Latest NY Experience! Part 1

So much to write that this doozy had to be broken up into parts. 


Packing:

Packing for NY was pretty easy because I'm a good packer and also because the weather forcasted awesomeness aka dresses and non-winter boots. The only two concerns I had: a. Black jeans or blue jeans. My mom advised me to rock the pair that has the least amount of holes. Black won this time. b. To bring the MTEL study book or not. I do have a three and a half hour train ride that has to happen twice. Plenty of time for studying while knocking down a drink. But, shit's heavy. I ended up taking it because I'm like, super responsible.

Train Ride There:

After making friends on the platform, it became obvious that bringing my study book was a really dumb idea. I sat across from my new friend, Wendy, a fifty-eight year-old woman who totally believes in all of my dreams. Our other new friend, Dominique, is my age and sat nearby. The woman behind me, 35 year-old Tara, got on just forty minutes before us and was already completely wasted. Tara kept referring to me as Christina Ricci and then Natalie Wood which of course caused us all to sing "I Feel Pretty". Everyone was buying me Heineken. I went to the bathroom at one point and someone walked in on me. I would have felt embarrassed, but I could care less. After talking it over, it seems that everyone else had gotten walked in on too. The girl who sat near the bathroom saw a lot of people peeing in those three hours. Tara, meanwhile, forgot where the bathroom is at least 4 times. That girl was a complete and total hot mess. I had made cookies and everyone in our car devoured them. Wendy shared her cheese and trail mix. Good times. The ride was very surreal, totally bizarre, and very typical of my life. We all exchanged contact info. Best friends for life! Ah?!

Penn Station:

Bird met me in Penn. My yellow sweater gave me away and she was able to find me quickly. Penn Station is always kind of nutter butters, but Friday night equals an intense increase in drunk/crazy people. Fantastic way to be welcomed back! Also, there was totally a FIRE in the station. Okay, so many times the train is delayed temporarily for dispatching or whatever, but despite the obvious smoke, firemen, and chaos, no evacuations or delays (to my knowledge) were going down. Okaaaaaay.

Lloyd/Bendy Straw Man/Dance Battles:

Bird and I feel the most comfortable in dive bars. Dark quarters, old men, jukeboxes. Yes, yes, yes. We researched bars that fit this criteria near Penn so we could immediately get to the fun. Example: "If you are out to find that special someone, you probably won't find him/her here. Unless you are into that methadone clinic reject old roadie menthol smoking lizard skinned mumbler type." Couldn't have put it better. We walked by one place that looked amazing but also extremely sketchy, so we decided to ease into the weekend at a less sketchy dive next door. Less sketchy dive proved to have terrible service and too many Where's Waldo-esque shirts for our liking. We headed back to the first place, which brought the women-men ration up  from 2-14 to 4-14.  The bartender looked Cassie over and asked her if we were old enough to drink. We assured her that we were. She went and got us frosty mugs (so good) and then asked "How old did you say you were again?" before serving us. The music was off the heezy. Hello middle school dance! So good. When the jams are pumpin', my body loses control. Lloyd took notice of my frantic hands. He stared. He was literally blown away by their  motion. He bought us a round, making sure to order me water as well. To him, my hands meant drunk. He had no idea that I'm exactly the same, drunk or sober. I managed to stay seated until "Only You" by 112 got played twice in a row. So much singing, so much getting low. One by one, the guys started dance battling me. One guy rocking a complete postal service outfit, was built like a bendy straw, sooo good. He melted into the floor. Everyone was blown away by the fact that I knew every word to every song and could drop down to bass voice for the parts of Biggie and back up again for a straight up sing. If you are having trouble picturing this, imagine "Saved the Last Dance" with 50 year-olds meets SNL meets nothing you've ever seen before. Actual pictures were taken, but it was too dark in there to truly capture the moment. We hugged everyone goodbye. An older gentleman dressed quite dapperly complete with a fedora on its side, definitely asked for my number. Bendy straw man was across the street smoking when we left. Thankfully, he caught sight of us, and ran across traffic to say proper farewells. Ah, yeah.


Train Ride to Cassie's Apartment:
Man is playing a melodica on the subway. So, so, so good. He started off with theme songs and then gradually progressed into everyday hits. He won me over from the start, but it was when he covered Pitbull's "Hotel Room" that I completely fell in love. He got two bucks from me. Also on the ride, a guy asked me if I was laughing at him as soon as he gets on the train. Laughing was happening, but he was not the cause. We did end up having a nice conversation which consisted of us repeating the word "whooo!" a lot.