Trip to NYC- 5 July->8 July
Created | Updated Aug 1, 2002
Lancaster, NY-Penn Station, Babylon, West Islip (Poets)
My day started at about seven in the morning on the fifth of July, after a night of around five hours of sleep. Was I excited? Possibly. The only reason I even mention this is because it matters later on. Clive and I were driven to the Lancaster City train station at about 10am, all packed with atrociously huge wedding gift barely contained in bag and other luggage in tow. The station was next to deserted and reminded me of an old sepia-toned photograph—everything was in shades of brown and greying yellow. After an interesting incident with a Twix bar in one of the lobbies, we ambled down to the platform to await the train—which, surprisingly enough, was on time! Lady Scott and Shorty hugged us and we embarked the train—shoving the huge pully suitcase in a rather useful gap in the end of the car, putting the gift in the overhead, and finding seats where we could go backwards. 1 The train began moving and we settled into our seats, watching the Pennsylvania countryside scroll by outside the window.
Now, I’ve never been on a real train before this. Honest. The US train system isn’t extensive enough for most of us to bother half the time—but since I don't drive2, the train ended up being absolutely perfect for our needs. A three hour trip—including stops at a bunch of places between Lancaster and NYC. Nifty. The most amusing thing about the ride itself (perhaps the only amusing thing—as Clive slept through most of it) was the fact that up until we got to the Philadelphia station, the ride rhythm was erratic and hard to settle into. The moment we left Philadelphia, the ride became smooth 3. This is not unlike the Pennsylvania highway system as opposed to the highways of all other states. There are back country roads in Virginia that are smoother than some of Pennsylvania’s highways.
Anyway, I digress.
We got into Penn Station at about 3 pm, and attempted to call TJ on his cell phone. The jury’s still out on whether or not that actually worked. After that, we proceeded to Dunkin’ Donuts for grub
4, and then bought tickets for the Babylon station, the closest LIRR train stop to TJ and Shea’s appartment in West Islip. We got there around 4:30, and sat around in the waiting area to renew some strength and decide what our next move should be. We knew the rehearsal dinner wasn’t to start till 7, and we had two and a half hours to kill—so we waited till about 5 and then went across the street to get a taxi to take us to the apartment. Amusingly enough, no one in the taxi place had a clue how to get where we were going—but once maps were pulled out, we were on our way. 5We finally got to the apartment around 5:30ish, were told by the other tenant of the house we were in the right place, and took respite on the deck after calling Lady Scott to tell her we’d arrived safely at the right place, and TJ once again to let him know we were there.
People began arriving around 6:45 and we got strange looks from all the relatives and friends till we explained we were the “internet scum”6, but all seemed welcoming and happy to meet us once they realized we were invited guests. The couple of honor finally got there around 7:30, and then things really kicked off and the party commenced.
We presented The Book during the dinner/picnic, and though it got odd looks from many of the guests, Shea and TJ were pleased!7 The visitors left around 10 pm, and at that time we presented TJ and Shea with The Gift.
Now let me explain something about The Gift. It was in a box measuring 12” in all directions, wrapped in Goo blue paper with sparkly ribbon all about it, the color of which resembled the toolbar on Goo pages. This was quite a challenge to put into a bag to carry into New York—and barely fit in the only suitcase type thing in my HOUSE large enough—the bow and sparkly ribbon peaked out the top in a rather suspicious manner. I'm amazed we weren't pulled over by any officials on our journey. In any case, paper was carefully ripped, and the box was opened, revealing first a sign that said “No Spitting.” This alone got a guffaw from the couple—and immediately they began discussing where they’d put it in the house. After that came the box of seven silver sporks—one for each day of the week, and the gift of gifts: fishbowl hand-engraved with the words “So Long And Thanks For All The Fish” and the h2g2 logo.
“Of all the junky crystal and stuff we got—this is the only thing we’ll probably ever use,” I remember Shea saying.
