We Went to New York City -- And Survived!

Kristi and I have just returned from our first trip to New York City together (and my first trip there ever). It was a whirlwind tour. Because my travel life can be summed up on one Google Map, I was concerned, never having been to the big city. I don't really like not knowing how to do things I need to (like check in and out of hotels, park, get a taxi, etc.), and I don't particularly like people, so, while I was looking forward to the trip, I was a bit anxious. After the first couple days though, I was navigating the city like a pro.

We arrived Monday afternoon (my boss drove, fortunately) and left Friday afternoon (on the MegaBus). The ride and accommodations were paid for by AccuWeather; in turn, I attended about 15 events at Social Media Week 2013. I hoped for a hotel with a view, and I got one. The Hampton Inn in Soho is a 19-floor building (we stayed on the 15th floor). As if the view out our window wasn't crazy enough...

The view from the 19th floor balcony (which Kristi discovered on Tuesday) was even better...
Our hotel, and all the SMW events, were in Manhattan, so I didn't actually set foot on Long Island (which is mostly residential and not as tourist-trappy, but also more drab and dangerous, according to locals). Manhattan has come a long way in the last 10 years. Giuliani really cleaned the place up and Manhattan is a great place to visit today. Most tourist attractions, including but not limited to the Empire State Building, Times Square, 9/11 Memorial, New York Public Library, Central Park, Penn Station and Grand Central Station, and the American Museum of Natural History are all there.
I'll attempt a day-by-day description of our adventures here, though I'm sure I'll forget something. I didn't want this vacation to be one of those where I take a lot of good pictures, then forget about the whole thing. So here goes... (time-lapse video of our car ride near the city below):


MONDAY FEB. 18, 2013:
It's about a 5-hour trip from State College. We stopped at a Subway (in a CostCo) in the Poconos for lunch. Before you know it, we were starting seeing signs of the city. That's when I adhered my GoPro HERO3 wide-angle camera to the rental car's windshield and started taping. Here's what it the approach to Manhattan (through the Holland tunnel) looks like at 200x speed:

Our hotel room was TINY (but of course, this is New York City, so all stores & rooms are tiny. That was the biggest difference I noticed in our hotel. The view out the window though, as noted above, was great -- and a little overwhelming.

My first task was to go uptown to the Radio City building where AccuWeather has an office.

Fortunately my boss helped me flag down a cab. I've probably been in a cab a couple times in my life, but I paid great attention, knowing I would have to do it on my own the next morning. Cabs have come a long way in the last 20 years. In NYC, they have TVs in the back which provide local news and (of course) the AccuWeather forecast. You can also bring up a map with a GPS tracker of the taxi's location.

You should also know this: The roads in Manhattan are TERRIBLE, the experience is akin to continually running over railroad tracks. And the cabbies FLY, sometimes at 40-50 mph (even though the city speed limit is 30). We ended up with a nice melting pot of cabbies over the next 24 hours -- from Pakistani and Indian to Russian, German, and Jamaican (the last fellow who brought us back to the hotel, who, while engaging in small talk with us, said "I luv da city doh. Wouldn't give it up for the world, mon.")

Disappointingly, the AccuWeather office wasn't open, so we took a cab right back to the hotel. My boss had a dinner date, so Kristi and I began walking uptown, looking for a place she had heard of called "Papaya Dog" (claiming the best hot dogs in the city, although of course it isn't the only one that boasts this). We were also determined to find the Lomography camera for Kristi, because she's super into film cameras (blame the hipsters for bringing those back).

Our walk was interesting and we wanted to stop and take pictures of everything. I couldn't believe it, here I was in the biggest city in the nation. 8 million called this place home - more than Los Angeles and Chicago COMBINED. Much of the city's patrons were tourists, and it was a great cross-section of people. English wasn't heard as much as other languages.

First we stopped at a Record Store (yes, kids, a real record store). It was super campy and had two cool gray cats.

We then found the Lomography store first, and I took pictures within while Kristi investigated their wares. After emerging from there, we went to the Papaya Dog (so named because of a famous Papaya drink, which I had, but was not overwhelmed by). The hot dogs were great, as advertised: Gourmet Hot Dogs. One of our goals when we came to New York City was to eat cheaply. A lot of people said it couldn't be done, but a soda and two hot dogs for both of us was only $10 at Gray's Papaya. The next night we came back, and discovered that you could get two slices of pizza for $2.50, so it's possible to eat there for as little as $5.

