Well, I'm here! Writing from New York City, where I arrived safe and sound.
It's past 10:30 here, and even though I should be on Mountain time (8:30), it's been such a long day that I feel like it's 10:30. I haven't seen R'el yet, but she'll be home soon and we can make plans for tomorrow.
I was up at 7:30, got to the airport about 9:30, and left for my stopover in Denver about 11:30. I read
Red Seas Under Red Skies while I waited, so it didn't seem as long as it was. We left late, and got to Denver late, so I had to rush to my next gate and didn't have time to get any lunch. Then our plane left Denver late because it was snowing (it was flurrying in SLC, but not like it was in Denver) - and they needed to coat the plane's wings with some kind of anti-snow and -ice stuff, just as a precaution. I was seated smack dab over the wing, so I got to watch them spray it on from a cherry-picker vehicle. It was orange, and turned clear after several minutes.
The flight felt long, and I was already tired of sitting from my first flight; I had been hoping to stretch my legs and walk around a bit during the break. :( But they showed a free movie - "The Great Debaters" with Denzel Washington, which I'd wanted to see. It was pretty good - I even cried a very little. And I read more
Red Seas and started sketching Ajax's character design (all I know at this point is that he's quite large). We were late getting into LaGuardia as well, partly because of leaving late, and partly because of some congestion (I don't know if they meant the rain, or if there were other planes trying to land), which caused us to circle for about half an hour before we could actually land.
R'el had sent me a bus map, a subway map, a pop-up map, a metro card, and detailed directions to her apartment, so after I collected my bag, I headed out there. I hopped a bus from the airport and then transferred to the subway with no problems, except for not knowing which way to swipe the metro card. ^^; (How lame is that? But I'll get the hang of it.) I got off the subway and walked a few blocks in the rain (glad I brought my umbrella!), then called her roommate to check that she was home to let me into the apartment. They live on the sixth floor of a six-floor building in Manhattan. It's got two bedrooms, a tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom, tiny dining area, and a decent-sized living room. It looks oldish, and has a creaky wood floor, but it's actually pretty nice. Comparable to some of the apartments in Provo - better than a lot of them, I'd say, at first glance.
I dropped off my stuff and ventured out again, after 9, to find some dinner. Corrie had recommended a couple of places to eat at, and I went to a little place called the Park View Cafe and ate cheese fries. The waiter there was tall and blond, but I'm 75% sure that English was not his first language. I tried to place his accent, but couldn't come up with anything better than "Thermian" - and I'm 99% sure that that's not it. ^^; Anyway, the real adventure came when I got my bill and found out that they only took cash! I brought cash, but I had left it at the apartment in my purse in my backpack, only bringing my card, license, metro card, Corrie's spare keys, and cell phone. I hadn't wanted to deal with possibly having my purse snatched, and didn't even think about bringing the cash. Luckily, they were extremely gracious, and one of the other customers directed me to an ATM at a bank down the street, so I left my book on the table as collateral (to put them at ease as to my honesty) and ran out to get cash. Whoops! I felt bad about it, so I left a rather large tip. On my way back to the apartment, some Hispanic guy whistled and beckoned to me from down the street, but I was smart enough to ignore him. ;P (I'm not a *total* airhead..!)
Also, it was interesting sitting in that little restaurant off Broadway (the street) and thinking about Muse, and what superheroes actually do around the city, and safety and stuff.. and a fire engine drove by. ^^; And I walked by it on my way back to the apartment, too. I don't know what the trouble was, but I guess there's always trouble *somewhere* when you have so many people in such a small area. This weekend will be great for Muse. ^_^
R'el came home and we talked for a while, and talked about plans for tomorrow a bit. She leaves for work at 7, and I get to sleep in and then spend my day wandering New York until she gets off at 5 or so, and then we'll meet up with her boyfriend and have pupusas for dinner. I'll be armed with maps and a briefing on reading them (particularly the subway maps), and plenty of time, and lists of places of interest (which R'el had from a Singles' activity). I'm excited. XD