Archive for the ‘New York’ Category

The $43 Cheesecake

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

So, yesterday was officially both Papa’s (My father-in-law) and Grandpa’s (my dad) birthdays. More on this later, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We spent the day strolling around NYC yesterday. Running around the city is tough work with three kids. Even with help. Katie and Mike, (our friends from Hawaii), have always made having kids easier. They are a great aunt/uncle (they’re brother and sister) set to have around. When we lived in Hawaii, they were our babysitters. They were great to have around, and frequently crashed at our place. Having them over yesterday and today was like reliving old times a little, and that counts for a lot.

I’m a big fan of using the Subway when in NYC as a way of covering ground, especially with kids. It’s a bitch getting selves, kids, stroller, etc. to the platform, but once there, it’s a straight shot onto the train. The bus, on the other hand, would be sitting there while your slow-moving-herd boarded, while other passengers watched with frothing mouths.

Kevyn, it turns out, likes the subway too.

George and Kevyn on the subway

George and Kevyn on the subway

He kept asking me to let him slide down the pole. So being a dad, I obliged, his laughter being contagious and infecting other passengers.

Lara also introduced him to the rushing wind preceeding an oncoming train.

Lara and Kevyn, as the train approaches

Lara and Kevyn, as the train approaches

Central park has some nice little playgrounds, where the kids can have adventures, meet new friends and explore the properties of matter, As Caelyn was wont to do. She also likes putting sand at the bottom of the slide. Just because.

Caelyn playing with sand

Caelyn playing with sand

Mike and Katie spent some time with their non-blood nieces and nephew as well. Honestly, you should have seen the looks on their faces when Mike and Katie walked into the apartment yesterday morning. It was priceless!

Katie watching over Caelyn

Katie watching over Caelyn

Mike and Quinlyn

Mike and Quinlyn

The end of the evening involved dinner and tomfoolery at Dave and Busters, where the kids made a killing in tickets on some roulette type of game. Quinlyn played air hockey for the first time. And Me, Mike, Quinlyn, and Kevyn took turns blowing up aliens/monsters on various gun games.

The cap to the evening was something Papa had said earlier. Lara had called him to wish him a happy birthday, and he said something to the effect of “have a piece of cheesecake for me.” Well, this became our driving force. Find a whole cheesecake in NYC at 9:30PM. Problem being that we were tired, and it was getting late: most normal bakeries were closed by then. Everywhere else sold them by the slice, and we weren’t having any of that. So after searching Times Square for a deli or bakery with a whole cheesecake we settled on a slightly-used-but-mostly-whole cheesecake, that cost $43 after tax. Some decisions just can’t be explained.

A slightly used cheesecake

A slightly used cheesecake

Posted in Family, Friends, Games, Kids, New York, Pictures | 1 Comment »

A Girl on a Train Part 2

Monday, March 30th, 2009

For background on this poat, please check out

http://romaka.net/george/2009/03/a-girl-on-a-train/

Wow. I never thought I’d write this one.

I saw the pretty girl on the train again.

This time I was able to help her out a little.

I still didn’t get her name but I did get part of her story. Apparently, she lives in Port Jefferson, and comes to the city to work. She can only work three nights a week, and only makes $40 a night. That’s enough for a hotel room for three nights in Port Jefferson, and it’s not enough to cover train fare, too. So she has to ask people for money for the fare, food, and hotel the rest of the week. She doesn’t have any luck up in the street begging, so she comes to the trains. Apparently, down here, people are more generous. She told me she had to spend a night in Penn Station once, and it was terrible. Seeing as she’s a pretty girl, I’d be scared of that.

Once again, I don’t know how much of that story is true, and probably never will. I’m also aware that even if all the above is true, there are probably other ways than begging for her to handle her situation. I know that I am a trusting type of guy, and have a soft spot for a pretty face. I am aware of this, so I definately keep my guard up. I didn’t give her much, but I hope that it helped (she knocked on my window to wave as she was leaving, so I guess it did).

It does go to show, though, that even a city as big as New York can be awefully small sometimes.

Posted in New York | No Comments »

Three kids…arriving

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

As I write this, my in-laws are driving my kids over the Verrazano bridge. To Long Islanders living out in Suffolk County, it’s a moment of “Oh, I’m almost home…but I still have to go through Jamaica, Rockville Center, Baldwin, Freeport, Merrick, Bellmore, Wantaugh, Seaford, Massapequa, Massapequa Park, Amityville, Copague, Lindenhurst, Babylon, and Bay Shore before I get to Islip.”

To a couple of Okies and three kids, two of which have only been out of Hawaii for a few weeks, and all of whom have been traveling for the last three days, it’s “We’re almost there!”

I can’t wait to see my babies again. Then all that’s left is to get Cody out of Hawaii.

In other news, Lara and I spent about 10 minutes walking, 2.5 hours on trains, and a ten minute cab ride to Edison, NJ, to pick up our truck. Then, we drove three hours back. It sucks driving from NJ to LI during rush hour. It sucks driving from NJ to LI in a snowstorm. It sucks a LOT to be driving from NJ to LI in a snowstorm during rush hour.

Speaking of which: When there’s an onramp that’s backed up and you’re in slow-moving traffic, what’s the optimal method of joining the two traffic streams together? Is it:

  1. To allow only the existing highway stream go: everyone else can go fuck themselves
  2. To only allow the oncoming stream to go: everyone else can go fuck themselves
  3. To allow one from each stream to go at a time, creating a smooth “zipper” effect
  4. To try to force yourself into the highway stream when you see someone allow the car in front of you in

I vote for #3. It’s nice when it happens. I do everything I can to allow it to happen.

Unfortunately, being a nice guy usually results in #4 happening, as it did today. I let someone in a small car into my highway stream. Instead of backing off, the guy in the F150 behind him just kept going, I can only assume he was assuming that I’d relent and let him in.

It wasn’t until we were about to either trade paint or have me go into the next lane that I finally hit the brakes and let him in, but not without a flurry of screaming, honking and a few middle fingers. Normally, it would just end there.

I don’t know WHAT this guy was thinking, but he then stops under an overpass and tries to wave me past. I just shoo him on, which after about 20 seconds, he does. However, when we get out from under the overpass, he pulls his truck off to the median and waves me past again. I don’t know what was up there. Maybe he genuinely felt guilty about what happened earlier. Maybe he was trying to cause a problem. I don’t know. But I decided it was probably a good idea to just do as he said. So I blew past him. A minute later, I heard a honk, and he’s next to me, waving his arms and talking. I think he might have even been smiling. All the windows were closed, so I didn’t catch what he said. I really didn’t care either. I was over it. I just kept driving. He then sped ahead never to be seen again.

Thinking back on this, I came to a realization. Neither of us were right. He shouldn’t have tried to wedge in, and I probably should have just let him, in the interest of rush-hour-snowstorm traffic safety.

What happened was two stubbron New Yorkers acted like two stubbron New Yorkers. It’s kind of like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Posted in Fail, Family, Health, Life, Navy, New York, Traffic | No Comments »