Drew on a Boat: Day 12: New York City

Oct 23, 2011 1:13
I had a great few hours in NYC followed by a hectic 11 at work. I'm far too pooped to write about it tonight. For all you blog junkies you'll have to check back around noon tomorrow (Sunday). I'll post when I wake up tomorrow.

Oct 23, 2011 10:19

Well after 4 years of working in up state New York State I finally made it to the big city. And when I say big city, I mean BIG city. It's odd though, because as I left Pier 88 at 12th and 48th nothing seemed special or exceptionally large about the city. As I started my trek through the city however, it quickly became clear I was in a another world. As I walked past massive and elaborate churches, Radio City Music Hall, Rockafeller Center, Time Square, NBC Studios, Trump Tower, Central Park, and of course the 5th Ave Apple Store (nerd alert!) it became abundantly clear that I had woken up somewhere special.

The crazy thing is when I woke up and plotted out my walking route to the Apple Store at the corner of Central Park I figured I'd see the store, Central Park then hit Times Square and leave. Everything else that I saw was completely accidental! I'm minding my own business walking down the street then, bam! I stumble onto the home of the NFL draft at Radio City, a few minutes later I find myself standing in front of a building I've seen hundreds of times over the years on TV but felt slightly surreally to be at; Trump Tower.

Times Square is something that you really have to experience to understand. That block alone must use as much power in a year as the entire country of Canada. I've never seen so many screens, movement and people in all my life.

I wanted to hit the Apple Store for a couple reasons. 1. I needed a good wifi connection for updates and phone calls and I knew they'd have a strong one. and 2. I wanted to see the iconic glass cube on the corner of Central Park. I had remembered reading a while back that they were renovating the cube but hoped that they had finished… They hadn't. As opposed to seeing the big glass cube I saw a big grey cube with "We're simplifying the Fifth Avenue cube. By using larger, seamless pieces of glass, we're using just 15 panels instead of 90." Show offs.

As good as my morning off was my 11 hour afternoon at work was the exact opposite.

Answer me this. What do you get when you take 2,500 people, put them into a foreign venue, and remove them from their luggage for hours on end? Chaos. Absolute chaos. I've seen nothing like this before, I worked 12-6 and 7-12 and it didn't slow down until 11:45. Where's my luggage, where's the restaurant, I'm the 2nd dinner sitting but want to be the 1st, I need ice, I need pillows, and my safe won't lock, were just a sampling of the questions I received over and over again. Just nuts. Here's hoping things chill out a bit tonight.

Here's some pics, sorry there's no real order to them.