Tuesday, January 22, 2008
New York, New York
I spent this past weekend in New York, one of my favorite cities anywhere. For fun -- and to save money -- I took one of the Chinatown buses, going from DC Chinatown to NYC Chinatown. Kinda like my bus trip 2 weeks ago, it was...interesting. After we'd made a stop in another city I didn't expect, and as I listened to the stupid college girl sitting in front of me talk about nothing for a few hours and to the driver screaming into his cell phone (in Chinese, of course) I just kept telling myself "this is a lot cheaper than the train, this is a lot cheaper than the train..." In any case, it left me with extra money to buy gifts if I wanted to.
I went up to see my friend Scott (aka Scooter, who is going to be upset with me about one of the photos on his page, and I'll change it, I swear!), a Filipino-Chinese friend from Canada who now lives in New York...could you follow all of that? I met Scott online 8 years ago through his blog and we've been good friends ever since, but the last time I saw Scott was here in DC last May just before I went to Afghanistan. He and I had a lot of catching up to do, and we haven't had any one-on-one time with just the two of us in almost 6 years, so I was glad we were able to talk. We went dancing Friday night after I got in, heading out to The Web (of course I'm going to go there!) and it was Scooter's first time. We got there around 1 and ran into Paul and Son, two of my friends from here who were also spending the weekend in New York. Scott and I danced a lot and drank a bit and stuffed a few dollar bills into go-go boys' pants (well, OK, I did that) and basically stayed until after 4am when they looked ready to close down. I had a cute Japanese guy flirt with me but he was VERY drunk, and I was afraid he might throw up on me.
Saturday I got up after 5 hours of sleep and took the train to Scott's neighborhood in Jersey City, about a 15-minute train ride across the river. He has a great apartment with a deck and a view of the city. We had a long brunch at a nearby French place that is BYOB...you bring your bottle and they will mix your drinks, so we got a bottle of champagne and ordered orange juice and had mimosas. A LOT of mimosas. After wards we hung out at his place for a couple hours, waiting for the champagne to wear off, then headed back into the city. We hot some shops in SoHo and yes, I got clothes at Uniqlo (new pants that make my ass look good and were on sale...VELVET pants!) and Scott got a nice sweater. We also visited CB2, a spinoff of Crate and Barrel, and fantasized about home furnishings. We went out for sushi later and ate way too much! We had been out really late Friday night, so Saturday night I was tired, and I think Scott was dragging a bit, though he seemed more alive than I. We decided to call it an early night, and I was back to my hotel by 11:30. I laid down to take a nap for an hour and then think about going out dancing, but when the alarm went off an hour later all I did was reset it and go back to sleep!
I got up Sunday, with about 8 hours sleep so feeling much better, and did some walking around town, but it was COLD, it was below freezing, and the wind was blowing...brrrr. I visited a leather store in the Village (and I don't mean leather jackets!) and I went to a store called Pearl River Market that is full of Chinese stuff. Scott met me at his favorite dim sum restaurant (yay for Dim Sum GoGo...but there were no go-go boys) and we had a very nice meal, then we had about 3 hours left before my bus home which was not enough time to do much, and we didn't want to walk around outside, so we just found a café and had coffee and talked...we talked SO MUCH this weekend, and it felt really good. Anyway, i caught my bus home, and despite the driver taking a smoke break while fueling the bus (!) we got home OK, in only about 5 hours (for what is normally a 4-hour trip).
Whenever I go there I think about my friend Eddie's (in Malaysia) parents. They've have been living in the US for 12 years, in NYC Chinatown. I often go to Chinatown, like when we went for dim sum, and I always wonder...am I sitting at a table next to them? I mean, it could happen, and I wouldn't even know it. I always feel like maybe I should check on them for him, but I don't know what I would say. "Hi, Mister and Missus Chen, your son is really cute," yeah, THAT would go over well. But it would be fun to tell them about what an amazing guy he is, how he is so smart and so nice, how he has grown into a wonderful young man they can be very proud of. Maybe I should just walk around Chinatown showing people his picture and say "are you his parents?"