Not long after that, we all retreated to bed, with orders to be up by 8 am so we could be on time for the wedding (as the person who was to drive TJ to the chapel was also the one to be taking us there). This is where that 5 hours of sleep I had the night before starts to come into play, along with the caffeine I drank at the dinner and during the day. Now, I have an insommniac streak only about a yard wide—but when it goes off, it goes OFF. I tossed and turned all that night, finally getting to sleep around 6:20am for twenty minutes (enough time for a quick dream—the only reason I knew I slept at all). The alarm went off at 8 am—about the time I felt I could fall asleep again—and we dashed around getting ready in order to be prepared to leave the appartment by 10am.8
Keeping tabs for the hours of sleep so far: .3 hours. I had been up for 25 hours straight, minus a 20 minute nap.
The Wedding Day (Doobry)
We were dressed in our finest by about 9am, by which time TJ had come back from his final errands as a bachelor and was set to get spiffed up himself. All went just perfect till 10 am passed by, as did 10:15. 9 TJ hurridly called the guy who was supposed to pick him up-- who was already at the chapel, wondering where on earth the groom had gotten to! After a few more frantic phone calls, another friend of the groom’s, Dave, and his wife, Michelle, and two daughters showed up in their van to take us all to the chapel.
Even though there was a full half hour till the wedding was to start, it normally takes about 40 minutes to get from the West Islip appartment to the church, which was near Patchogue. So we gunned it on highway 27 for half an hour and actually got to the chapel with five minutes to spare, thanks to Dave the cop and his mad driving skillzz10. We dropped TJ off descreetly at the back of the chapel, and then the rest of us made our way to the front lawn of the church where we milled about, waiting to be ushered into the chapel. The bridesmaids soon exited the limo parked in front of the chapel, and we were all shooed inside the building, and anxiously waited for the ceremony to start.
The organist struck up Canon in D, and the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and flower girl entered, followed by an expectant hush as the organist switched music to the Wedding March as Shea entered, escorted by both of her parents. Beads sparkled from every inch of her ivory dress, and we could all tell that already she was beginning to tear up. There ceremony began soon thereafter, a typical Catholic service (or so I’m told), which centered on the eternity of the love being brought forth that morning. The best man introduced the newly married couple to the congregation-- and we applauded-- plus the “YAY!!!”s from Tac and Aaron in the back row of the chapel.
After that, Michelle transported Clive and me to the reception-- and, of course, we got lost on the way there. 11 So we stopped at a 7-11 and asked for directions and got to the Mediterranian Manor soon thereafter-- a rather huge, elaborate place that didn’t look like much from the outside. Inside, mirrors adorned most of the walls, and we all had a cocktail hour while we waited for the dining room to be ready and for the wedding party to arrive.
Seeing as I’m underage in the US12, I did no drinking at the wedding reception (except for the obligatory sip of champagne at the toast which went right to my sleep-deprived head), so I just got cokes from the bar (thanks to Aaron and Clive who realized I was a bit dehydrated-- not to mention exhausted and in need of caffeine-- at that point). This only inflamed my exhaustion further-- I had a sugar/caffeine high plus I hadn’t slept for more than a 20 minute nap in over a day and a half. At this point, the no-sleep calculator says I haven’t slept for 30 hours. In case you were wondering.
We were soon shooed into the dining room-- complete with dance floor and hyped-up DJ-- and only had to wait a few minutes before Shea and TJ entered and danced their first dance as husband and wife. We were all invited to join-- so Clive and I took the floor and attempted to dance. One should probably mention at this point that, despite my musical prowess, I have no sense of rhythm when it comes to my own body. So that was interesting, and I think we had Tac and Aaron in stitches watching us cause we were so off the beat, but soon the song ended and we all moved back to our tables for the toast. After that, the meal began, and the free bars were opened-- and the party really got going.
