Screw Public Transportation

There are many good things about public transportation. One of them is cost. Another in NYC is availabilty and proximity to just about anything. One thing that Public transportation in NYC is not is RELIABLE.

So I was going home for my ORE training and I decided that I would fly Southwest (mistake #1). Turns out that Southwest only flies out of ISLip which is in Long Island, and the only reasonable way to get there is by train. Not subway train but train train, like on an actual track... outside. So to get to the Airport it takes an hour and a half. Yuck!

Coming home this past time, I was on the train,and it kept saying there is no service between "This station" and "This station". I didn't recognize the names, so I just ignored the warning. this couldn't possibly effect me! Well, my friend, turns out it very much did effect me. All of a sudden the doors opened and they said everyone out. I got out, and they said there had been an accident,and there was an ongoing police investigation. They didn't know when the train would run again. They were sending buses. Buses! Great! Send them, get us out of here. So I sat there waiting with 300 of my closest mass transit friends until two school buses pulled up to take us to the next station... Wait. Two buses. For 300+ people. Ya. This is not going to work... So then the cabs started coming. I found a buddy, and she asked if I wanted to split a cab. Then another guy asked if he could come with us. He was a like "business guy" with the blackberry, cell, laptop, beeper combination. I mean this guy was wired. So we got into our cab, and we all decided to go to the Jamaica station, since that was closest. First he said the cab was going to be 80... each. We complained. Cab driver got on the horn with his dispatcher, and Let's Make a Deal ensued. Then he backed it down to 80 for "business guy", and 80 for the other two, since we said we were together. Cab driver got on the horn again and started arguing on speaker phone with the dispatcher, who was clearly watching Sunday football. "Business guy" said "Let us out here, we're getting another cab". Umm we were definately in the middle of the expressway. I was praying cab driver would wise up and do what he wanted. I was NOT hailing a cab on the expressway. They finally decided on $100 for all three. MAN this guy is good! from $240 to $100. Amazing! O I forgot the best part. Talking to the lady, it turns out she was from Columbus and did her Masters at Ohio State. A Buckeye! In my cab! Amazing again!

So we go to get out of the cab, and we are about to pay. After all of our bonding and bargaining and ganging up on dumb-dumb driver, "business guy" says, "Hey just give me $10 each because I was going to have to pay the $80 anyway. My company will expense it." Are you kidding me! What a stroke of luck! Take that dumb-dumb cab driver! Tell your dispatcher, "Let's Make a Deal" guy, to shove it! So it all turned out all right... AND I met a Buckeye!

Central Park

Some things in New York are not as they seem in the movies. Actually a lot is not how it seems. For one, the first week I was here, I was positive that if I went outside after dark, I was going to be mugged. Now, I did have to go out a few times after dark to take out the trash, get my laundry and walk across the street to the grocery store. I did not get mugged. I was also sure, at this time, that if I used the subway, I would be mugged. No seriously... You walk down the subway stairs, swipe your metro card and someone will be waiting to hold you up and take all your money. turns out this isn't true either. There was however the unfortunate time that first week here where I sought out the nearest Target store, in BROOKLYN by the way, and I had to take the SUBWAY at NIGHT. Ya, as far as I was concerned, I might as well have handed my purse to the nearest and scariest person and just walked away. My friends in Ohio were also concerned with my safety. I remember telling a girl at work that I was moving to New York, and she was like, "O my god, you're going to get shot." Well so far, I have not been shot, and no one has tried to beat me up or anything. Believe it or not, there are not "hoodlums" walking around Midtown with brass knuckles beating up old women, at least as far as I can see. Okay, so I was wrong. I may overreacted a tad. So things in NYC are not as scary as they look on the movies.


One place, however, is exactly how it seems in the movies. Yesterday I went rollerblading in Central Park. Which by the way is about 6 mi. Yeah me! I saw everything from ponds with boats and fountains to statues of all kinds of people. My favorite was the Alice in Wonderland statue. Central Park, to a Midwesterner, is magical. As I skated around, dodging bike carriages and small children, I was in awe of how such a beautiful, lush, green oasis can exist in the concrete jungle that is Manhattan. The ponds and fountains are brimming with beauty, and you can't help but get the feeling that you are in a movie. In fact, if you go far enough inside Central Park, you can't even hear the horn honking, pedestrian dodging madness of Manhattan traffic. I have to admit I did get lost, but because it was the middle of the afternoon, it seemed more like an adventure than cause for concern. There is an underlying worry in Central Park though. Because in the movies, Central Park at night seems very scary. Like in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sorry for the strange reference, a fight scene occurs there where one of the green heroes is gravely injured. Similar scenes can be found in a handful of Hollywood productions including Men in Black and just about every other NYPD Blue and Law and Order. I'm not saying for sure if it is truly as scary at night as they make it seem, but don't worry Dad, I'm not going to find out. Officially though, Central Park is my favorite. It kind of reminds me of home. Not that Ohio is magical by any means, but it's green. In Central Park, I get the same familiar safe feeling of happiness. I love exploring, and in Central Park, there are plenty of places to help quench my curiosity.

My first blog

So I was thinking about why I have never journaled before this, and I can only think of one reason... I haven't had anything to write about. growing up in Columbus, Ohio is just as it sounds... boring. Okay well maybe not just as it sounds, because whenever I tell people that's where I'm from, they immediately think two things. 1) my father is a farmer, and 2) I have a cow/chicken/horse etc. Neither of these are true. My mother is a cop and my dad is a car salesman. Which is fine. I couldn't ask for better.



So obviously NYC is a little different than Ohio. For one, there are a gazillion more people here. If they could stack people up to fit them through the sidewalks, I think they would. I could walk around my block 10 times and never see the same person twice. It's like no one ever stops moving here, and no one takes the same path twice. I would definitely not call it laid back...



I remember the first day I went to Bed Bath and Beyond with my roommate. Reeeediculous. It was like they took a BB and B from Ohio and put it on it's side. Everything was stacked to the ceiling. A whole wall was dedicated to toiletries, but I had no idea how I was going to reach the Dial soap 20 feet above me. My brain almost exploded from BB and B overload. The colors, music, 150 other patrons shopping in the same space... I needed a nap after that trip.



When my parents dropped me off we went to the grocery store across the street to pick up a couple things. It was like BB and B junior. While looking for a toothbrush, I forgot mine at the hotel, I was amazed to find them in the cereal aisle hanging over my head above the Frosted Flakes... Amazing. AND to top it all off, a box of those flakes cost over $6. Reeediculous.



We went to lunch at the place across the street from my house, it's called Turtle Bay. Such a good place at night by the way. They have these little mini burgers that my mom and I both agreed qualified as adorable... Anyway, we struck it up with the waitress, and she told about some places I needed to visit, and the book that saved my life. It's called Not For Tourists (NFT), and it's a little black book that tells you all about NYC, it's burrows, where to shop, eat, hang out, do laundry ( don't get me started). And most of all it tells you how to use the subway. Very helpful. It even has little map you can unfold out of the back showing all the trains in the subway and where/ when they go. My roommate, who is a local, was even jealous because it has this section of quirky facts about the city, and there were things in there that she didn't know.

My roomies and I at Turtle Bay... We are there all the time. Especially for $1 beers on Wednesday!