The Elongation of Brevity: 2009

This next blog is the toughest blog I've ever done. Putting the memories and feelings that I had into this day is an infeasible task, that I will try to take on anyways. The day started like any other, except even later in the day. Kaylee got back from class before we even left and luckily we all got to make a trek out together.

She's a nursing major so she's got a bunch of interesting stories and skills, such as taking blood pressure, which I learned that mine is quite too high.

It was yet another perfect day weather wise, but who knew it would turn out to be such a perfect day in general.

We had planned to head over to Harlem, for a site I really wanted to see Rucker Park. Kaylee had the great idea to stop by Sylvia's Soul Food which is rooted in the soul of Harlem. So we hopped on the subway, and off we went.

Though such a nice day, it was quite hot too. The walk from the subway station to Rucker was pretty long but very much worth it at least in my mind, and hopefully theirs. Harlem is a totally different atmosphere than the rest of Manhattan but at the same time it fits. Buildings don't rise as high and streets don't sing as loud in Harlem as they do in Manhattan, but the food is just as sweet.

That's the Bronx you're looking at, much more interesting to see in real life than to hear about from an Hispanic popstar.

A small tidbit that I noticed in New York is that people here hustle, really hustle.

This guy has probably been walking around Harlem for hours with a bundle of white crew socks in his arms, selling them to make some money.

It's just everyday business to him, but for me it's such a foreign sight, living in the sheltered bubble that is La Jolla, I don't see much of this. The most real place I have been in SD is the city, but even then, the NY hustle is just different. Selling socks on the street for a living must be tough, especially in a time like this. By now he must hate those socks, and getting rid of a pair must mean the world to him. One day we'll all get rid of our socks.

So like pilgrims, we made it to our Mecca. Rucker Park, the most famous basketball park in the world. The greatest players in history have played at these courts before, and I'm sure many will after. My world quickly became something like fantasy as images I've only seen on TV and basketball videogames were right before my eyes.

Oh by the way, Yankee Stadium is over there.

Not many people were out today, but I found a kid who let us borrow his basketball, on the condition that I would give him my shoes if I missed

(P.S. I don't miss)

(P.P.S. I missed 3 times before I made one).

This one shot was the catalyst for the whole day. After this shot, all the stars felt like they fell in line, and the first star was Sylvia's.

This is yet again one of those New York moments where you're heading somewhere already and you just happen to pass by something world famous. 3 Guesses what it is.

Not going to lie, the sign was a little sketch and I thought it was going to be a Rigoberto's type of experience, but I was surprisingly shocked. As we walked through the door I felt like I had just been invited to Sunday brunch at Sylvia's house.

Gospel singers and pictures of famous people eating here such as Clinton and Obama made me feel homey. The fresh cornbread that they brought out didn't hurt either. This is one day my blood pressure can take a backseat.

Naturally we all had to order ourselves some Chicken and Waffles, but seeing some table neighbors with the ribs made me a little jealous. This was the best food I've had in all of New York and the best Chicken and Waffles I've ever had period. The waffles were soft in the middle and crisp on the outside, while the chicken was juicier than the Colonel's.

These awards don't surprise me whatsoever.

Tupac would've been proud.

I'm happy Sylvia has her name up in lights, because if you serve food like that, you deserve it.

Back onto the subway, we spontaneously headed over to Times Square to do a little shopping. Sean still runs the city, but I didn't expect that we could be seeing bigger stars tonight.

I forgot that the VMA's were today, and though we were a bit early, everyone else was lining up trying to catch view of the red carpet and preshow.

Check this, if you look hard enough, you can see Sway! He's right next to the S in "AWARDS". Yeah, so really though we only saw him, he's seen many celebrities before and therefore we saw plenty. This wouldn't be our last celeb sighting.

Star-struck.

People dressed up

...the city's filled with them.

I accomplished one of my dreams today in New York, so it's only right that Kaylee and Jenny get to shop on 5th Avenue.

A white horse in NYC.

Back on the subway yet again for a trip to Magnolia's Bakery to mack on some cupcakes cousin!

Yet somehow we find our way to another relic, the West 4th Street Courts, more famously known as "The Cage".

Many battles have been won and lost here over the years, and I wasn't about to get into one. So much history goes into this court, that I don't have time to explain just to admire.