The four of us h2g2ers of course had to do introductions with the rest of the people at our table-- and the knowing looks when we replied we were the “internet people” commenced again, but no matter! The vases of flowers on every table had, in each, three smilies on a stick, and we were the only people outside the bride and groom who got it! How cool?!
Anyway, the party truly underway13, people began taking the dance floor to familiar tunes as the wacky DJ emceed them onto higher insanities. One singlular memory was that of the old woman in purple getting her ‘thang’ on out there-- I wanna be like that when I get older. Even cooler, the young flower girl (who couldn’t have been more than 7) had discovered that polished wooden dance floors and satin dresses got along very well and had begun break dancing on the floor with a blow-up guitar and shades. That’s an image that doesn’t leave someone’s exhausted mind very quickly.
After a very filling meal, many laughs at those dancing 14, and some interesting antics with the bouquet and garter throw (which you can read about in Clive's report), we left to go to Dobbs Ferry, where we would be staying with Tacsatduck and Aaron O’Keefe. This bout of traveling was to be interesting as not only would be dragging our luggage through the NYC transportation system but were being lead to our destination by two men who were more than just slightly buzzed from the free bars at the reception. Nonetheless, Tac navigated his way through the transit systems with ease-- could probably do it in his sleep-- and we ended up in Dobbs Ferry ready to collapse completely about 3 hours later. 15 By this point, it was about 7pm, and once we made it to Tac’s loft appartment16, we decided to have a little something to drink (hot chocolate, before anyone gets any ideas), and settled down with Aaron’s laptop to work on the Post Report of the wedding that Clive was supposed to be doing. We got about a third of the way through when Tac came in to tell us he and Aaron were heading out for the remainder of the night-- that we could crash wherever we felt like in the three bedroom appartment and that his room was the one with the TV and DVD player. No suggestion there. So, since Clive is a self-admitted movie geek, we moved to Tac’s room and settled down on the very gooshey loveseat sofa thingie and proceeded to watch Life of Brian since I’d yet to have seen it.
I still have yet to see most of it-- I dozed off inbetween Clive’s poking at me to tell me a particularly funny part was coming up. Eventually, both of us decided that it was pretty much worthless to stay up as we were both falling asleep in turns, and crashed and burned in Tac’s room at about 10:00 that night.
After being up for 38 hours continuously, I finally got some much needed sleep, curled up on a loveseat that was just 4 inches from being comfortable to stretch out on. So I woke up rested, but with a crick in my neck-- at least I slept!!! Manhatten (Dontbry)
In between showers and things and generally not wanting to wake up, it took us till about 11 to be ready to head down to the train station to go into Manhatten for our day of site-seeing and general running around. Luckily, the 11:20 train was late by about 10 minutes, so we got on that instead of the 12:2017, and got into GCT around noon, had lunch, and proceeded to try to figure out what to do next. In the end, we decided to go to the Natural History Museum on 81st street-- by bus! Normally one would assume this would be a good idea… until one factors in the speed of Manhatten traffic-- like ketchup coming out of a bottle. You either fly, move along at an achingly slow pace, or stand still for 15 minutes at a time. In the end, we got to 76th street (closest stop) about 45 minutes later, and still had to walk a few blocks to the museum, which just happened to be across the road from Central Park.
After getting something to drink at the snack bar in the basement (it was a rather warm day), we proceeded to the top floor where the dinosaur skeletons were kept. It will probably not surprise you to learn, dear reader, that this was one of the only times I’ve seen dinosaur skeletons, and wandered around the exhibits like a 5 year old, jaw agape, since I, like most kids, was absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs when I was younger and had always wanted to be in the presence of one-- even it was only the remaining fossilized bone.
