NYC July 8-13, 1999
Me and Danielle left for Rochester NY to catch our flight to Laguardia Airport on July 8th. Her parents drove us there and we got some drinks before the flight. Danielle had never flown before, so she was all nervous and taking Dramamine. We finally left and we had a really short flight to NY (about an hour) and when we were coming in to land, we had the most gorgeous view of the city. We were banking left and it was nighttime so all the buildings in Manhattan were all lit up, and it looked so amazing. We landed at LGA and all 12 of us on the airplane had to get on a bus to take us to the terminal (all of about 500 feet away).
They never told us where our bags were gonna be or anything, so we found the baggage claim area (in a really ugly almost basement like part of the airport). Our flight number wasn’t listed by any of the baggage things, so we saw some of the other people on our flight walking toward the very end of the baggage claim area. There were bags of golf clubs AND other smaller baggage there, but ours wasn’t. So we were just standing there thinking maybe they’d bring it. Then one of the guys on our flight asked us if we were waiting for regular luggage and we said yes. He told us it wouldn’t come out there, that area was only for big things like golf clubs. But our flight number STILL wasn’t listed at any of the turnstile things….grr….so we walked over to the only one with luggage on it, and our bags were there. I guess it was luggage from like 4 different flights or something. Anyway we got our bags, and we were looking for Dani and her father, who were supposed to pick us up. We waited and waited (we were about 20 min early), and waited. Finally we saw them at the end of this basement place, and we walked over to them. They were talking to an airport person asking about our flight. They didn’t have the flight number and Dani didn’t even know where we were flying in from (she thought Buffalo, but she was wrong). So good thing we saw them or we would have never found them. So we drove back to Long Island, and it took forever it seemed. At her house we got settled and went to bed.
The next day we decided to go to the beach (blah) even though it was cloudy. We took a ferry over to Fire Island, and sat on the beach for like..5 hours or something. My legs got sun burned. The water was really cold, so I didn’t go in, but Danielle and Dani did. After the beach we took the ferry back to LI and after dinner we went to the mall. I bought the raddest pants at a store called Screem. One pair is black nylon with lots of pockets with zippers on them and elastic drawstrings. The other pair is this rad Teflon coated fabric, and they are gray and are sewn really rad with knee pad things almost. They are too cool. So then we went back to Dani’s house and watched the Backstreet Boys concert on Fox Family channel.
The next day we got up early to take me to Ronkonkoma to catch the train to NYC. Laura, my friend from the Internet, who lives on Staten Island, was going to meet me at Penn Station in the city, so I could stay with her. The train ride was really long, and when I got to Penn Station, Lau was at one end of where my train came in and I was at the other, so we didn’t see each other. So I walked up these stairs and waited for her. Finally we found each other, I was just standing there looking for someplace to page her from. But anyway, we found each other and we went on a subway to a mall (I guess) that is by the World Trade Centers (I think). We had lunch at sbarro, and then took the subway and a bus to Lau’s house on Staten Island (it costs 7 bucks to cross the Verrazano bridge!!!). We watched some New Kids On The Block videos and concerts hehe. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the street from Lau’s house. Later that night we drove down to Cherry Hill, NJ to pick up our friend Amanda. I hadn’t seen Amanda since London in 1997. So we picked her up and went back up to Staten Island. We had a late snack at a diner Lau goes to all the time, and then we talked a while before going to sleep.
