The Trials and Tribulations of the not-so-New Bear Icon

It's so hard to come back to the humdrum land of work when you've been gone on a good long vacation. I'm definitely feeling the pull of the blues here, wishing I could be back in New York.

I love sending picture posts, but they only tell part of the story. I have many, many more pictures and if I can get motivated, I'll send them up to Flickr, but at the moment they are in the same limbo as befell my pictures from Boston two years ago, and from the cruise I took last year. I'm not sure why it's hard to come back to those, but procrastination is my middle name...I think.

Walking around New York is like feeling you are on a movie set. There's so many things that you've seen, but there they are right in front of you. 30 Rock, The Flatiron Building, The Empire State Building, Times Square, even the Unisphere way out in Flushing Meadows Park. All have that familiarity, and many seem much, much bigger in real life.

From where I left off the other day, Laura and I had breakfast with Ryan (bobo_dreams) and followed him into the Toys R Us in Times Square for some hilarity. Then we went in and sat for a while in the studio for the Frank DeCaro show on Sirius Out Q. Frank was nice enough to give us a tour of the now Sirius-XM studios and gave us some restaurant recommendations for the rest of our stay. We instantly went out to the first one he mentioned, having lunch in Madison Square Park at the Shake Shack. Man those cheese fries were good!

Leaving the Shake Shack we went downtown so Laura could see Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty. I saw it the other night when I rode the Staten Island Ferry. While looking around Wall Street near the charging bull statue we spotted Chris Noth who was working on a Law and Order episode. We then went to the Brooklyn Bridge. After a twenty minute walk, we were in Brooklyn. We didn't get to stay long as we needed to go to Union Square to meet Kurt (bigboychb) who was working at Virgin. We finished the evening at the observation deck at Top of the Rock.

By this time I had blisters on my feet, and almost didn't go out, but it was bear bar night so i felt I had to deal with it and head out to Christopher Street. It certainly wasn't what I expected, with a lot of kids hanging out. by the time I got to the Dugout it was already midnight and the crowd was already heading out the door. There I didn't meet many of the locals, buts saw Bob from Michigan (not on LJ), and met Ed and John (cubbies76 and johnboi76) from Chicago. It was good to meet them and have someone to talk to there. After a bit we decided to leave the bar and go on up to Ty's which seemed to be hopping. Of course Ty's is a tiny place, so even a small crowd would make it seem crowded. There I ran into theoctothorpe (who has a dreamy accent) and joebehrsandiego. before Ed and John had to head back to Long Island we stopped by for some late night New York style pizza with some surly waitstaff.

Saturday found Laura and I first setting out for breakfast at Billy's Bakery in Chelsea, then off to see naylandblake's installation "Guys We Want to Fuck" at a very small warehouse gallery. Then it was off to Central Park for walking, walking and more walking. I was definitely having to tell Laura to slow it down as my feet were in bad shape after having to walk so much in the city (really, I've built up a lot of stamina in the last couple of years, but it's more stamina as far as time, not wear and tear. I'm used to gym conditions, not the real street). Sure, there's plenty of public transportation but you still end up walking a lot, and there's many, many sets of stairs in the subway. The whole trip was a workout. We walked a circuitous path from Columbus Circle to the Guggenheim Museum. Sadly the museum was filled with tourists and was under renovation. Lincoln Center was also under renovations, also a disappointment. Still, we ducked into a McDonald's (another place with bad service, how do New Yorkers put up with it?) and saw Michael Emmeron, aka Ben on Lost, getting cash from an ATM. I told him I liked his work which he thanked me in that strange voice he has.

Exhausted, Laura and I went back to the hotel (the Muse near Times Square, highly recommended) and cleaned up before meeting the Jersey Boys, Tom (evilcreamsicle), John (txredneck) and Ed (njbearcub1) for dinner at a sort of cajun place on Restaurant Row. Sadly, Laura and I did not know about Restaurant Row until this, the last night. We had a great meal and spent a long time at the restaurant just talking and hanging out before sending the Jersey Boys back through the tunnel. It was a good night and I was glad they were able to join us, if just for a few hours.

Sadly, we never saw the Cash Cab.

We looked a little more at Times Square on Sunday morning when there weren't so many people running around before heading back to Penn Station and to the train back to Baltimore. It was nice that the Square was calmer than it had been for the last few days with tons of tourists standing around gawking. Sure, it's quite a sight, but when you realize that it's all just advertisements and encouragements to buy, buy, buy, you figure out there's a lot better sights to see in New York than this.

Frankly, I was impressed. There's a lot packed in the city, and even more that we didn't get to. It will definitely be worth a second look, to go back and see some of the smaller things, and like our walk through Chelsea, see more of the real New York, not just the big postcard items. With the two new stadiums coming on line, there will certainly be an excuse to come back again. Hell, I never even found the Apple Cube!

Hopefully by then my feet will have fully healed from all the walking.