Last Week

Okay, so last Tuesday was spent in an airport in Phoenix. Terrible airport. There are only a handful of outlets, with at least two handfuls of people with laptops and another of people trying to charge their cell phones! The worst part is their location. The outlets are on walls, in the aisle where people load onto their plane. Whaa? Who designed this? So there are no chairs to sit on, only the ground, and when a plane is boarding they make you move. The outlets are five feet high, so your cord reaches all the way up there. It’s ridiculous. Then, if you want the internet, you can forget about it because there is no reception unless you are next to a window. Well, Mom found an outlet next to a window, by some chairs, at a reasonable height. The problem was that they were in a restricted area where only the airport employees where allowed. Did this stop her? Not at all. So we sat there. We had to go under a line separator and over some chairs that were blocking people like us from going where we were going. We sat there for two hours. I guess they didn’t care that we were there, or maybe they thought we had permission. Either way, I watched The Office with no disturbances other than the slow connection to the internet.

We had the red eye to New York. I didn’t sleep very well, plus we lost 3 hours. We left Arizona at 9 and got to NYC at 4:30. It didn’t take seven hours, but it felt like it. We took the subway to my apartment. Let me back up one second. I packed in a HUGE bag with wheels, all my clothes and a pillow and blanket. It took one person to manage that bag. So the other person had to get the other three suitcases. We both also had our laptops. It was not easy to lug all this around. It would have been easy to take it to a cab, but no, we ventured into the subway. From the airport to the first subway station, there was a convenient elevator. It was also early in the morning, so there weren’t many people. We had to transfer to the train that would take us right to my apartment. We didn’t know that we would have to go up two flights of stairs, a ramp and then back down some stairs. It was awful. Luckily the people in New York aren’t as mean as they make them out to be on TV. An old man helped us up the second flight and a young man helped us down the other. Well, another thing to know is that there are express trains. They only stop at the major stops. We got on one and it took us to the stop right before mine. We got off and I was beyond tired and very ornery. I was sick of the dark damp humid subway and I just wanted a nap. The next train came and we got on. It was an express train and we saw my stop come and go in a blur. Annoyed we got off at the next stop and realized the huge error we had made. Now we had to carry all this up the stairs to get to the terminal we needed then take it down to that one. By now it was getting crowded with the morning rush. I wanted to cry. Eventually we made it to the right stop. We lugged all the suitcases up the stairs one last time. When I emerged from the dungeon it was light out, but still early morning and the city was beautiful! Not to be cliché, but it literally took my breath away. I could see my apartment and couldn’t help but get a little giddy. I made it! It hit me that I was actually doing this!

Maggie told me to call her when we got there and she would come home from work, I now realize that she thought I was coming that evening. I called her phone while a block away, and no answer. I tried again right outside the door. Still no answer. Boy was I glad that I fixed the internet on my phone because that’s how we got the apartment number and buzzed up to see if she was there. It buzzed back, and the door was unlocked. We got through the second set of doors, and I set off to find the elevator, after all, I was on the fourth floor. Losing my high from seeing the city, I set up the stairs to find 4cr. Maggie was waiting at the door and informed me that there were no elevators. We had to carry the luggage up three more flights of stairs! Of course. So we did, but Maggie helped, so that made a huge difference. As soon as keys and instructions were given, mom and I zonked out. When we woke up, we went to the David Letterman Show. That was pretty cool. No one we knew was on it. It was a comedian that was funnier that David Letterman, the national champion grocery bagger (so funny), and the girl from CSI. It was fun, but we sat on the very top row, actually behind the top row, in the aisle. It was free, so I can’t complain too much. We went grocery shopping and then home to fall asleep. Patricia and her boyfriend Greg were building our dresser, so we couldn’t go to sleep yet. Mom was passing out on the couch. I visited with Maggie. It was a great first day. April fools, it was an okay first day.

Day 2 April 2. We slept in, at least I did. We saw some sites: China Town, Time Square, Ground Zero, etc. We decided to try for Wicked tickets. To get them cheap, you must stand in line to put your name in a drawing. There were probably 1 to 2 hundred people there and they only draw out 12 or 13 names. Some people say they go all the time and never get drawn out. So we realized we probably wouldn’t get them, but it was worth a try. The only way we were going to see it was if we got these cheap tickets. The guy draws out the papers, then stacks them in order, then comes out and reads the names. The second to last name he called was Kaycie Graves. Oh yeah. I said I wanted two tickets, so mom and I got in. we were on the front row and all the way to the side. We didn’t care though. It was so much fun! Such a cute show! I’m so glad we got to go!

Day 3 April 3. We had never been to Coney Island so we decided to go that direction today. It rained puddles and puddles. We got off the subway to see the Brooklyn Bridge and to walk across it. We walked in almost a square trying to figure it out, but we got to see some cool angles of the bridge and then walked our way to Brooklyn. We were drenched! We even had an umbrella, but that didn’t really do a whole lot. By the time we got to Coney I thought I had hypothermia. Some nice cops told us where to go and we saw the rollercoaster through the fog, went to Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs and left. We got a delicious hotdog and some cheese fries. The cheese was just nacho cheese, they were weird. Mom bought some fried frog legs. Yuk. I was so cold that she had me hold them on the subway to keep warm. I hope I never smell the odor of fried frog legs again. We ate at the soup kitchen for dinner. It felt good to get some warmth in our bodies.

Day 4 April 4. General Conference is broadcast at the church. My church happens to be in the Temple. How cool is that? We watched the first session there, then got food from a street vendor. Mom got falafel. I got chicken. It had grilled veggies and spicy yellow rice. It was so good. I’ll definitely do that again. We watched the second session on my lap top at my apartment. That was nice.

Day 5 April 5. Watched General Conference in my apartment again, then took my mom to the airport. The end of the fun. When I got back, I watched the last session. My roommates came home, they were gone all weekend, their families live in New Jersey. We visited for awhile. I like them a lot.

Monday and Tuesday were boring. I felt kinda sick. The only thing worth mentioning is that I went to FHE on Monday. I only met like 5 or 6 people. Oh well, that’s a start. Anyway, that’s my first week in New York.