Last Week First

     Before I tell you all about my amazing 4th of July weekend, I need to finish last week!  Last week was a short one but a great one.  I got off of work early on Wednesday to watch the heart wrenching USA game, and then while watching the game, I was offered a ticket to the Yankees game.  So of course, me having no plans, said yes!

    We had a bit of a challenge getting there, and by challenge, I mean that I told my friend that I knew how to get there and then took the local 1 instead of the local 6 up to the Bronx… luckily I caught my mistake before we ended up 242nd Street!  Anyways, once we got to the game the weather turned out to be perfect and the game was actually very good, even though they lost.  It was very relaxing to just kick back with some friends and enjoy America's favorite sport.

     All in all, last Hump Day was a great one. 

Post about my weekend soon to come--here is a quick photo that I snapped while leaving work on Thursday before vacation!

Shades on the Subway

 

    Dear commuters; you are neither a celebrity or a rapper, so unless you just got your eyes dilated, take your sunglasses off once you are on the platform! There is literally ZERO sunshine down there and although those florescent lights may not be all that flattering, everyone is standing under them, and trust me, your shades don't make you look any better. Wearing sunglasses indoors or at night is so 2001 (unless you are famous of course).

To the Point of Frustration

 

 For those of you who follow my blog, sorry I have not updated in a while. I promise a full re-cap of my past super-gay weekend. But tonight I am just too tired to write more than a paragraph. This whole 9-5 job is really starting to take its tole on me; I wake up at 6:15 every morning in order to catch the 7:47 train into the city, and then after work I either go to swim practice or come home to the gym. My days don't end until at least 8:00, at the earliest. And I know that some people have jobs that require them to work until 7 or 8, or even 9, but working all day in the office, and then having to work out in the pool or gym is just exhausting.  

  But anyways, so today after work I went to John Jay for swimming--tonight I also needed to go to the gym and lift because I will be gone most of the weekend for festivities (and coach wants me lifting 3 times a week and swimming 3 days a week). I looked up before practice the subway schedule, and in order for me to make my LIRR train home leaving at 8:19, I would have to catch the #1 leaving at 8:00. So just as the clock struck 7:45 and practice ended, I sprinted to the locker room, stripped, and threw on my gym clothes, still soaking wet. I then proceeded to run the 4 blocks to Columbus Circle and literally swiped my metro card just as the subway arrived. So there I am drenched in sweat on the subway, panting, but happy that I would make my 8:19 train home. I arrive at Penn with a few minutes to spare and snag a good seat on the train. I have my backpack and purse in my lap, and on the train I usually close my eyes and doze in and out of a light sleep, always waking up when they announce the stops. Well tonight, I just so happened to enter into my freaking REM cycle as we passed by my stop for Great Neck and I woke up in Manhasset. I guess it could have been worse, I could have fallen asleep on the weekend when the train only runs every hour and I could have ended up all the way at Kings Point, but still, I missed my stop. If I had only woken up 2 minutes earlier, I would have made it!

  So now it is 10:50 and I am beyond ready for sleep. Thank god we have a 3 day weekend coming up...

Even though I’m technically not from New York, having two parents and all of my extended family from there, I often feel like I am one.  So as a converted New Yorker (I was born and raised in North Carolina), it is in the contract that I attend a Yankee’s game. And what better game to attend than Yankees vs. Red Sox? I was able to snag a pair of tickets in the grandstand for $20 each, and luckily my best friend Natasha was back in NY (after only 1 day in DC for her new internship…) and so we took the #4 all the way up to the Bronx. Side note: If you ever want to feel like your personal space is being violated, hop on a train going to a Yankees game.

                Generally speaking, the temperature drops at least 10 degrees up here once the sun goes down, but let me tell you, the past two days, mother nature wanted nyc to sweat. Upon sitting in our seats for the first inning, we were so drenched in sweat that we could slip and slide back and forth on the seat... I’m just glad I bought tickets on the shaded side! So there I was, sitting with one of my best friends, watching a Yankees-Rex Sox game, and eating a foot long Nathan’s hot dog. It doesn’t get much better than that; except of course if it were 20 degrees cooler and the Yankees were actually winning…  But hey, it’s only pre-season!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Having watched numerous movies set in NYC, I and I'm sure everyone else has come to recognize those iconic scenes of New Yorkers running to catch the train. Well, I must admit that I thought these were just exaggerations, who would actually run, push, and shove through crowds of people just to slip onto a crowded train. Let me tell you, those scenes are for real. After my first day of work, I caught the subway to Penn Station as soon as I could so that I could take the express train home (express meaning it doesn't make any stops other than my final one). The express train was leaving at 5:44, I finish work at 5:30, I arrived at Penn Station at 5:44 and a half, sweaty, out of breath, and exhausted, only to watch that train pull away.

As my mother says, the train doesn't wait for anyone. I guess one of the plusses of not living in a metropolitan area is that I can drive my car everywhere and not have to worry about it leaving me behind...