A day in New York

[carbonel]

So I'm going to Kenya tomorrow. But the plane leaves from New York, and I was in Minneapolis. Instead of taking a red-eye from Minneapolis and worrying about making the connecting flight, I took a morning flight to NYC today, which gave me most of a day in New York to spend with txanne. I was supposed to meet her at noon.

Things started well, then hit a snag. My plane got in on time (a bit early, actually), but I had planned to carry on my luggage. Instead, I got socked with a $25 charge because my bag didn't fit into the sample box. I noticed that the enforcement of this was exceedingly random, but I got stuck. And I'll get stuck at the other end, because it's a $5 savings if you do it in advance. So anyway, I had to wait for my luggage, which took a while. Then it turned out that the airport hotel where I wanted to dump my bags wasn't just a shuttle ride away -- it was an AirTrain ride and a 20-minute wait away. They did let me into my room early, which was nice. So then I had to take the shuttle back, and it was longer in that direction because they had to go all around the airport.

So then I took the train, but it was already late enough that I told txanne that I'd be about 45 minutes late (text messaging is such a useful thing). I had to transfer trains, and it turns out you can't get from the E train to the C uptown train at 50th St. So I had to wait for another train going in the same direction I had, travel down one stop, get off and cross over, and then take the C uptown train. Eventually we did hook up (in front of the Museum of Natural History) but I was about 70 minutes late.

By then, we were both ready for lunch, so I checked Urbanspoon and it recommended Raku, a sushi place not too far away. We had a nice lunch, and spent another hour or so chatting and looking at pictures of Random, my former Siamese-appearing mutt cat who's didn't get along with his littermate Morwen and is now living with txanne. We wandered around (and I may be missing a stop here) and then had an afternoon snack (mochaccino for me, hot chocolate for txanne, and a shared flourless chocolate mousse cake). And there was more chatting. We were going to take a taxi to the NY Public Library to visit Patience and Fortitude, but the only cab that stopped didn't like that destination and wouldn't take us. Too short, maybe. So we walked the mile-and-a-half instead. We took pictures of each other at the lions, then wandered around the library for a while. There was an exhibit about Percy Bysse Shelley (Shelley's Ghosts) and his family and connections, with many interesting artifacts and trivia.

Then we went to Lenscrafters, since the Sunglass Hut I'd stopped at earlier recommended them for clip-on sunglasses. Alas, they had none. I'll have to rely on my hat for sun protection on the trip. Thence to Lush, where txanne bought many interesting things, and I sniffed but didn't buy. Then we took a bicycle cab from there to Penn Station. And there we split up -- and for once everything dovetailed perfectly and I got back to the hotel in the minimum amount of time (minimum for public transportation, anyway).

Shortly thereafter, marykaykare, whose plane had been delayed, showed up in the room, so I could stop worrying about possible scenarios if we didn't hook up that night. There was some excitement with a pop machine that refused to disgorge its Diet Coke that had been paid for, but that was eventually resolved.

And now to bed. Tomorrow the plane leaves at 11:20, and they want us at the airport three hours before.