So I am back from New York. I beat the snow. I got out on the last plane from New York to DC so I was very lucky, but since I did nothing here all weekend maybe I should have stayed in New York. I mean my hotel had a movie theater and restaurants. Plus New York didn’t get as much snow so I could have taken in some museums and other attractions. Hind sight is 20/20.
The flight to New York is bumpy. I mean really bumpy. It really sucked since I fear flying. I fly more than anyone I know with the exception of my sister and I am extremely afraid to fly. In my life I have ran into burning buildings, been kicked and punched more than I can count, had my joints and twisted, been choked, bungi jumped, dived multiple places on both coast, and all other sort of crazy stuff that I should have been afraid of doing, but I just have a fear of flying.
When I arrived in NYC it was raining so my plans for Rockefeller Center went away real quick. I went to the Embassy Suites and I was able to check in early. My view from my bedroom was awesome. I could see Battery Park (I have a video that I will post later) and Hoboken. I decided to out sleep the rain. I fell into a deep slumber. This sleep is most likely due to the lack of sleep from the night before. I was up imagining crashing into various places. Oh, and exploding. I can’t forget about that!
When I woke up I went to Chevy’s for dinner and headed out to see a movie. I choose “Armored”. At first I thought it was alright, but just like Dr. Pepper it has a bad after taste. I now do not like it at all. The ending is just plain stupid. Plus it is really unrealistic. If you are going to be that unrealistic just go all out and go overboard.
After that debacle I went back to my suite and read a little of Theo Fleury’s book “Playing with Fire”. The guy has a lot of demons. I am really surprised he is still alive. Other than the fact he did what most of us can only dream of in winning a Stanley Cup, a gold medal, and being rich and famous, the guy had a horrendous life.
On Monday morning I got up and went to work. My class was an interesting group of people. I honestly mean that in a good way. They all really seemed to want to learn and learn they did. After work I jumped on the E train and went down to Rockefeller Center to take pictures of the tree. Skating there was impossible due to the number of people who had the same idea I did. The tree was pretty, but I think the DC tree is better.
I headed down to the NHL store. They had the games on so hung around and watched them for a little bit before I headed out and continued on my walk about. I saw the Washington Capital’s reverse robe…..errr Snuggie. I am a huge Caps fan, but there is no way in God’s green earth I would ever buy that piece of crap. I walked by News Corp (Fox News) to see what they did for the holiday. News Corp’s display was actually one of the better Christmas displays I saw in NYC.
Down to Times Square I went where I went to the ESPN Zone to grab a bite to eat and continue to watch the games. Both New York teams lost to South East teams. That really pissed me off. Can’t New York do something for me? The waiter was like “What can get for you buddy…..Another Coke buddy…..Anything else buddy”. Whatever the hell that was. After that I jumped on the train and went home.
Tuesday was really uneventful. I mean I could have found something to do, but I was just tired so after work I just relaxed for a bit before heading to the World Financial Center for food and then went back and watched TV.
Wednesday I got a surprise. My sister was coming into town. I went out and grabbed some food after work and just chilled until around 10 when she arrived. I found out my nephew was coming in the following day. We didn’t do anything Wednesday. I probably only talked to her for about 30 minutes before finishing up the book I started reading Monday and then going to bed.
Thursday I got up and went to work. I met up with my sister around noon. We grabbed some lunch. She was insisting on paying for mine. I had to explain like 30 times I would pay for mine since it is covered by my work. She finally relented.
I took her to “Ground Zero”. It is right near my work so she saw the building I work out of in New York. I think she went on a shopping spree in the WTC preview site. I don’t know if she ever made it to the church or not, but I she should of.
After work my nephew’s friend who was supposed to arrive at 4, had a flight delay so we went to Chevy’s and waited for him. Once he got in we found out my nephew’s flight was also delayed and would not be getting in until midnight. Because of all this I went and saw “2012.”
“2012” was good big budget special effects movie, but it was not based on sound geophysics, astrophysics, or quantum mechanics. I mean they got basic quantum mechanics all wrong. I know about suspension of belief, but come on the whole neutrino thing was just stupid. “Neutrinos should have no mass but now they do and it is heating up the Earth’s core” thing is just stupid. For one thing, neutrinos do have mass. It might be very small, but they do have mass. The second thing is that no matter how many planets align it will never cause anything to all of a sudden to have more mass. A five year old could tell you that.
I got out of the movies and met up with my nephew’s friend. My sister went to sleep. We went down to Times Square and just looked around for a bit and headed back to where we were going to meet my nephew. I was kind of tired so I went back to my room and went to bed. I only saw my nephew briefly the next day when I was walking to get in the car that came to take me to the airport.
The next morning I got up to reports of a massive snow storm, and DC was in the storm’s sights. At first it was six inches, then twelve, then two feet, and finally a blizzard. My sister was trying to get to stay in the city for the weekend, but I knew I had to get the hell out of there. I worked half a day and then headed to JFK. The traffic was horrible. It was a combination of the holiday and people trying to get other places on the east coast before the storm hit.
When I got to JFK I went to check in. A cool thing about JFK is that you can change your seats. I looked for one without anyone else in the row. I can’t wait until they enable the “looks rating” on the seat chart so I can get a seat next to a “ten.” Until then I will look for the row with no one else in it. I boarded the plane. I was terrified once again. Lucky for me this flight was a smoother flight. Discovery had a cool show about medieval warfare. I saw something that I thought was a predator UAV in the air. It most likely wasn’t a Predator or an UVA at all, but from playing so much “Modern Warfare 2” I almost yelled “Enemy UAV spotted!” That probably would have got me arrested.
My mom picked me up from the airport and I went home. It felt good being back in NoVA. My sister decided to come home and tried to take the next flight after mine, but all flights to Dulles from JFK were canceled. I took a little nap and when I woke up we had about six inches of snow and there was no end to it.
Once I again I concurred my fears and flew, met a great group of people, caught up with some of my New York friends, hung out with family, saw some amazing sights, had my expenses paid for, and got paid for doing it.