NOTE: Predictably, I was never able to finish this blog. Here's a GoPro Hero2 video that compiles my various cab trips and (I think) gives you a flavor of the city:

The Life and Times of Starlight, My Longest Companion [L@FT Blog]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [LOVE @ FIRST TOUCH] blog which I wrote with my wife Kristi at http://loveatfirsttouch.blogspot.com/ but has been absorbed into my main blog for archival purposes.

Last month I lost a companion who had been with me longer than my previous marriage. His name was Starlight.

Fresh out of college, I moved from the University of North Carolina campus to Raleigh in the Summer of 1995. I was striking out on my own, working for a start-up Internet service provider (meteorology jobs were few and far between after the government put a hiring freeze into effect). I was living single in the big city, I was young and loving it.

But something was missing, and in late Fall 1995 I took a trip to the local SPCA to look for a companion. I was shown to a cage full of kittens. Most were meowing; many were active, but one little black and white ("tuxedo") kitten stuck both arms out of the cage when I approached as if to say "Take me! Take me!" And for about $50, I had my first pet. And the rest, as they say, is history.

At the time, I was working on a Macintosh computer at work which had a starlight desktop pattern, and I noticed my new cat had a similar pattern on his forehead, so I decided to call him Starlight. Raising a kitten was a challenge, and there were sleepless nights, but he was a wonderful companion -- young, single, and full of energy, just like me. I didn't know many people at the time, so he typically came home with me to visit Mom & Dad and their cat Bootskie every couple of weeks.

I had grown up around many cats but few dogs, so I had always been a "cat person." At the age of 7, I befriended a stray cat lost in the woods near where my parents were building our house. She turned out to be pregnant and Rocky had three kittens: Blackie, Spots, and Tiger, who provided me friendship throughout my youth and a warm lap when needed on cold mornings waiting for the school bus.

Star continued to provide companionship and occasional antics worthy of a submission to "World's Craziest Pets" for the next 17 years, lasting longer than my first wife and stepdaughter. He moved up to Pennsylvania with me in Summer 1997 when I got a job here (one of my fondest memories is him sitting on the dashboard watching the cars go by in the middle of the night at an Interstate rest area).
During the middle of his life, he contracted diabetes at 25 pounds and fell to less than 10. I had to give him a shot in the neck with insulin, twice a day for about 8 years, (which led to an amusing story about Wal-Mart paging "Star Ferrell" to the pharmacy) but he had recently recovered from the disease. After the separation in Summer 2010, he helped me survive the loneliness of an empty house by being the only thing living and breathing there, who would greet me at the door. He had, indeed, been through it all.

He even was lucky enough to meet my new girlfriend and her daughter, who moved in 16 years later (nearly to the day) after I had welcomed him into my apartment. But Kristi was allergic to cats (as am I, but mine can be overcome by medicine while hers is life-threatening) and Star was becoming incontinent in his old age, so I moved him into the upstairs bathroom for a couple months while Kristi and I were dating, then again to the downstairs laundry room in preparation for Kristi and her daughter to move in.

In December 2011, we started talking about moving Kristi's dog into the house. Star had lived with a dog before, and didn't think it was so grand (she put his head into her mouth routinely and he once scratched a major artery in her leg causing it to spray blood). So I was a little worried about how it would work out.

But, it would seem, he had different plans. Around the holidays, he stopped eating and started to look sick, though his little smile was still there as always, and he would still purr to be stroked. Dogs may howl, but cats loyalty to their masters dictates that they don't let you know when they are in pain. (They actually believe that the pain is external so they run away or hide in a corner to try to get away from it).

And on the evening of January 3rd, 2012, four days before we were to move the dog in, Star decided it was time to let go. After hearing a wanton meow unlike those we had heard before, Kristi and I decided to make time to give him special attention that evening. We petted him for a while. He purred and smiled, looking much better than he had in weeks, looking so happy, then I held him in my arms as he passed from this world.

We were thankful that it happened that way, with our love, and without an expensive trip to the vet, which we both knew would only extend his life for a few weeks, at great expense. The next day, I made the last cold drive to the vets with Star (wrapped up in the blanket he used to sleep on), and for roughly the same price as I had obtained him, I let him go. A few days later I received a heart-tugging poem and his footprint in clay from the vet, and this chapter of my life closed.

I've been working for the last few weeks on going through old videos of him, and getting the collage of photos shown above together, and have now hung it in the laundry room in memoriam, to decorate his last home. Here's how it looks:

R.I.P. Starlight "Star" Ferrell 1995-2012. He was a Good Kitty.