So, it was a good weekend. I'm not sure I want to live there...I'd have to be making a lot more than I am now to have a fun life like I'd like to have...I can do more as an occasional visitor than I can as a permanent resident, I think. But regardless of how much time I spend there, I'll always enjoy it.
I went up to see my friend Scott (aka Scooter, who is going to be upset with me about one of the photos on his page, and I'll change it, I swear!), a Filipino-Chinese friend from Canada who now lives in New York...could you follow all of that? I met Scott online 8 years ago through his blog and we've been good friends ever since, but the last time I saw Scott was here in DC last May just before I went to Afghanistan. He and I had a lot of catching up to do, and we haven't had any one-on-one time with just the two of us in almost 6 years, so I was glad we were able to talk. We went dancing Friday night after I got in, heading out to The Web (of course I'm going to go there!) and it was Scooter's first time. We got there around 1 and ran into Paul and Son, two of my friends from here who were also spending the weekend in New York. Scott and I danced a lot and drank a bit and stuffed a few dollar bills into go-go boys' pants (well, OK, I did that) and basically stayed until after 4am when they looked ready to close down. I had a cute Japanese guy flirt with me but he was VERY drunk, and I was afraid he might throw up on me.
Saturday I got up after 5 hours of sleep and took the train to Scott's neighborhood in Jersey City, about a 15-minute train ride across the river. He has a great apartment with a deck and a view of the city. We had a long brunch at a nearby French place that is BYOB...you bring your bottle and they will mix your drinks, so we got a bottle of champagne and ordered orange juice and had mimosas. A LOT of mimosas. After wards we hung out at his place for a couple hours, waiting for the champagne to wear off, then headed back into the city. We hot some shops in SoHo and yes, I got clothes at Uniqlo (new pants that make my ass look good and were on sale...VELVET pants!) and Scott got a nice sweater. We also visited CB2, a spinoff of Crate and Barrel, and fantasized about home furnishings. We went out for sushi later and ate way too much! We had been out really late Friday night, so Saturday night I was tired, and I think Scott was dragging a bit, though he seemed more alive than I. We decided to call it an early night, and I was back to my hotel by 11:30. I laid down to take a nap for an hour and then think about going out dancing, but when the alarm went off an hour later all I did was reset it and go back to sleep!
I got up Sunday, with about 8 hours sleep so feeling much better, and did some walking around town, but it was COLD, it was below freezing, and the wind was blowing...brrrr. I visited a leather store in the Village (and I don't mean leather jackets!) and I went to a store called Pearl River Market that is full of Chinese stuff. Scott met me at his favorite dim sum restaurant (yay for Dim Sum GoGo...but there were no go-go boys) and we had a very nice meal, then we had about 3 hours left before my bus home which was not enough time to do much, and we didn't want to walk around outside, so we just found a café and had coffee and talked...we talked SO MUCH this weekend, and it felt really good. Anyway, i caught my bus home, and despite the driver taking a smoke break while fueling the bus (!) we got home OK, in only about 5 hours (for what is normally a 4-hour trip).
Whenever I go there I think about my friend Eddie's (in Malaysia) parents. They've have been living in the US for 12 years, in NYC Chinatown. I often go to Chinatown, like when we went for dim sum, and I always wonder...am I sitting at a table next to them? I mean, it could happen, and I wouldn't even know it. I always feel like maybe I should check on them for him, but I don't know what I would say. "Hi, Mister and Missus Chen, your son is really cute," yeah, THAT would go over well. But it would be fun to tell them about what an amazing guy he is, how he is so smart and so nice, how he has grown into a wonderful young man they can be very proud of. Maybe I should just walk around Chinatown showing people his picture and say "are you his parents?"
So, it was a good weekend. I'm not sure I want to live there...I'd have to be making a lot more than I am now to have a fun life like I'd like to have...I can do more as an occasional visitor than I can as a permanent resident, I think. But regardless of how much time I spend there, I'll always enjoy it.
