I woke up just in time to see my friend getting packed and preparing to leave in order to catch her flight. We had a few hours difference in our departures and I had decided to stay in New York for a little extra time to get some more sightseeing in. It was a pretty good idea, until I saw the weather report. We had lucked out Thursday, actually. When I had checked the forecast before leaving it had rain scheduled for both days, but Thursday I only saw some sprinkles while walking to the hotel and then it cleared up to be a beautiful day. I'm glad I checked and packed an umbrella, because Friday I wasn't so lucky.
It wasn't a heavy rain by any means, but it was a constant rain that made things a little gloomy. I think it helped add a little something to my photos though. Just a little shine to all the streets and roads while providing enough light so that I didn't have to use a flash. I had left my hotel room and checked out around 10:00 AM and had planned to meet a friend of mine who is living in New York around 12:30 PM for lunch. She lives in lower Manhattan, so I just had to keep walking South, back through Times Square, to get a little closer before I tried to wave down a flag.During my walk I headed over towards Rockefeller Plaza to see some of the NBC buildings. I had seen them about ten years ago when I passed through the city with my family, but I didn't have a camera at that time. There were numerous tour groups being shown around the Plaza and I believe they ended the tour in the NBC gift shop. I shortly fancied the idea of following one of the groups around, just to get a little extra info on everything but I was on a semi-schedule. I didn't want to get caught up into anything that would take me a long time and then be late for lunch.
After an hour and a half of walking around in the rain my feet became soaked. I had hit a few good-sized puddles as I crossed streets and I was wearing some simple canvas shoes. The temperature had cooled quite considerably from the day before, so my feet were getting a little cold. The umbrella I had brought with me was a little compact number that I could fit into my bag, so it wasn't quite large enough to protect my lower extremities from the precipitation. Something I had thought over, but could not really do much about, before leaving and something I had forgotten until that point. I had made it to the southern portion of Times Square and decided it was time to hail a cab. Which was impossible.
I don't know if it was the fact that it was raining, it was around lunch, a combination of the two, or if it's always like that, but every taxi I tried to wave down either had someone in it, or was off duty. I stood around in different areas trying to get one as I kept moving south toward the location I had agreed to meet my friend at. It wasn't until I came across Macy's and a doorman that was using his whistle to catch their attentions that I was able to get into a cab. If I hadn't come across that store, I probably would have ended up walking most of the way downtown.
I met up with my friend and ended up having lunch at a cafe that serves tea. It's a place I'd actually heard about a few years ago and I had a desire to go there if I ever made it to New York. I'd forgotten all about that and just happened to be there by sheer coincidence. The cafe is called Teany, and was originally co-owned by the musician Moby. That's not why I wanted to check it out, I just like tea. It has a vegan menu though, and I walked in there wearing one of my favorite shirts that say, "Meat is Murder. Tasty, Tasty Murder." I hadn't even realized what I had done until I had left and was on my way to the airport. Anyway, lunch was good, I ate a "chicken" salad sandwich, and it was great to see my friend that I hadn't had a chance to get together with in years. We tried to fill each other in on the happenings in our lives over the past few years in the short time we had before she had to go to work and I wanted to catch a cab to get to the airport.
My friend must know the trick to getting a cab, because she got one for me in just a few minutes. I'll figure it out before I die. (I think I said that in a previous post, but I don't care. It will happen) On the cab ride to the airport the cab driver nearly rear-ended a handful of people and broke a number of traffic laws, some of which involved laws of physics that I didn't even think it was possible to break until I saw him do it. Nevertheless, I arrived at the airport in one piece and then proceeded to spend time waiting in my wet shoes for departure back home. Which was, of course, delayed by about an hour due to the weather.
Hopefully, my next post will be about the notice I get in the mail informing me of the date I will be appearing on the game show. It should be arriving very soon, so keep your fingers crossed. Also, photos from my trip can be seen here.
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