Many know Magnolia's through the SNL skit, Lazy Sunday. Really we sort of lived that skit out, seeing as how we 'woke up in the late afternoon' and ended up mackin' on some oh so delicious cupcakes. I got red velvet and chocolate cupcakes. The Bomb.

After such a long productive day, and sugar packed cupcakes, we took a R&R break and decided to watch some youtube videos and just catch up on some things.

Droll.

Kaylee is a busy nursing major, who hasn't done most of the touristy New York things there are to do, one being go to the top of the Empire State Building. Though tired, we convinced her she should come, and we are quite glad, because this bit of our trip probably wouldn't have been as great without her, for reasons you'll learn soon. I thought I had seen some pretty amazing lights in my life, and that the photos from Mt. Soledad were something fairly special. Boy was I wrong. The view from the Empire State Building at night is like floating in a sea of bright stars all moving and shining brighter than most you've ever seen.

We even got a chance to go to the 102nd floor observatory, where the sheer height is so amazing, even Connecticut comes into view. I can say the bright lights inspired me, I couldn't help but to feel like a kid experiencing totally new things again. The 360 degrees of beautiful, shimmering lights wherever you looked was a new experience to say the least. Being able to see the Statue of Liberty, Chrysler Building, and Brooklyn Bridge from atop the Empire State building cemented my love for Manhattan.

Now to the reason the Empire State trip was so memorable, the cabbie ride. Kaylee had the greatest idea after we left the top of the world, to take an action-packed bike ride through the streets we had admired from 102 stories in the air. Our biker was nothing short of hilarious and awesome, but nothing beat riding next to taxi cabs while biking through the streets of New York at 1 A.M. The real ride lasted about 6 minutes, as timed by our proud cabbie, but here is my 30 second rendition of what went down and what it felt like.

Without any further disruptions, here is the conclusion to the greatest day we had in New York .

Before I start this post, I'd like to take a moment out to Thank the people who read this drivel, and I really enjoy your comments and feedback, wink wink. Well let's get right to it, Saturday started off with a trip to the world famous American Museum of Natural History.

I think this was probably the coolest part of the entire museum, and it was in the front, before you had to pay. A Stegosaurus defending its young from raptors, how awesome.

There were a bunch of Theodore Roosevelt quotes and a statue in the museum so I'm guessing he was a patron of the museum.

T-Rex is a little wiennie compared to my new favorite dinosaur.

No, not the stegosaurus, my new favorite dinosaur would do work on a stegosaurus.

THE CHASMOSAURUS! What a badass. A triceratops times about a million.

Weak sauce. I though it was interesting seeing these real life fossils, which existed way before the dawn of man, still fully intact, and now on display for people to see.

Jenny was quite freaked out by the magnitude of these age old beasts. I don't blame you, that's a distant cousin to the Chasmosaurus.

That's the skull of a chasmosaurus, I am planning on purchasing it and mounting it on my wall when I get the money.

I don't know what to say on this blog, but hey mammoths are cool right?

Jenny was shocked again from a giant prehistoric turtle.

There were a bunch of showcases that were interesting, but I noticed I only enjoy the ones with conflict and possible death.

We then got to see some South American exhibits and such, prettty interesting for the most part.

Mayan calendar.

So we saw this animal kingdom chess set in the gift shop, and I was shocked. Guess what animals are the King and Queens of the jungle? One side has the orangutan and gorilla and the other side was the cheetah and the tiger. What the hell.... The lion is the king of the jungle dammit, who let this slide?

After the museum, we headed back to the apartment and ate a little dinner, a quick little dinner as we were running very late and we caught a cab to the broadway show Avenue Q! It was my first broadway show and I'm very glad because it was hilarious, it was the most I've laughed in a while. I thought the main actor was very talented. We actually had gotten the tickets on a discount through Kaylee and the NYU ticket box.

Even after a fairly large dinner, we decided the best thing to do would be to get dessert, and where else but the most extravagant chocolate place I've ever been to, Max Brenner's. I got something called the Euphoria sundae, and let me tell you, it was quite euphoric until you got too full to move. The dark environment and loud music wasn't very telling of the food, but I decided Max Brenner's is like an extravagant nightclub of chocolate.