18 After seeing the full compliment of dino exhibits and a few other things on the other 3 floors, we decided we were all museumed out, and began the journey back to GCT through Central Park by foot.19Neat thing about Central Park: I may just be a little rural and at this point perhaps missing trees and wide open spaces, but Central Park is like the oasis of Manhatten. It’s rather quiet in comparison to the rest of the city, and one would never even know one was in a huge city if they didn’t see the buildings towering over the trees when they got close to one of the edges.20 We eventually turned onto Fifth Avenue and began our trek through to city back to Grand Central, passing by a large statue of Atlas. The reason people were taking photographs escaped us for the moment-- only once we looked at the map did we realize we’d gone by Rockefeller Center without knowing it! We eventually made the 20 odd block walk back to Grand Central, had some dinner, and decided to go back to Tac’s place as we were both still very very tired.
We checked the train listings on the moniter-- found a Husdon Line train leaving at not quite the hour, and, despite what Tac had told me about the trains leaving twenty after the hour, decided to go to that platform and get on that train. Since we’re both a bit overcautious, we asked several people on the train if it went to Dobbs Ferry-- which people were either positive about or had no idea about. Well, about 5 minutes before the train was scheduled to move, the conductor got on the loud speaker and began listing the stops-- which didn’t include our desitination. I’ve never moved so fast in my life! We scrambled for the exit, and decided to follow Tac’s directions about taking the train at twenty after the hour-- so we ambled around the shopping concourse at GCT for 15 minutes (which was mostly closed by this time), got some Starbucks, and met the correct train at 20 after the hour. We got back to Tac’s, each had a quick shower, and decided to get up at 8 the next morning to catch an early train so we would be on time to catch our 2:04 train back to Lancaster from Penn Station.
And thus we slept, but not before some very interesting interaction between Clive’s arm and the fireplace grate.21
Homeward Bound (Sodit)
We caught the 9:20 train the next morning, wandered around Grand Central some more (the shops were open finally), had some lunch, and then began the walk to Penn Station. Now, I know full well there are subways that can take you from Grand Central to Penn Station-- but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure them out.22 So we walked the 8 or so blocks to Penn Station, dragging the luggage behind us (thankfully without the Gift).
Funny thing about Penn station, or at least the 34th street entrance: Madison Square Gardens is situated right over top of the station. So, there we were, crossing the road that was supposed to be running right in front of Penn Station and the place was nowhere in sight! A guy who was apparently looking for change to give a cabbie looked at us like we were idiots when we asked him how to get to Penn Station-- he pointed straight ahead but *down* to where the station’s name was plastered below the large advertisement on the side of Madison Square Garden. We retreated to the air-conditioning of the station, checked on the status of our train-- and sat down in the waiting area with 2 hours to kill.
Clive decided to go to one of the Starbucks we saw on the way to the station to buy one of their giant mugs23, and I remained in the station, giving my mom a call to let her know we were at the station and awaiting our train. The train was actually on time once again, and we began the trip home a little after 2 in the afternoon-- arriving at Lancaster at about 5:30.
Conclusion
In all, fun was had by all-- and it was a lovely weekend trip! I’ve never seen two people happier to be together than Shea and TJ were, and I’ve never been totally stunned for a full day by things I was seeing. It was a trip to not be soon forgotten.
Pictures: Courtesy of Mr. CTF Ostrich24
1 Let it be known that I get motion sick. Very, very motion sick—at the slightest provocation. Strangely enough, despite all the times I traveled backwards on trains on this journey, I didn’t once feel even queasy. How is that?!2And even if I did, I wouldn’t want to try to navigate Manhatten or Long Island after a 4 hour drive. 3 Well, as smooth as train rides get, I suppose.4Much needed as I had not eaten anything substantial since the night before. 5One thing I must say about Long Island taxis. They’re cheap. Only like 4 bucks for a 15 minute ride—it costs about $8 for a comperable ride in Lancaster! 
6Then we got even stranger looks.7 This was after the fight with the lock on the suitcase, which had apparently rusted shut between Lancaster and West Islip. Oddly enough, it took TJ about two seconds with the right tool to pry it off—and we decided that, just maybe, the lock was pretty much useless.8There is also an interesting incident between Clive and the bed I slept in and the floor of the room which happened that morning that I would love to recount except he'd have my head. But let's just say the look of astonishment when he hit the floor was absolutely priceless! (ie: "I coulda sworn I'd aimed for the bed!" 
