Friday 1 Pm:
I arrived at the good ol’ Portland “International” (flights to Canada) airport to check in for my 2:20 flight to NYC. Meanwhile the sky was shitting snow. After learning my flight was delayed until 4, I headed to the one store in the airport and bought the book Three Cups of Tea, one that’s been on my reading list for a while. For those of you who haven’t read it I recommend—a truly inspiring story, plus you’ll get mad props from crunchy folks. They love it.
I boarded at 4, and then sat on the tarmac till 5, until the plane got “deiced”. Basically, a yellow truck with a turret mounted gun that shot pink liquid sprayed down the plane. Not sure how green the pink goo was, but it got me on my way to sustainable pastures. By 6, we were in the air.
Prior to the trip, I had bought a roundtrip bus ticket to Manhattan from JFK (the airport). 27 bucks, a good deal. When I got to the baggage claim, I went to the information booth to ask where I might find the bus, and mysteriously told to dial “18” on the courtesy phone. I told the woman on my phone my name, and 30 minutes later a guy showed up, put me in a van that didn’t seem to be affiliated with the bus service whatsoever, along with some French people, and before I knew it, I was at grand central station, then on the subway, then walking, then at Tyler’s house. After a nice family pesto dinner with Tyler’s rents a tour of the Dean-Krantz household, and a coconut Popsicle, a few of Tyler’s urban companions came over. We chilled, played some ping* pong, listened to some tunes, and watched the Knicks lose.
Sleep.
As good as Lisa’s may be, Kathy Deane’s breakfast sandwich is paramount. You simply can't beat crunchy bacon and a cheddar cheese coated egg delicately placed between two crispy English muffins. After this midmorning feast Tyler took my around the citaayyyyy a bit. We cruised through some BO$$Y stores, had coffee, people watched, and participated in many other urbanite activities. We wait 20 minutes at some corner to meet Andreas for lunch. Tyler and I were pretty sure he had been abducted, for his one text in the 20 minutes was "coming". Shortly after we realized Andy was still alive, uber-artsy Anna showed up and asked us to follow, assuring us that we were headed to get “the best falafel in the city”.
At 2.50 a pop, I’d say it was some fucking good falafel, probably the best I’ve ever had. From there we headed to what Anna claimed to be “the best bubble tea in the city”, which was also pretty tasty. Then she took us to some artsy thrift store, complete with a managerie of leather boots and loafers, cozy flannels, and of course an eclectic collection of t-shirts. A pretty sweet place. All in all, it was great to see Andreas and Anna.
Back at Tyler’s house, we had an amazing idea.
Tyler and I hopped in his car and headed out to New Jersey to pick up Lee. After a long and arduous journey of honking, traffic, and near accidents (filled of course with beautiful backdrops of New Jersey), we finally arrived. We took a spontaneous dinner stop at Jersey’s finest dinning stop, Five Guys (good fuckin burgers), and headed back to the city. from there Tyler went to a school basketball game and Lee and I sauntered off to a choral concert at which Eloise, Corey, Rachel, Lily and Lydia where. Lee and I walked in just as it was ending. Afterwards we all headed to buy supplies for G.O.R.P. and then out to meet Andy for sushi. The meal was one of weird tasting coke, laughs, and lots of tea. After this Japanese reunion we went to Eloise’s apartment, were we (well almost we, lee was asleep the whole time) talked, called various wonkers, and reminisced into the wee hours of the morn. Eventually, Tyler (he rejoined us after his game), Andreas, and Rachel left and we drifted off into sweet slumber. In the morning, after a somber breakfast of pop tarts, we all parted ways, and Eloise took Lee and I to grand central station where I caught my bus.
When I returned to Maine, it was snowing again.
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