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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

It's called BrittCon, SUCK IT! (Day 1)

OK, well maybe you haven't been waiting for it, as Britt, Karl, Becky, Robin and Dawg have all given BrittCon recaps. I know it's over a week late, and you all are tired of hearing about it. But just for posterity, and since I promised to do it...here we go....

Thursday - 6/26/08

I drove to New Haven that evening to park my car (for free) at Tink's house. We hung out, smoked cigarettes and drank the bottle of wine I brought. My friend Elizabeth, The Queen of Etiquette told me once, that Emily Post (the Empress of Etiquette) wrote something to the effect of : "A good guest ALWAYS brings a gift for the host(ess). You can't go wrong with Flowers or a good bottle of wine." So I always bring wine when I am a guest at someone's home!

So about 11 PM I crashed on the couch. The End

Friday - 6/27/08


at 5:30 AM I was woken to my LOUD ASS cell phone ringing. Bleary-eyed and half blind (glasses were on the table) I look to see it is Becky calling. She informs me that her flight as cancelled and she won't be getting in to NYC until about the time Britt and Karl are. Lunch plans with Becky are now null and void, but I get over it pretty quickly. OK, I go back to sleep for an hour and a half.

Waking back up, I dress, have coffee and a bagel at Tink's and we head out to Union Station. I took the train to NYC, happily listening to my iPod. My only issue? I am sitting in the opposite way as the train is traveling. Slight headache from motion sickness ensues, but lots of water helps me get over it. I arrive to Grand Central Station, and luckily, Lexington Avenue is one of the exits. I hoof the 5 blocks to my hotel partially uphill, and drop off luggage, call Misk to let him know I got to the City alright and haven't been mugged yet.

I decided to take a little stroll around the area to see how far away B,B, & K are from me. I get about 1/2 way there, realize I'll have to walk back to my hotel eventually to get their gifts and decide to grab food, since I haven't eaten since 7 am and it's now about 12:30PM. Still listening away to my iPod, like a Real New Yorker, I grab Micky D's, becaus eI don't want to eat a REAL New York meal without my friends! I hoof it back to the hotel, eat, and wait....and wait...and check the watch about 100 times, smoke about 5 cigarettes and FINALLY get a hold of BB&K -- they are in the taxi and on their way to the hotel.

I get myself a subway all day metro card (saves time and money, really) and head over. I get about 5 calls from BB&K trying to figure out where I am. Eventually I get to their hotel, and there they are! WOOOT!

Rich, who is from NY, meets up with us soon after, and then after checking into their hotel and stuff, we head off to be tourists. Now, this is not my first trip to NYC, and although I do take some pictures, I have to admit, that watching BB&K "ohhh" and "ahhh" and snap pictures of just about every building and sign made me laugh a lot. me and Rich thoroughly enjoyed seeing BB&K get all excited about it all.

We entered Grand Central, and more pictures were taken. We then decided to grab some food, and went down to the food court. I had Chili. it was damn good. We talked and talked, and then walked around some more, as we headed out. Rich had to leave us and head home while we were still in the food court. We stopped in the market place, which stank of fish, and was crowded as all hell. But BB&K loved it, and more pictures were taken and I think Becky bought something. Then it was on to Lexington Avenue, to my hotel where I needed to actually check-in, freshen up and change, as I had pretty much sweat to death all day, I felt nasty. We headed out once more and back through the streets taking more pictures. Britt had decided that her feet were killing her, so we went to Payless, near GST, and she found wicked cute flip flop sandals. They were hot pink and had sparklies. Very cute. It is then that the infamous phrase was uttered by (I believe) Britt:

"It's called BrittCon, not KarlCon, bitch! There will be shopping! SUCK IT!"

We then headed toward where the Bus Tour place was, back over to the west side of town, stopping at Ben & Jerry's for some delicious smoothies. We got our 48 hour tickets, and met up with Dawg. After having walked all day, my feet were killing me and I wanted to sit. So did Karl, so we crossed 8th Avenue to Starbucks, clamored for chairs, and chatted to Dawg. And of course, twittered like the Dickens about just about everything.

