that allow it to drive above the other cars -- but she stuck to it.*

When there isn't traffic, you have to deal with the slow people who unnecessarily clog things up. I just don't understand people who putter along when there is a mile of open pavement in front of them. Don't you want to get to your destination? It's fine if you drive slowly though, just stay to the right. I can't stand slowpokes who block the left lanes. They are either a) completely oblivious to the line of cars riding their ass or b) intentionally blocking everybody to be a jerk or to "teach" everybody some sort of idiotic lesson. I don't know which is worse. I mean, tailgaters are assholes, but if you can get over to let somebody go by and you don't, then you're an asshole too. That's my take on it, anyway.

[Further research has identified the rooftop bar as that of the Kimberly Hotel.]

Once we got to NYC, it was fun, but expensive. We (we meaning me, N1, N2, S, and another girl A) went to this restaurant called Beauty on Essex that is so trendy you don't even know it's a restaurant from the outside. You go into a pawn shop and the back opens up into a restaurant and bar. I thought it was going to be obnoxiously pretentious, but it turned out to be really cool -- great vibe and delicious food. After that, we went to a cool rooftop bar at some hotel, where we met a few other people. Then, we went to a gay club. People wanted to dance, and it was the best option at that time of the night (2am). Plus, N1 is gay, so he knows the scene a bit. (By the way, if you want to see the freakiest male-female dancing, go to a gay club. I'm not sure why, but gay men and straight women turn every dance into something that puts The Lambada to shame.) All in all it was a very fun, if exhausting night.



The next day we headed back to DC and spent our Labor Day holiday moving some of our furniture into storage, because we now have "staged" furniture that we're paying some ridiculous price for. We literally have a fake TV hanging our wall. It's just a plastic box. This condo had better sell.

[Screw you Holland Tunnel!]

*L used some nonsensical travel-related logic during our trip, as well. On the way back, she used her iPhone to direct us to the Lincoln Tunnel, since that's how we came into the city. S used her iPhone also, but put the destination as DC instead of just the Lincoln Tunnel, and it told us to exit the city via the Holland Tunnel. Since S's route went all the way to DC, I decided to go with that one. As it turns out, they closed a major street near the Holland Tunnel for a Labor Day festival and there was an accident at the entrance, so it took us about an hour and a half to travel a distance that should have taken 10 minutes. At one point I said, "Guess, we should have taken the Lincoln Tunnel." To which L replied, "Haha, yeah, I didn't want to say I told you so, but I told you so." But really, she never told us so, and it's not like any of us could have known from looking at the route that the Holland Tunnel was a mess. As far as we knew, it could have just as easily been the Lincoln Tunnel that was bad, so really there was no valid "I told you so" about it.