I am trying to become quite adventurous during my weekends
here in New York. Usually after a full
week of work I just want to sleep, read and sit in front of my AC but I am
forcing myself to get out. There is so
much to do in this city and slowly but surely I am discovering new things.
After showering three times (New York summers are
ridiculous) I ventured to a new part of town.
Since moving here I have reconnected with Miss Nevada 2009, Christina. We have caught up over drinks and dinner
dates in midtown after work a few times, but this time I wanted to see where
she lived. But of course what should have
been a simple train ride turned into a disaster.
Christina gave me step by step details on how to get to
Woodlawn. Go to Grand Central – Buy a
ticket for Metro North – Get off at the Woodlawn stop - She would meet me
there. Sounds easy, right? I successfully get on the right train, start
reading my Monica Lewinsky book (no judgment) and I am feeling good. As the train starts to move the conductor
takes my ticket as some inaudible announcements are made. I pay attention at each stop until Woodlawn
is up next. I close my book and prepare
to get off the train. As the train comes
to stop I walk up to the door and it doesn’t open. I start looking around and all of a sudden
the train starts moving again, and I look out the window only to see my friend
Christina looking around on the platform for me. I panic.
I call her and she says: “Didn’t the conductor
tell you, you had to be in the first 4 cars for that stop?!” Negative.
At this point I start walking through the car and get to the
door that connects to go into the next car.
It won’t open. I look at a guy
standing by a door and say “Can I get out on the next stop off this
train?” He says yes. Well that man lied, because once again at the
next stop the doors do not open. Now I
am getting farther and farther away from where my friend lives. I try opening the door to the next car again and
finally some woman helps me. I run to
the next train, still on the phone with my friend, and find a group of girls
about my age. I yell, “HOW DO I GET OFF
THIS TRAIN?!” I know they were holding
back their laughter because one girl rudely answered with, “by walking out the
door…” Thanks genius. Christina at this point is just telling me to
get off at any stop and we can figure it out.
Finally I get to a stop where the doors open, and tell Christina that I
am at the Mount Vernon stop. She
responds: “Oh God, I will be right there…. I don’t want to freak you out but
that is not that great of a neighborhood.”
Thank goodness she had a car. So
while I wait for her, I stand on the platform in heels and a dress with my keys
in-between my knuckles, ready to fight.
As soon as she pulls up I do a superhero dive into her car and we drive
off.
This train experience prepared me for my 4th of
July adventure. My family and I have a
tradition every year with the same two families on this holiday. We pack our cars up and have snacks,
chocolate fondue, play cards, throw the football and watch the fireworks. I was really sad that I was not able to
attend this year. So I reached out to my
relatives who live in Long Island to see if I could join them for the day. It was only an hour and 20 minute train ride
and I was greeted with a welcoming committee of my Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and her
two daughters. I have not seen my cousin
for 11 years, and my Aunt and Uncle for almost 7 years. I had so much fun catching up with them! My mother had called my Aunt before I came
and told her that I had a very strange diet…. Aka I am a vegetarian. My sweet Aunt and Uncle went to whole foods
and searched for a vegetarian in the store to help them shop for me. I was so grateful for them to go out of
their way.
Since it had been 11 years since I had seen my cousin,
Nicole it was the first time meeting her adorable children. I had so much fun playing with them all
day. Who knew that doing handstands in
the pool for 2 hours could be so entertaining?
I was like a rock star when I held my handstand for 47 seconds… it was
pretty impressive in their eyes. When it
was dinner time the kids were fascinated by what “tofu” was. They even had the courage to try it! While we were in the car driving back to the
train station, Anna told her mom that for dinner tomorrow she wanted to have
tofu, and a salad (the exact meal I had), I loved it. Now that I know how easy it is to get to Long
Island, I cannot wait to visit again. I
promised the kids I would come back, build a fort and have a sleepover.
This past weekend I went to my first Broadway show since
moving to New York. I was spoiled
because our seats were in the 4th row for the show, “Nice Work If
You Can Get It” staring Matthew Broderick, yup Inspector Gadget. I will say that I had a moment of inspiration
while Kelli O’Hara sang “Someone to Watch Over Me” that brought me to near
tears. Then of course after the show we
got to go backstage. Where I stood on my
very first Broadway stage, and was just inches away from Mr. Broderick. I could not stop humming the Inspector Gadget
theme song.
The weekend started on such a high but then took a turn for
the worst. While I was cooking dinner
this past Saturday, I saw something move on the floor out of the corner of my
eye. It was the largest cock roach I
have ever seen in my life. I swear to
you it was the size of an iphone. My
first reaction was to scream bloody murder, and that scared it to run under
the fridge. I ran to the living room and
texted my roommate, while I continued to scream. I had no choice but to fight this battle on
my own. I looked around our apartment to
find the best weapon. I debated on using
the plastic golf clubs but decided on the broom. Of course my first cock roach is a ninja
roach because it was hiding behind our garbage until it started to climb the
wall. While screaming the entire time
the roach escaped to our living room – it was heading to my roommates
room. I knew I could not let it enter
her room because then I would never find it.
So while I kept screaming I finally killed it after hitting it… 20+
times. Did I mention that I was standing
on a chair during this entire thing?
After the roach went down, my roommate called and I could barely
breathe. I was near tears and traumatized. She then walked me through the cleaning
process, and we decided to throw away the broom as well. Call me over dramatic but I stayed at our
friends place in Brooklyn because I couldn’t sleep in the roach apartment.
I bought a new broom and I am now walking around our
apartment as if the floor is hot lava. I
never want to see a roach ever again.
I ended the weekend by catching up with a good friend from
college, Tess. It was the perfect Sunday: brunch, and walking around by the water. Brooklyn really is beautiful.
I also have to share a movie moment I had on the
Subway. As I have mentioned before,
Disney has ruined me and I am a hopeless romantic. While commuting to work one day, my train was
held momentarily at Grand Central. As I
looked across the platform at the 4-train, I made eye contact with an
attractive male. Knowing the eye contact
game quite well, I looked away for a moment and looked up again to find him
still looking in my direction. Just to
assure that I was not going crazy I looked at the two people on either side of
me…. old men. I looked back and smiled
before the doors closed and our trains started to move. I kid you not, this attractive male started
to move throughout his train so he could keep eye contact with me, like a scene
from out of the movies. The topic of
conversation at work that day: Should
Brooke post a missed connection online about this encounter? Never did… but who knows maybe Subway guy and
I will meet again. Disney taught me that
we will.
Always
Brooke
