Crazy, Part Deux - Life in NYC.

This evening, I sit in a nice little no bedroom seventh floor loft apartment on the upper west side. (yes, I did write "no" bedroom.) We've had a pretty long day. The majority of which was hours of driving followed by lots of walking to see the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. It's barely even 9pm and we're exhausted and worn out. Now, here we are sitting in our little bubble... a nice quiet little world. We haven't had dinner, nor do we have any alcohol to take the edge off, but according to my sister, there's nothing to fear. Apparently, you can have just about anything delivered here. You name it, it can be delivered... Pizza, definitely. Chinese food... easy. Movies, sure. Laundry, of course, they pick up too. Sushi?!? Yeah... The Vicster has several menus in her menu drawer. Crazy modern conveniences... it's hard to believe that there's a bustling city outside. You could easily get lost in your own world, especially if you have broadband. Almost like Thomas Anderson from The Matrix... or better yet... Angela Bennett from the The Net A cool thing that happened today is that we met Bloomberg... he did his obligatory fly by and waved and patted the kids on the head. Want to move to New York, check out this link on the going ons. The Official New York City Web site FYI, I was going to blog about the actual drive this morning... but, it was too exhausting in the first place, recapping would have put me over the edge.

Definition of Crazy

So, here's a descriptions of our Thanksgiving road trip, thus far, to NYC. On the first leg of our trip, we made 356 miles in 6 hours. This is not to bad considering the four stops for potty breaks, the one for food, and my mandatory stop for STARBUCKS. In general, traffic was working in our favor. The kids however had to be separated midway through the trip (i.e., two kids, two separate rows). Shortly before midnight we make it to a city named Carlisle at the junction of I-76 and I-81 in Pennsylvania . It's a pretty busy town since it's right off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and it's a major junction for New York "to and fro" traffic. During the day the roads are a madhouse. Again, another thing in our favor... getting in at midnight, much of the traffic had died down. All that was left were Greyhound buses and 18-wheelers. I'm not going to say getting here wasn't without any hiccups or frustration. I'm just going to say that the kids and I are glad to just finally be out of the car.... well, at least we thought we'd be. Our first stop in Carlisle is the Holiday Inn. We arrive with hopes for a warm bed, TV and WiFi. Unfortunately to my dismay I find out that regardless of what rewards / membership card I have the best rate I could get for a room is $69 before tax, WIFI extra and no breakfast. WTF?!?! Am I in the twilight zone? Luckily, Donna the receptionist was kind enough to call over to another hotel to see if we could get a better rate. Enter the Ramada Limited. $49.00/night with a "Donna Approved" breakfast suitable for the kids. SCORE! The Ramada was less than a block away, so no big deal. Check-in ran smoothly, they accepted my "Thank-You" rewards membership, my AmEx, took my signature and gave us a room key. The dreaded room key to room 324. Yes... third Floor room, in the heart of the complex. First floor rooms w/ outside access were sold out. The stairs are on either end of each wing. Path of least resistance? The elevator. So, here I am carting 3 bags with two kids in tow through the lobby, past the food area, to the elevator. SIGH... (For future note, there is something when it comes to kids, elevator and button pushing. Their is a science when appropriating the correct amount of button push per kid at what time. If someone figures it out, please let me know.) Yet, I digress. We get to room 324, slip in the key... what do we get? We get a red light. No sweet sound of the bolt sliding to the open position, no welcoming click, nothing... just a cold silent red LED blink of being denied. Insert card, again... red light... three or four more times, varying the speed at which the card swipes... red light, red light, red light. UGH... So, luggage and kids in tow... back to the elevator, back to the front desk... we get a new card. We do this exercise thee more times. Yes, you read right... three!!! At this point, I'm beginning to question my sanity. Vivian is beginning to think her dad's gone nuts. "Daddy, are you sure it's room 324?" As a last ditch effort, I give the key to both Vivian and Christian to try. The thought here is that they are more gentle, innocent... maybe the powers that be will grant them access to our room. NO LUCK. FUCK!! Crazy - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 5th time around, ROTC girl shows so mercy and escorts us up to the room with a Super Duper Master Key. (Why ROTC girl? Well, I didn't get her name, b/c at this point, I'm exhausted, discombobulated and in disbelief; however, for some reason or another, I did learn she has the same pink duffel as Vivian and she's in Army ROTC at the local college) Standing by room 324, what happens next? ROTC girl is denied. "Hmmm?! You're not insane," leaves her lips. "Let me get you in another room." At this point, I'm numb. Even if I wanted to argue, I resolved myself to the fact that I deserved this b/c I was being cheap. I should have just not accepted Donna's initial offer of $69/night + tax + $19.99 WiFi + $20 breakfast. My fault for being cost conscious. Sigh... so, here I am... 45 minutes after check in, we're now in room 327, dressed warmly in our PJs and enjoying some late night cartoon network and free WiFi. Yeah, at least the WiFi is free!

hoops and yoyo

I like silly and fun things... and hoops and yoyo, Hallmarks e-card animated characters, fall within that category. Check out what I found in my mail: Wishes from the kids and some loving from Sherrie: To see more of then, visit hallmark's site here: http://www.hoopsandyoyo.com.

I want to join the 16 mile high club.

Yeah, you read that right, I want to get busy 16 miles vertical from sea-level.

However, the kinda "busy" you're thinking about isn't the same type of busy necessary to join the Mile High Club. This sort of activity is more like signing your life away through a whole bunch of waivers, paying $12,000, and then getting the chance to fly in a Russian MiG-25 fighter jet up to the edge of the atmosphere, which is at 80,000ft. (Yup, you guessed it… 16 miles)

http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/22/cz_jc_0422feat.html

How awesome would that be? See more progress on: join the 16 mile high club

Steve Jobs is coming over for Thanksgiving...

Okay, well he's not... but, his spirit will be there. Every Thanksgiving the family gets dressed up for family pictures. We all stand together and take many pictures of the crew. And I'm talking about everyone... My mom and Dad, my two sisters, my two brothers and all our families. It makes for a pretty big crew. This year, we're dressing up in Jeans and black mock turtlenecks. Very similar to Mister iPhone himself. If you're curious as to what it takes to look likes Steve Jobs, check out this site: http://www.stevesoutfit.com/