)9Reminder: the wedding was slated to start at 11am sharp!10 Don’t even ask. This is a personal inside joke. "My mad driving skillzz-- with TWO z's!!!"11Just because a road looks like it should connect to another, that doesn’t mean that it will.12Legal drinking age is 21; I‘d turned 20 only three days beforehand.13ie, blood-alcohol levels steadily rising14Ask TJ to do the lawn sprinkler someday15My favorite thing said by anyone on that trip was said by Clive on the train from Grand Central Terminal to Dobbs Ferry-- “Dear, don’t take this the wrong way, but with those dark circles under your eyes, you look like the Emperor.” This was, of course, because I hadn’t slept in 35 hours and because makeup tends to fade/refuse to exist in certain places after a bit if you don’t reapply every hour or so.16In a very mountainous part of eastern New York right by the Hudson. I felt right at home-- I miss my Appalachians!!!17Which would have been our only choice cause we got to the station at exactly 11:20, right when the train was supposed to leave.18Weird. Somehow I always had thought they’d be taller. When you’re 6 and barely 4 and half feet tall, seventy five feet seems much higher than it does when you’re 20 and 5’4”.19Which took us just over an hour, by the way-- compare that with the length of time it took on the bus!20For someone who’s used to having trees and mountains being the tall things in a landscape, having buildings that made the trees in the park look like doll house landscaping was quite an experience.21Don’t ask.(*yawn* *roll* *Ka-POW!* Ooww!!!)22I was afraid of getting on the wrong metro and ending up, somehow, in Talahassee, Florida!23The boy lives off of caffeine, I swear he does.24Click on the America folder
6Then we got even stranger looks.7 This was after the fight with the lock on the suitcase, which had apparently rusted shut between Lancaster and West Islip. Oddly enough, it took TJ about two seconds with the right tool to pry it off—and we decided that, just maybe, the lock was pretty much useless.8There is also an interesting incident between Clive and the bed I slept in and the floor of the room which happened that morning that I would love to recount except he'd have my head. But let's just say the look of astonishment when he hit the floor was absolutely priceless! (ie: "I coulda sworn I'd aimed for the bed!" )9Reminder: the wedding was slated to start at 11am sharp!10 Don’t even ask. This is a personal inside joke. "My mad driving skillzz-- with TWO z's!!!"11Just because a road looks like it should connect to another, that doesn’t mean that it will.12Legal drinking age is 21; I‘d turned 20 only three days beforehand.13ie, blood-alcohol levels steadily rising14Ask TJ to do the lawn sprinkler someday15My favorite thing said by anyone on that trip was said by Clive on the train from Grand Central Terminal to Dobbs Ferry-- “Dear, don’t take this the wrong way, but with those dark circles under your eyes, you look like the Emperor.” This was, of course, because I hadn’t slept in 35 hours and because makeup tends to fade/refuse to exist in certain places after a bit if you don’t reapply every hour or so.16In a very mountainous part of eastern New York right by the Hudson. I felt right at home-- I miss my Appalachians!!!17Which would have been our only choice cause we got to the station at exactly 11:20, right when the train was supposed to leave.18Weird. Somehow I always had thought they’d be taller. When you’re 6 and barely 4 and half feet tall, seventy five feet seems much higher than it does when you’re 20 and 5’4”.19Which took us just over an hour, by the way-- compare that with the length of time it took on the bus!20For someone who’s used to having trees and mountains being the tall things in a landscape, having buildings that made the trees in the park look like doll house landscaping was quite an experience.21Don’t ask.(*yawn* *roll* *Ka-POW!* Ooww!!!)22I was afraid of getting on the wrong metro and ending up, somehow, in Talahassee, Florida!23The boy lives off of caffeine, I swear he does.24Click on the America folder