Adventures in New York City

I just got back from a fabulous weekend in New York with Molly, during which we had several adventures which I am going to share with all of you.

The trip started with a little touristing. We were walking around Rockefeller Plaza, looking at the Christmas tree, walking by the Today Show studio, and suddenly this official looking guy (who was quite yummy upon closer look) stops us and says something about filming. We asked what they were filming and he said oh, theyre setting up for tomorrow's Today Show, but were filming down here tonight, a special program. Then he handed us each a hat and said that we could get it for free if we would come tonight and skate in the skating rink at the Plaza nude (well, in a g string) with a bunch of bisexual elves. (Some of the details are a little sketchy, he was really hot) Molly and I just kind of looked at each other, and then she asked him if they provided medical coverage for frostbite. He asked her if she thought she was gonna fall on her ass, and she said no, for her (me- like I dont know how to ice skate... I took lessons... for like 4 weeks...) and we both just kind of laughed. Then yummy boy turned to one of his cohorts and said that we werent taking him seriously. Then he said something about wed get a free thong that matched our hat, all we had to do was make a committment to be there and give a DNA sample. He asked if we wanted our thongs now or if he wanted us to ship them. I said do you have them now? and he said nope, were out. Right about that time I noticed the Meals on Wheels name tag hanging around his neck... turns out that our cutie was actually looking for donations for Meals on Wheels and the hats were what they were giving away for them. It was quite a story though.

Later that night, as we were attempting to get to Molly's sister Katie's house on the Upper West side, we accidentally got on an express train to the Bronx. It made one stop before the Bronx, at 125th St. For those of you that dont know, that is Harlem. Very Southern Harlem, but Harlem none the less. Which would have been OK, except that we had to get out of the station and walk three or four blocks to the subway that we needed. I didnt realize where we were until I saw a bus that said Harlem, and then we started passing Ulysses S Grant houses. Projects. The two little white girls walked mighty fast down that street...

All but the first night we stayed at my cousin Ashley's apartment on the Upper East Side. Ashley is 5 years younger than me, and she and all 3 of her roommates are sophomores at Marymount Manhattan University. She lives with a friend of hers from grade school named Ruthanna, another girl she met in the dorms named Kaitlyn, and another guy from the dorms named Ryan. Ryan is a sweetheart, and as queer as a 2 dollar bill and proud of it. This weekend his mother and grandmother were also in town, and Ryan's boyfriend Chris stayed every night as well. So there were, count it, 9 people in this fairly small, 2-converted-into-3 bedroom apartment on the 32nd floor of this building. And it was a blast. Every night we were there, we stayed up late talking and laughing. For such a random collection of people, we had a GREAT time.

Combining all of this with seeing Katie sing in Carnegie Hall (and getting to sing along at the end- I SANG IN CARNEGIE HALL!!! (the fact that it was a sing along with the Pops and the whole audience is irrelevant), going to see Rent on Broadway (Frenchie Davis didnt perform that show though- bummer- although Drew Lachey did a really good job and Jeremy Kushnier is HOT), the great Indian food we ate last night, bagels with lox, New York Pizza, and everything else, it was an awesome weekend. One of the best Ive had in ages. Of course, that could all change in 2 weeks when we take the New Year's excursion to Austin for New Years....