(no subject)

So, a 3-day NYC visit.

Very often my life feels like a race from one checkpoint to the next, trying to get everything done to be ready for the next day. On Friday night I end up collapsing. Last week with this trip coming up and little sleep, the race seemed a little faster than I liked. But I actually got everything done that I needed to do, and happily collapsed in the airplane for the trip.

First of all, SuperShuttle is to be avoided where possible. With just some dozing of course I was tired as a dog at 3 AM my time, 6 AM local time, when I had to find the terminal where they stop, wait for the van, then sit in the van as it drove in circles trying to fill up, then herk and jerk all the way from JFK to Manhattan in the most aggressive driving I have ever seen to bypass or smartly merge to beat rush hour traffic -- and still it was 3 hours between disembarking from the plane and getting to my hotel. For 18 bucks. While I, on the way back, found out I could have gone to the JFK subway station, payed 5 bucks above a normal fare, and been on the island in an hour. Sure I wouldn't know which stop to get out of, but I figure any midtown stop would be at best ten bucks away from my hotel in a cab. So yes, I did take the A train on the way back (thanks Dominic [sp? lj name?]) and loved it. SuperShuttle is equally tedious to get home or to the airport in LA, and I don't use it. Not with a bus that does Union Station <-> LAX directly and for three dollars, gets to use the High Occupancy Lanes on the highways, and goes every 30 mins. That's how I got back Monday night.

I traveled light, my needs for three days fit in a messenger bag (yes, pinkfish, for Army Knowledge Management) because I knew I had no job interviews, funerals, weddings, theater performances, or parties for fashionable people to attend. Everything was done in one pair of boots. It was bliss to have so little luggage.

The Algonquin was a steal for a priceline Name Your Price result -- thank you Bill Shatner -- and even though the room faced the street, I slept and slept and slept until ten or eleven every morning. Unfortunately I never got sleep before 2. Still, I felt relaxed, but next time I do need to remember that Diet Coke contains caffeine, and I lead normally a caffeine free life. A price will be paid.

I've already mentioned how good NYC behaved. What I have not yet mentioned was how smashingly fun meeting all these LJers was who kept taking me to great restaurants and brunches in The Village and what kept being apologized for as being a seedy bar but just seemed like a standard cafe in Rotterdam -- but maybe that was because Julius was empty by the time we arrived -- and piers to just lie in the grass and watch clouds and stars from. Never a feeling I had to hurry to make something happen or had to be on or worry that something or I might be boring. LJ took me along and just got me from one cool place to the next. It seems I have some new friends to add. You know, people who politely listen when you find yourself discussing the latest shenanigans in the MVNO marketplace, your inner horror mounting with every word you utter and every next second that goes by after your realization that yes, you are addressing a table of fun people you just met with stories about mobile phone operator business practices, and you seem to not be stopping.