Archive for August 24, 2007
and finally, NYC
after an intense, delirious, sunburned week in San Francisco, I flew to NYC on Wednesday with the remnants of my stuff and my cats, who were less than pleased about being shoved in a box for twelve hours. I spent the entire flight worrying that they were freezing and/or dead, since I had to put them in the luggage hold and so couldn’t see them until I got to New York. They seem to be relatively well-adjusted and not too mad at me.
Yesterday I got my first taste of just how big New York really is. I’ll tell you stories about all the stupid stuff I do if you promise not to laugh. My new apartment is across from a subway stop, so I walked down to take the subway to the train station and catch a train to Princeton, where I left much of my stuff back in April. I approached the ticket machine and tried to put money in it, like you do at BART. A woman approached and looked at me trying to figure out why the machine wouldn’t take my money. “Whaddya want? Four dollar ticket?” she asked. “Um, sure”. I responded. She started tapping the touch screen menu (ah-ha….), moving so fast I couldn’t even see the questions on the screen. “Where ya going?” “Grand Central,” I said. “Do you know which way I should go?” She pointed me down the stairs, and I set off for the station.
Of course, in New York, there is more than one train station. And trains to New Jersey leave from Penn Station, not Grand Central. I left Grand Central and broke the rule I made for myself last time I was here, which is: do NOT randomly get on a train that you think is going the right direction. Which meant that I was out another 2 dollars, since I went the wrong way and had to exit and reenter the subway to go the right way. Grrrrr. Luckily, I have a bike to ride temporarily, at least until Rhonda gets here (she took the bus) so I don’t have to take the subway any more. wheeee.
So far I haven’t gone a whole lot further than my block, but a bike ride is in my near to immediate future.
