I just got back from New York City about an hour ago. My time that's four in the morning. I haven't had sleep in 24 hours. My legs are sore. My head is spinning. My friend and I had thought we would have a nice time. It started out really great. The trip from Maryland to New York took about four hours. That's normal. When we get there, we're hungry. We look all over for this really great sushi place that I kept hearing about a while back– turns out it's closed on Sundays. That's not too big of a deal so we get a couple sandwiches. We're seeing a show at three, and have a couple hours so we spend some time in the metro and get completely lost. I've never been to Central Park before, so we get our bearings and head over there. By then it's 2:30 and by the time we leave we have fifteen minutes to try to get from the East to the West side of the city. We run most of it, but hail a cab– which backtracks most of the way we ran to get so far. It was a great show, but I couldn't see from behind the tall man's head in front of me. We leave when its done and start heading over to Chinatown because I've never been there before. By now it's about seven and places are closing up and we eat and get lethargic. We want to go home.

That's not easy. When we went up there– to kind of expedite things– we parked in Jersey and took a bus into Manhattan. We find Port Authority– eventually– and begin ordering tickets from a machine. There are three routes to choose from, and that's confusing so we go inside and ask a woman when the next bus is leaving for Secaucas. She has no idea where Secaucas is(this is really hilarious because Secaucas is less than five miles south of Manhattan. You can see the fucking Empire Tower from there. We would have taken a cab, but the cost was fucking 70 dollars to cross to the next state). She tells us where to go anyway. We go there, mostly because she made it seem like she checked some information before sending us away– wrong bus. We go back to another machine, order tickets anyway and go to another information booth who tells us the next bus to Secaucas is leaving at 9.40. The analogue clock behind her says 9.35 so we hightail it up there. It's on the third floor and we run up there as fast as we can. And then I see a digital clock. “What the hell?” I say. “That clock says 9.40.” The digital clocks are on the right time. I check my cell– same time as the digital. We run there anyway. Our bus has just left. The next bus leaves in another hour.

Keep in mind that by this time we've been on our feet and running around Manhattan and the Bronx and downtown Chinatown for a little over ten hours now. My friend and I are EXHAUSTED. He's been up since four, I've been up since six. It's now almost ten. “Okay,” I say. "I'm gonna go get a form and file a complaint. That first info lady has got to be fired.“ Although our situation is pretty relative and could have happened to anyone in better circumstances, imagine if we were professionals or trying to get to the hospital or something to see a friend on their deathbed. So I go up and try and get one, and the man behind the counter says that I can call in or do it by the internet. I'm going to call today. But he did agree with me that a complaint should be taken in.

When I get back to my friend, we're eating the most delicious cherries from Chinatown on a dirty floor covered with pidgeons and he says, ”it can only get better from here, right?“

._.

Our bus comes. Hallelujah. We get on. We're comfortable. Right bus. Right time. Comfy seats. Now, when you get on a bus line that runs regularly past spots that it picks up at, I expect that you'd think it'd be pretty natural to drop off people in the SAME spots, riight? Noo. We completely run past every spot we had fucking come by until I notice something.

”Dude, we have to get off.“
”What?“
”That's where we parked,“ I say. ”We have to freaking get off.“
”Yeah, but it didn't stop there. It's obviously going to double back because it needs to go back to the station." By this time we've hit another wrong stop and are very far away from the place that we want to be at.

The people ahead of us call an emergency stop because they've noticed the same thing. Eighteen people get off before I tell my friend to go ask the driver if he is going to double back. He isn't. We get off and we're(my friend, myself and eighteen other people) stranded in the middle of Suburbia/hotel place Jersey. We walk around, calling our friends and family for support and advice and are left there in the cold for two hours until we decide to call up a cab from a nearby gas station and pay whatever money it takes to get back to the car. I do not want to spend the night in a hotel room. I offer to drive back before hand. Two sweaty, smelly, sleep deprived, mind raped teenagers finally make it back to their car after about 13 hours on their feet in a slowly developing, yet wonderfully(fucking demented) chaotic hell. He took the first hour driving and I took the last 2 hours and 30 minutes. Gladly too. He honestly needed the nap.

Everything just happened at once, one thing after the other. Gradually worse and worse. I still love NYC and I plan to live there at some point, but I fucking hate Jersey now.

If you read through this whole thing: thank you so much. I needed to vent.

I read through it… I've been awake for 24 hours too, but all that was at home. Not being able to get into creating because I've been on the line with Windows tech support trying to get things right again with my computer… :(

Heh, I've had times like that. Chalk it up to experience ^^
You'll miss them one day. ;)

Still, even if it's an adventure, it's a pain while it's happening! Reminds me of the time I was stranded in the middle of no where after an interview at some industrial park out on the fringes of this sprawling suburban city… Me and my nice umbrella and smart coat. I just walk for miles and miles under a light drizzle, just picking a likely direction and going for it! I got to see a nice lake… and a lot of out of the way streets and useless bus stops that were only used by school buses for some reson. But I eventually found a train station! That was only a couple of hours walking though.

