So here's the thing folks, Jetblue is REALLY good at giving amazing deals that allow the poor college students of the world like yours truly to travel their respective impulsive asses off. $25 dollar one-way tickets from LAX-JFK, $20 dollar tickets and donation cups of coffee for the crew (no, seriously) to travel up and down the coast, and of course, the AYCJ pass. Seriously, in the fly-for-basically-nothing-like-the-Australians department, Jetblue basically wins. That being said, you know what they are not really fantastic at? Not losing their planes. Gonna be honest here, when it comes to keeping track of their Airbuses or Boeings, Jetblue kind of takes a large object and rams it repeatedly up their own asses as well as the asses of their patrons instead of watching the little blinking dots on their air traffic control systems.
9:30pm- Travis and I head downstairs to our terminal to check in. We are informed that the plane is delayed for unexplained reasons. We go back upstairs for a beer.
9:55pm- Scheduled departure of flight to Boston. Still upstairs with beer.
10:30pm- Plane: still not in SF, not even in CA. M and T: beer.
11:00pm- Announcement over intercom: "Flight update: Your flight to Boston has apparently stopped in San Jose for fuel, the flight to JFK is circling the airport trying to figure out how to land, the flight to Ft. Lauterdale has landed, we are just not sure where yet. That's all the info we have for now."
Midnight- "Flight for Boston is in the air from San Jose, should be here soon." Ft. Lauterdale is still no where to be found.
12:15am- FOUND FT. LAUTERDALE PLANE
12:30am- Met some friendly fellow AYCJ-ers in the terminal. Travel plans are discussed and group yoga poses are practiced.
1:00am- "So your flight to Boston has landed....in Oakland. It should be leaving for here in a few minutes."
1:45am- Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
1:50am- "FREE WATER BOTTLES!"
1:55am- Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
2:00am- BOSTON FLIGHT LANDED
2:45am- Take off
Roughly 14 hours (inc. time difference), 1 plane from Boston-JFK, 2 subway trains, one sausage biscuit, and about 1000 swear words later, we arrive safely in Harlem, NYC.
NEW YORK
I have a deep-rooted, dramatic, silly relationship with this city. It's like that old lover you can't seem to stay away from. It is dirty, and annoying, and untrustworthy, and unfaithful but you are still insanely attracted to it and it will always have that permanent place in your heart. I have always had a love/hate relationship to New York. I could ramble on and on like a sappy pre-teen Twilight fan about this but before you all start sending me airborne super viruses through Facebook (I'm imagining there is a way to do that nowadays...who uses mail anymore) before killing yourselves violently, I will stop with this: New York is a filthy, heaving beast of a city and I will forever be inexplicably in love with it. I am glad to be back after 3 long years away.
Instead of posting a long winded day to day play by play (heh, rhyme) because frankly, I am exhausted and I have to get on a train in 1 hour to catch a flight out of JFK, I am going to list some of the pretty epic places/people we have checked out so far that you should check out too if you are ever in this fine city.
T-Berry: the Greatest Storyteller in the World- If you find yourself in the West Village, you may stumble across a tall, slightly wild-eyed looking black man in a camel colored sports jacket with a sign asking you to please stop for T-Berry: the Greatest Storyteller in the World. Guys, STOP. Greatest in the world? Being still fairly un-traveled, I can't say, but I will vouch, possibly with my life (or at least a few years of it), that he is a damn good storyteller. If there is a smaller, raspy-voiced black man in silvery sunglasses, a black suit and a straw boater hat with him, stop for him too. He is a friend of T-Berry's, homeless, and a comedian who's most important beliefs are that I like black cock more than white and that the most important things in life are laughter and friendship, and if you can find the opportunity to spread and share laughter with your loved ones then you have it pretty fucking good. If that's not a good enough reason to give these guys a few minutes of your time, his jokes are funny too, and if you ask nicely, T-Berry might tell you about the time that Peter Revere fucked his way to death, shaking his ass the whole way the way he told us. Google T-Berry, he has info somewhere on the interweb that tells you where he will be o the streets.
The Comedy Cellar- Also in the West Village is the Comedy Cellar, an underground bar/restaurant/performance space that looks like a medieval dungeon and a Scottish pub made love and crapped out a comedy club. Cover is a bit expensive (10 bucks+2 item minimum per person) but every night at 9 and 11pm there is an hour and a half stand up comedy show filled to the brim with world renowned talent that are hilarious, especially after 2 mandatory drinks. Maybe that is the point of the 2 item minimum rule, who knows. Either way, it is entertaining as fuck and not only did I leave amused and intoxicated, but I left with my own show entitled Mika: Black in the Back, an auto-biographic tale about my 1/2 black name, my full black ass, and all told in broadway-style song.
comedycellar.com
Brooklyn Museum- Pretty straightforward. Impressive exhibits (Andy Warhol, MUMMIES, African Art etc) spread out over 5 floors of this picturesque looking building in downtown Brooklyn. If you feel like being classy and productive for a day, head on down. Only go to the bathroom before-hand, the ones there are insanely hard to find. Maybe the fact that I really needed to take a piss and was entirely lost in a room full of mummies and scriptures from the Book of the Dead had something to do with it, who knows.
www.brooklynmuseum.org
S'Mac: Remember in the movie Ratatouille, when the anorexic, grey food critic eats a bite of the Ratatouille and zooms into that flashback where he is super sad but his mother makes him that dish and he's suddenly full of nostalgic, fluffy bliss? This restaurant is basically that. It like the Mac n Cheese equivalent of the Burger Bar in Vegas, Slaw Dogs in Pasadena, Chipotle etc but 1000 times better because despite the fact that you are eating shit like brie and figs and other things you would have plugged your nose at in childhood, you still feel like a 10 year old again eating a favorite meal after a scraped knee or bad day at school. If you are anywhere near the Village, or anywhere near NYC, or anywhere near the East Coast, or a plane that could take you to the East Coast, go to S'Mac. Maybe watch Ratatouille before-hand.
www.smacnyc.com
Magnolia Bakery- Most amazing cupcakes ever. Like Sprinkles only without the giant line of celebrities and the really awkward walk through downtown Beverly Hills to get there. One of the few cupcake places I've been to where you not only want to eat the entirety of the giant mound of frosting on top, but you want to ask for an extra bowl of it to eat on the way home.
magnoliabakery.com
Parks- NYC is FILLED with parks. There are so many parks, I am on the verge of theorizing that they are spawning. That being said, take a day or two, walk around and explore some. NYC is great because the subway and your feet will ACTUALLY take you anywhere you need to go, unlike LA. We stopped by Union Square Park and saw a man with an extremely high voice do a jump-flip over 6-8 people standing in a row. If nothing else, that should get you up off your asses. Nature still exists, promise.
So that is Part 1 of this New Yorkian adventure. I am about to head off to the Californian desert for 24 hours but then I will be back for a second dose. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for JetBlue's air traffic controllers, $25 dollars in travel credit from the good airline folks is not quite enough for me to be OK with lost planes.
