One Way Ticket: Part Six

A very short post today! I'm in Pittsburg, Kansas and about to head to church. Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely ladies in my life that are mommies. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. <3

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A list of things to do while in New York City and Brooklyn:
{Most of it was decipherable, but some of it... I don’t even remember what I or why I wrote it down. Lists like this have kept me sort of on a guided path. General ideas of where I want to go and do as I get to each place.}

Laundry – (L), to Bay Ridge Pwh, 2 streets
718-238-6060     (L), past Starbucks
Post Office – off of 4th Ave-68th St.
Katie Bell
The Rose is off of the (C) $18 by 1pm/6pm
The Guggenheim   - across central park $15
Chealsea Market – use stash cash R->D->E
Kinohumiya books
               1072 Ave of Americas    Bryant PK.
               From Guggenhiem -> 86th/Lexington. tax (8 downtown)

$20 The Guggianheim – (212)-423-3500  5th/E 88th
($) Post Office 7am-8pm 718-855-0912
$0 Statue of Liberty (212) 363-3200
$0 American Girl Place 5th/W 49th 877-247-5223 10am-7pm
$0 the Brooklyn Bridge (212) – 477-8150
$10 Central Park Zoo (5th Ave/E 63rd -> 65th) (212) 439-6583 10am-5pm 11:30am- sea lion feeding
$6 Transit Museum (718)- 694-1600 10am-4pm Schurmerker Boerm PL
$10 Brooklyn Botanical (718)623-7200 8am-6pm

See other
Grant Memorial Museum

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April 19th 10:48am.

            So this is a fun new development in my trip. I somehow have managed to lock myself out. I feel like an idiot, and who knows when the super will call me back. Robyn gave me her keys, and I have both hers and Elizabeth’s numbers, but both are going to voicemail right now. I just need to be walked through how to open this door! Ahhhh. Elizabeth is with family in Queens and Robyn is at work in Manhattan, so I don’t expect either to come all the way back to Brooklyn to let me in, I just need to figure this lock out! A lesson in assumption in my part, next time I need to make sure I ask how to open a door, and not believe I know how just because I watched it happen more than once.

            Did laundry at a laundry mat, cost close to $4. Not bad, I’d say for clean, dry, clothes. And I’m inside with my money and clean clothes and jacket... so it’s not like I’m without or in danger of the elements. I just don’t like this zero control thing (hey, look my human nature!) Also, as I sit here trying to find things to do BESIDES fiddle with the lock again, I realize that I don’t seem to have Katie’s number in my cell phone. I have to get a hold of her at some point; she said her fiancée would house me while I’m in DC. Oh the things you think about when you’re locked out of your abode.  I’ve tried to open the door about thirty times in the last ten minutes. It has an automatic lock and there’s a special way of opening it...  

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UPS men are awesome! I’m so glad God answered my prayer with physical help. My angel today is a tall whistling black man in brown delivering packages.  <3

1:38pm

            I just missed a train by a minute and have to wait ten minutes for the next one. Just seems to be how I ride the subway. I get frustrated when I miss the train by seconds, it’s roaring into the platform just as I get to the turnstile and by the time I get down the next flight of stairs I get to see the tail lights as they leave. Yippee. Some trains are closer together, but most, it seems are ten or more minutes apart.  Cei la vie. Gives me more time for people watching and frantic looking at the subway map to quadruple and quintally check my route. (Quintally even a word? Probably not.) This excessive checking still does not keep me from getting turned around while underground. I go down two flights of stairs and I loose what little sense of direction I could claim to have.

            I got laundry done this morning. I feel slightly productive. Being locked out was the tipping point for some welling emotions. “Dear God, I’m unable to get a hold of anyone but you, please help me to get the door unlocked.” And then there was a peace upon me and, moments after, a cheerful whistle floated up the stairs.

He held the package out to me, as if it were mine, I held out a set of keys to him, “Are you any good with locks?”

“I’ll try sugar, if it was meant to be then it was meant to be.” He sets the box down and applies hand to keys, key to lock. A wiggle, three tries, and a jiffy later he has the door open and the keys back in my hand. At my look of relief he cheerfully replies, “It was meant to be, sugar.”

I could have hugged him for being such a Godsend.

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April 20th

            Officially my last day here and I’ll spend half of it packing. I only brought as much will fit in this carry on and one shoulder bag... and I’m mailing stuff home, why is this such a lengthy process? Next thing I’m going to write about is how to survive out of a carry on and still look human.

            I met up with Hiromi at the Japanese bookstore (mentioned above) and we bought origami paper (and resisted all the kawaii)and she taught me how to fold 3D roses! (http://usefulorigami.com/valentines-day-origami-rose-lesson-2/) Then we made our way to Cafe Eruopa on 6th/26th. This was only after much debate of which coffee shop might be the closest/coolest/still open. Robyn met us at the cafe after she got off work and then we went to Little Italy for a late and yummy dinner.

            Before that (Hiromi and I met at 6:30pm yesterday) I went all the way south to the World Trade Center (got on the wrong train, again, and the new building that they’ve got going looks like an upsidedown icicle) and then northward to Chelsea Market, dropped in to get some Kinder eggs (I hope they don’t melt, I’m mailing them.) Then to the Museum of Natural Science (it has an entrance directly from the subway, so I didn’t have to get rained on, again) got lost via Guggenheim (long twisty road below/through central park, so I never actually saw CP. oh well. Next time!!) and never actually made it to the round museum. Spent some time in an Apple Store, which was cool. I discovered a yummy pizza place, I got a white sauce with three cheese (asiago, mozzarella, parmesan) and summer squash slice that feed me for lunch AND an evening snack. I also stumbled across a little market that had apples for less than a dollar apiece, which by this point of my stay in NYC I was very happy to find.

            I walked a lot. Was “lost” most of the day. But every native I asked was very helpful with directing me closer to my destination. I’ve been told that the people in NYC are rude, maybe as a whole, but every individual I talked to was very cordial.  It was damp and rainy most of the day. Even though I bought a travel umbrella the second night in NY, I was very glad that the Subway stop for the museum was directly into the lower story of the place. I got in there for a dollar, it says tickets are 18, but it’s suggested donation pricing. Got to read the fine print! I didn’t write about it before, but the Met is the same, I got in there for a nickle.

Well, I’m mailing home a box and then heading back into Manhattan. I am mos def taking a nap on the subway.