Mahk describes the woman he picked up tonight
Where's your other hand?
Between two pillows, why?
Those
aren't pillows!
Mahk and Dave strike a pose
Each photo on this page is linked to a larger version of itself, but if you have tons of bandwidth you can look at them all inline on a single page.
Pete calls me at 11pm on Thursday night and asks "do you want to go to New York this weekend?"
Always up for a good road trip, I think about it for 2 seconds, and say "sure!"
My roommate (Scott) also went down for the weekend to visit his friends. I met him at the bus station after work, around 4:30. We arrived around 10pm and spent a couple hours trying to find his friends that we were supposed to be staying with, and eventually ended up at a party that another of his friends (Amit) was having (in an apartment with a great view somewhere way across Manhattan.)
Around 2 in the morning we met up with Sonny & Diego who we were staying with, and headed out to some kind of trendy bar/restaurant place that was mostly empty. I was quite thirsty by that point, and downed most of my Guinness in a few seconds before noting that it cost $7.50 and that the next one would also be $7.50. We hung out there until around 4am, then headed to Sonny & Diego's place to crash. (in a fantastic location at Broadway & W 55th (?))
Meanwhile, a few hundred kilometers away (400km according to MapBlast), Pete and the boys were tearing it up in the bustling metropolis known as Utica, New York, after driving there from Toronto.
(I wasn't there and I've heard the stories but have forgotten everything already; anyone want to fill in the blanks? All I remember is something about mashed potatoes and gravy.)
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Mahk describes the woman he picked up tonight |
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Where's your other hand? |
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Mahk and Dave strike a pose |
Here are a few photos of the aftermath:
Utica will never be the same.
Saturday around noon, Pete calls me at Sonny's place, having just arrived in NYC from Utica. In a stroke of pure genius, he had pulled off the road only 1 block from Sonny's; I walked there to meet them.
We checked into the only hotel with any vacancies (The Gorham, which was also the only place with any vacancy the first time I came here, 5 years earlier; this year they're up to $250/night + $25 for parking.)
We tried to go to the Harley Davidson cafe (??) for breakfast/lunch, but there was too much of a wait, so we went down the street to some classy restaurant with kind of an owl theme or something.
We ate lunch and washed it down with a couple pints while talking to our extremely cute Cuban-accented waitress.
She told Pete he looked familiar, so we convinced her he's a movie star, which she seemed to believe completely. (I thought maybe she was just being extra ditzy on purpose to try to make herself more attractive, but I'm pretty sure she really did buy it -- after all, Pete does do a pretty mean Dr. Evil.)
The girls were all extremely friendly, and we posed with them for a couple pictures:
Next we went to do a bit of sightseeing, aiming to catch the Ellis Island ferry (?) to see the Statue of Liberty.
Unfortunately we got there too late, and missed the last boat:
Aaah, nothing like a few beers after a hard day's sightseeing.
I was in a pretty miserable mood most of the afternoon, because I was wearing a dark long-sleeved shirt that was way too hot to be wearing on such a nice day. (Actually, I was still wearing the clothes I wore to work on Friday, because I had left my bags at Amit's the night before.) And my contacts were bugging me and my glasses were also at Amit's, and I needed a shower. Ugh. I finally bought an ugly $4 souvenir t-shirt that I've never worn again, but this made me temporarily a bit more comfortable.
We hung out drinking beer by the water (then what? I forget), then headed back to the hotel to shower/change. Pete and I went to Amit's to grab my bags, taking a somewhat expensive cab ride there and back.
After a nap (?) and a refreshing shower, I met the boys at the Harley Davidson cafe (?) for dinner and more beer around 11pm. I was feeling much better at this point, ready to tear up the city.
We went bar-hopping in Greenwich Village (?) for most of the night, looking in vain for a couple places that I remembered from the last few times I was here (Kenny's Castaways, and another place down the street with a huge beer selection.)
The boys brought a leftover 'L' with them from last night's sign-arranging festivities, and whenever someone did or said something that made them sound like a loser, the loser would have to hold the L. (as I recall, Dave held it most of the night but I could be mistaken.)
Outside on the street, this 'L' came in quite handy as the loser would hold it to his forehead shouting "LOSER, COMING THROUGH", effectively clearing the crowded sidewalks for the rest of us.
After walking back and forth for a long time looking for the good bars I remembered, at long last we found Kenny's Castaways and went inside. (if I remember correctly, this is the same place that Pete & Mike Best got us kicked out of a few years back after rubbing their heads together trying to stick each other to the walls like balloons. But that's another story.)
We sat at a table right in front of the stage and listened to the best guitar player I've ever heard in person in my life. I was stunned. It was truly amazing. (I don't remember it clearly now, but from what I remember he was playing various familiar bluesy things; anyone remember more?)
Eventually we ended up at the place with the huge beer selection, where we ordered and drank way too much beer because last call was imminent. I know I had a couple big half-liter German Hefeweizens, and maybe a couple of something else. We had a great time singing along at the top of our lungs to Sinatra on the jukebox. (especially, of course, New York, New York.)
Then, I think we cabbed it to Times Square looking for a place to happen, then cabbed it (?) somewhere else to find a diner that was open for breakfast. I ordered a delicious-looking waffles-with-strawberries-and-whipped-cream, but couldn't eat it, having consumed way too much beer in a short time. Around 7am I caught a cab back to the hotel and crashed.
Sunday was uneventful; we all left around noon after checking out and having a quick breakfast/coffee on the patio outside the hotel. The boys drove home and I caught a bus back to Boston.
All in all, a great trip!
Does anyone have photos that aren't on this page?
Last modified: $Date: 2000/02/24 11:36:50 $
Gerald Oskoboiny, <gerald@impressive.net>