We had to get up very early on Sunday morning because we had to go to Penn Station again to pick up Dani and Danielle who were gonna spend the day with all of us in the city. We took a bus across the bridge to catch the subway and there was this weirdo guy on the bus. Amanda is an artist and she painted a picture of a naked woman laying down on her backpack (you can see the woman’s butt) and this guy started talking to her and I guess he said something like he liked her painting, and that he likes that kind of thing on a woman, her derrière or something. So then Lau and Alicia (Lau’s sister) started an argument with this guy about how Amanda didn’t want to talk to him, and he should just shut up blah blah. And this guy is going on about he has the right to say anything he wants, and Lau was like, “just jump back into your seat and zip it” LOL…The whole bus ride across the bridge was the 3 of them arguing, and then this old decrepit woman came on the bus and asked the guy to move, so she could sit in the disabled seat, and the guy started going off on how if we were nice we would have already moved for this lady, blah blah blah we have no respect blah blah blah….LOL…Then this little Spanish guy started getting into the argument and telling the guy to just drop it and stuff. LOL Then it was our stop so we just left. HAHA it was so funny. Ok, so after the subway trip into the city, we met Dani and Danielle at a hotel across from the station, and then we had to go to Port Authority (a bus station thing) to pick up Alicia’s friend from Boston. After that Alicia and her friend left, and we took the subway to the Village. We went shopping in some stores on 8th street, and I bought a rad white shirt without sleeves, with a hood and gray/silver reflecting stripes on the bottom (they match the gray pants from the other day), and I finally found liquid silver eyeliner!! We walked around the village a bit and chilled at this fountain thing. We had lunch at a McDonald’s and then went into a huge vintage clothing store. Dani and Danielle left to walk back to Penn Station and we went back to 8th street to chill by the fountain before going to MJday.
MJday was at Opaline’s on Avenue A in the village. We took a cab there and there was a line waiting to get in. We were like, oh my god, we can’t believe we are here with these freaks who are all dressed up like Michael Jackson and stuff. It was kinda funny. So we got into the club and our friend Sandy was there, from Pennsylvania. So we talked to some people we knew, and then we heard Robin (from London) talking on the microphone so I wanted to go see him. I was standing there waiting for him to finish his talking, and he saw me and waved. So when he was done I went over to him and he gave me a big hug, and told me he liked my hair (it’s black now, it wasn’t last time I saw him). I took him to see Lau and Mand and we talked to him a little bit. He was kind of running the show that night so he was really busy. MJday was pretty cool. They had merchandise to sell and stuff, but I didn’t buy anything. There was this British boy who performed who knew like, ever single little finger move that Michael Jackson does, and he is a great, great dancer. In his performances he did there were parts where he would throw some of his clothing into the crowd like MJ does. Well he threw his jacket at me once and I had to find him after his song to give it back. Then during his next performance he threw his hat at me and I had to find him again to give it back LOL. There was a girl that performed, singing and dancing, from England and she was really good. Then there were 2 dance groups who danced to MJ songs, and the group from California (who had a very, very gorgeous dancer guy) were really good!! Then there was this guy Navi who is the worlds best Michael Jackson impersonator, he did a show for us and he was really good. He looked so much like Michael. It was rad seeing the people that I was with in England again, and the night kinda got me back into MJ a bit. After it ended we were waiting outside as people were leaving and Navi came out. He looked so much like MJ because he had sunglasses on and there were all kinds of people around him as they were waiting for his ride to come. People walking on the streets kept doing a double take, and we were having fun and going “oh my god it’s Michael Jackson!!” Some tourist is going to go home and be like “I SAW MICHAEL JACKSON ON THE STREET IN NY!!” lol… it was so funny to watch. So then we took a cab to the ferry station because we were going to take the Staten Island ferry back to Lau’s house. We were going to have to wait a long time so we decided to take the subway instead. We got back to Lau’s house pretty late and went to sleep.
Monday we slept in because we were so tired from the day before. After we finally got ready we went to the Staten Island mall and got a snack at a Mexican restaurant. We shopped in the mall a bit and I bought a rad shirt that has Japonisme paintings on it. It matches my rad black pants from a few days before really well. So after the mall we went back to Lau’s house and had a great Italian dinner. Later that night we had to take Amanda back to Cherry Hill. We listened to Michael Jackson the whole way there, and back. In Cherry Hill we got a snack at a diner called Olga’s. We went to Amanda’s house after that, and saw her bedroom. Oh my god….no comment!! Then Lau and I drove back to the Island, and went to bed.
Tuesday morning we had to get up early and go to the airport for my flight home. The subway ride was very long, and then we had to get a bus to the airport. I checked in and we got some food (4.50 for two small bags of chips and a pop!!!) and waited for Danielle to show up. Our flight back to Rochester left at noon, and we were home at about 3. It was mad fun and I want to thank Lau and her family and Dani and her family for letting me stay with them, and showing me a good time. Until next year…. 🙂