I've had worse (missed buses, trains, long waits etc), but never been as lost before. Being lost is a horrible feeling.

ozoneocean
Heh, I've had times like that. Chalk it up to experience ^^
You'll miss them one day. ;)

I've had worse (missed buses, trains, long waits etc), but never been as lost before. Being lost is a horrible feeling.

heh… no doubt.
>.>
<.<
^.^

… but miss them? *shivers*

it was kind of creepy as well because I guess my friend had meant it to be a date or something because he kept on referring to that. That made it worse for him too.

mechanical_lullaby
it was kind of creepy as well because I guess my friend had meant it to be a date or something because he kept on referring to that. That made it worse for him too.

Ha! But it was your big adventure together! ^^

I got lost in downtown Louisville with one of my friends….
Not good.

Sometimes life gives you shit…and then turns it into shitade and shoves it down your gullet.

Reminds me of the time my mom, my sister, and I all went hiking and somehow ended up in someone's cow pasture on the opposite side of the mountain.

Oh god you poor thing… ;_;

I've had similar experiences~ Like when I missed my flight in Ottowa because customs thought I'd be smuggling drugs or animals or something… then imigration thought I was planning to never leave… I know all that interrogation is probably done to everyone entering the country but still! They said it wasn't their fault~ that I should of left more time between flights (I left an hour and a half - I don't think that's too short of a time really, I even requested to be let off the plane first but the flight attendant said it'd be okay). So I had to spend a nice night in Ottowa airport. e_e

Just yesterday I had to do a mad Monty Python-style run through London to catch my bus… I managed to miss my train by seconds (it was pulling out as I ran up to it) so it had a knock-on effect making me late for every other stop of my journey. I was -literally- running through the street like an idiot… buuu. I made it in the end but damn. It was awful…


Both those things were (sorta) my own fault and I'm laughing about them now but at the time I thought I'd just die… I'd be especially pissed off if someone else (like that info lady you mentioned) had been the cause of it… oh there'd be hell to pay.

I've had fun adventures in new york. Its just so fucking big.

I wish I could've been in china town with you guys last night, there was a party another site I frequent was having a party. They had, in their words, “dirty jew money”. Which would've been fun to throw at strippers faces. Pro Tip: always aim for the eyes of strippers, they like that.

Really, your first mistake was driving a car in new york. No one drives in new york, the traffic is too fucking bad. Secondly, riding a bus isn't that great eithar. Should've used the subway, its much faster and if you thought the bus had colorful characters on it, wait until you've been on a subway car around 1-2 in the morning.

Most of my time in the city has been extremely negative. I went there most recently for work, and the place I was going to do a gig at they bumped me off because of some other asshole. I decided to vent my frustrations and heckle the poor bastard. I'll be in new york again in two weeks, we should play “find the scariest place late at night” which the rules should be self explanatory on the game. I'd vote the subway or the docks, although I'd say there are some areas in the projects that would be even more scary around that time. Its all about who you're playing with. People get scared of different things. Oh well.

long read:P

I have nothing to say though…

marine
I've had fun adventures in new york. Its just so fucking big.

I wish I could've been in china town with you guys last night, there was a party another site I frequent was having a party. They had, in their words, “dirty jew money”. Which would've been fun to throw at strippers faces. Pro Tip: always aim for the eyes of strippers, they like that.

Really, your first mistake was driving a car in new york. No one drives in new york, the traffic is too fucking bad. Secondly, riding a bus isn't that great eithar. Should've used the subway, its much faster and if you thought the bus had colorful characters on it, wait until you've been on a subway car around 1-2 in the morning.
unclear. sorry about that. we actually drove to jersey at its most northern and took a cheap bus the rest of the five mile way. but yeah, should have expected the bus to be like that.we did use the subway all day and we would have used it to get back to jersey but couldn't.

Most of my time in the city has been extremely negative. I went there most recently for work, and the place I was going to do a gig at they bumped me off because of some other asshole. I decided to vent my frustrations and heckle the poor bastard. I'll be in new york again in two weeks, we should play “find the scariest place late at night” which the rules should be self explanatory on the game. I'd vote the subway or the docks, although I'd say there are some areas in the projects that would be even more scary around that time. Its all about who you're playing with. People get scared of different things. Oh well. I read about that getting thrown off your gig thing. I would've done the same thing– probably worsened it by laughing a bit too hard and overly long on each joke