I am amazed at the stories Dawg told us about 9/11. It was everything I could do not to cry several times during the telling of his viewpoint of the day. It was so sad to hear about his EMT partner, who was the only one from his company not to survive. Seriously, thinking about it now? almost 2 weeks later, I still get a pit in my stomach. My phone rang and I excused myself, my girls wanted to say good night, and that they missed me. Sheesh, not even 24 hours and they were already calling! No, really, I didn't mind. They were so sweet, of course.

Back in to Starbucks for some lighter chat, and of course, more twattering. More pictures were taken, and we went outside to "make out". That's code for a Smoke Break. Finally we decided we better high-tail it to the Tour Bus Night Tour Pick-up. We said goodbye to Dawg, since he would be meeting Poppy who drove in that night from France. Then we got to the tour. Well the line, anyway. We waited for about 20 minutes and finally got on the bus, the lights of times Square lit the place so much, you can barely tell it was night. Lots more pictures were taken, and I realized my batteries were dying. I needed to remember to buy some the next morning.

At first the tour guide was alright. Then, he just got boring, and noted random facts that really, I don't think anyone cared about. I was sitting next to Becky, and the people behind us were bitching about her hair flying in their face. Whatever. She had a slight headache, i think, and that's why she didn't tie it back. They were German, and they muttered about it to each other the whole night. It kinda ruined the tour a bit, but I got over it.

I didn't realize it, but we were going to be going over the Manhattan Bridge. I am not a fan of bridges, and we were in an open top bus. I was freaking out. My fear is crippling, actually. When driving over the Gold Star bridge here in CT to get to New London, I grip my steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white, and that's when I am in charge of the driving. I threw Becky my camera, asked her to take some pictures, and put my head down, holding the back of Karl's seat for dear life. I also silently prayed to the Goddess that I would not die. I didn't, so I guess it worked. After I calmed down we got to see some nice views of Brooklyn and stuff. more pictures. Then the damn boring ass tour guide decided to talk about CUNY - City University of New York. I dunno what the hell he was saying, but almost everything in Brooklyn has some friggin' connection to CUNY, I swear.

Back over the Manhattan Bridge, where I once again cling to the seat in front of me for dear life and put my head down. I am sure BB&K thought I was some sort of freak, but oh well. It's a fear, and that's how I handle it. I could have cried or something, but, nah, clinging in fear is more my style. We headed through Greenwich Village, and stuff, learned about the cast iron buildings, and how they helped to make NYC grow so quickly, and soon were coming up on a stop about 3 blocks from my hotel. I decided to get off the bus there, so I would have less to walk that night. It was a good idea. I said goodnight to BB&K, and got off (TWKS).

After the buss pulled away, I got out my trusty pink iPod, popped the headset in my ears, turned the volume down, in case I was being followed (hey, I do have some other fears, being mugged in NYC is one of them), and started to walk. got to the hotel, showered, listened to the iPod until 1 am, since I couldn't sleep, and finally went to sleep....sort of....

at 2:30 AM, my "roommate" who had just checked in, apparently, banged her way into the room and turned down the A/C. This did not please me, but I pretended to still be asleep, because I knew I was getting up at 7, and was in for a long day. I faked waking up after she banged back in from a trip to the restroom, semi-introduced myself, fund out the chick's name was CeeCee (heh, CeeCee and Cissa, coincidence?) and went back to sleep......sweating like a pig, because the A/C was no longer on full blast, like I like it.....and that, was Day 1!

Tomorrow? BrittCon Day 2...

~Cissa

4 flame(s) added to the fire:

Poppy said...

Never tired of the recaps...

I am so bummed I missed Starbucks. You've heard stories I haven't.

Unknown said...

The hostess is VERY happy you brought a gift - - greatly, greatly appreciated! :-)

Which reminds me, is that the wine you prefer... or something different??

IOU now!

Anonymous said...

love the recaps...never tire of em. :)

ya know, i can't think of a court in their right mind that would have convicted you if you shanked that roommate who doesn't appreciate air conditioning. sheesh!

love the pink ipod, by the way.

Karl said...

Finally catching up on blogs. Great recap. Didn't realize people were bitching about Becky's hair. Idiots.