I [heart] NY

GREAT trip to New York.

I got up at 5:30am on Friday, and headed to the Charlottesville airport. After a quick dry airport bagel and some tart Dole OJ (no spinach in any of these!), I hopped on a 30-person propeller plane, headed for LaGuardia, departing at 7am. Even though it wasn't even time for breakfast, LaGuardia was already delayed (surprised?). Luckily, we only had to circle around for about 10-15 minutes before we were able to land. I later found out that by the end of the day, with LaGuardia's normal delays, plus the huge rainstorm, flights were backed up over 3 hours!

I got in to my hotel very early, before it was even check-out time, so someone was still in my room. Considering I had come in jeans and a ballcap, and I hadn't shaved, and my interview was at 2:30pm, it was time to start worrying. The lady at the counter said she'd put a rush on the room, and she expected it would be ready somewhere between noon and 1pm. Trying to put my self-inflicted delay out of my mind, I decided to take a walk around midtown. I had fun walking around Broadway and half of midtown Manhattan. What a fun place! I'd been to NY before, but never with enough time to just walk around. I stopped at a hopping breakfast place, filled with locals - always a good sign. One of the greatest bagels I've ever eaten! I love NY bagels! Worked on my moot court reading, took some notes, skimmed through the NY Post on the table, and enjoyed being indoors while it was raining outside.

I made my way back to the hotel, where I attempted to dry off again, taking advantage of the free wireless internet in the hotel lobby. I caught up on some emails, checked in with my lovely wife, and felt proud of myself for working on schoolwork while I was on a trip (never happens). After trying to ignore the ticking of the clock, I decided to go grab some lunch.

Luckily, by now it had stopped raining - for the moment. I walked past several franchises whose names I knew, but thought it would be better to find the local greasy spoon where all the locals go. I was walking aimlessley, watching the people on the street, enjoying the fact that every four conversations I overheard was in a language I didn't even recognize. I suddenly found myself behind a group of gruff men, all with thick accents in loud voices, wide collars and dark suits, hair in desperate need of a barber. They all walked into the same place - a loud place with a thousand people bees buzzing around in their lunch hive. This place literally served everything - burgers, fries, Chinese, sushi, steak, Turkish food, cold cuts, hot sandwiches, nuts, gummi bears, beer, soda, you name it. I settled on a slice of New York pizza. Chicken. Buffalo chicken pizza, incredible sauce, crispy crust - oh my goodness! If Rosa had been there to enjoy it with me, it would've been heaven.

Back to the hotel - room was ready! Yess!! Ironed my clothes, showered, shaved, and reviewed my pre-interview paperwork. I walked the 2 blocks over to the firm's office. Wonderful interview! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found a nice collection of people who seem to be genuinely friendly, and seem to honestly enjoy their work. Great time.

After that ended, I had my mind set on either heading to Central Park, or catching a Broadway show, or taking the subway down to Ground Zero, or something really tourist-y. Unfortunately, the rain was coming down like I've never seen. Pouring! (in Spanish, by the way, they don't say raining "like cats and dogs," but rather raining "like swords and needles.") I decided to just chill in my hotel room. I ordered some delicious room service, and enjoyed a lovely New York hotel room that someone else was paying for. Fantastic.

The rain did end up stopping, though too late to really do anything. I threw my shoes back on, and just went for a walk around midtown again. So awesome. I made my way down to Times Square, grabbed some hot chocolate from Starbucks, and bought one of those who-knows-what-meat-this-is in a pita quick bites from a cart on the side of the street. Somewhere in the middle of thing, I wondered who I would sue if I got food poisoning. Luckily, it was only a passing concern, and didn't... come back up. So to speak. A great night, fell asleep early, in my manhattan paradise.

The next morning, I was up at 5:30am again. Made it to LaGuardia in plenty of time to find out that my flight had been canceled! They found me a seat on a plane to Charlotte, NC. In Charlotte, my flight to Charlottesville got delayed. Then it got delayed again. Ten minutes before take-off, they announced we'd be going out of a different gate in a different area of the airport. Yikes! We all made it, and I made it back to Charlottesville safe and sound.

A wonderful weekend in New York, drinking in Manhattan, listening to foreign accents and foreign languages, hanging out in a schwanky New York hotel room, enjoying visits with some great attorneys, ideal bagels, killer pizza, room service, lamb? in a pita, crazy taxicab drivers... it was just ideal.

The only thing that would have made it better would be if I could have shared it with Rosa. It occurred to me that if we live there, our apartment would be about the size of that hotel room. Hahahaha! Crazy place to live, but it's possible...