Jesse 3.0 [JESSE 2.0]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 2.0] blog at http://jessetwopointoh.blogspot.com but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes. You can read all Jesse 2.0 entries here.

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This is the final blog entry for "Jesse 39.9" | Read All "Jesse 2.0" Blogs Here

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Good news, Jesse 2.0 is dead, as you probably guessed from me stopping updates in February.

I have moved on past my divorce and am having a wonderful time with a new partner. Read all about it at my new blog which I am writing with Kristi at Love At First Touch.

Goodbye, old me!

[JESSE 2.0] Superbowl Sunday & I Don't Care

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 2.0] blog at http://jessetwopointoh.blogspot.com but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes. Some text and entries were later censored out of respect for people involved and my sanity.
So the "bowl which is super" is currently underway in Dallas, Texas. The only reason that I know it's there is because of the coverage we did as news reporters for my real job last week. I went to Wal-Mart today for groceries and was lost in a sea of team-logo-adorned jocks and former jocks. Queue my neighbor's unveiling of his purportedly "terrible towel" this morning on his garage door, captured via my webcam:


I don't watch or play sports, and I never have. That makes me a bit of an outcast from my fellow males. But my family never followed sports, and (by the grace of God) neither did my ex-wife or stepdaughter.

So this year is no different -- but I will certainly partake in a pizza, some potato chips, and some relaxation in front of the TV. My family and I used to watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet, but because of those memories I don't think I can bring myself to do that this year. Today it's Superbowl Sunday -- my way.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/f27IqVo5-Oc
 

Divorce And Taxes [JESSE 2.0]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 2.0] blog at http://jessetwopointoh.blogspot.com but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes. You can read all Jesse 2.0 entries here.

They say there are only two things certain in life: Death and Taxes. Well, I'm not dead yet, but I had to talk to my ex-wife this week so that we could do our taxes. Hadn't talked (and by talked, I mean texted, because that's all she'll do) with her for a while, and we've only talked about logistical things for the last several months.


I thought the taxes would be really difficult since we were separated halfway through 2010, but it turns out that just means that you have to file as "Single" so it wasn't too hard -- although I couldn't figure out how to get her name out of my TurboTax, so I'll have that reminder to look forward to next year. In any case, it didn't seem to make any difference so I have submitted my returns.

It's a little unpredictable because I don't know what she might claim on her return, so I'll believe my refund when I see it appear in the checking account. Hopefully that will keep me in the house a few more months -- after 250 pages of paperwork and six months, Wells Fargo has still not been able to reduce my mortgage payment, though I think they are (finally) really working on it this week.

2011: Truly, A New Year [JESSE 2.0]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 2.0] blog at http://jessetwopointoh.blogspot.com but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes. You can read all Jesse 2.0 entries here.

2010 sucked. I got divorced, almost lost my house, two of my uncles died, and my grandmother (and cat) got very ill. Here's hoping 2011 will be better.

It is truly the newest year for me in a decade. Eleven years ago New Years Eve, I was proposing to my girlfriend. Today I am alone, six months after she, her daughter and her dog left.

In order to kick of 2011 on a daring note, I spent New Years weekend in Wildwood, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, both towns I had never visited, with friends that I barely knew. It was nice to get out and see something new. And this is not something I would have been willing to do when I was married.


Being married was like being in a cocoon - it was pleasant and safe, but I didn't get of my comfort zone, meet people or try new things. And that was OK with me at the time. But I think I'm ready to do that now.

To give some perspective, I've never liked traveling, and if not for work, which flew me to Oklahoma City and Wichita, I would never have been west of New Orleans. I've never been to Florida, New York City, or the West Coast. I don't really like to travel, no matter the means.

Yet somehow on New Years Weekend there I was, walking and driving around Philadelphia, visiting the southern tip of New Jersey, hanging out with people I barely knew. Trying new things and not fearing it at all.


It was as good of a start to the New Year as I could expect. I'm not really making New Years resolutions this time, as I've got plenty to work on. Right now my goal is to continue my more-healthy and more sociable lifestyle.

I'd like to say that this will be the year where I won't think about my ex-wife and stepdaughter every day, but that's just not realistic. I still love them very much and think of them several times per day.

The Meaning of Christmas [JESSE 2.0]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 2.0] blog at http://jessetwopointoh.blogspot.com but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes. You can read all Jesse 2.0 entries here.

"I get it... the meaning of Christmas is... the idea that Christmas has meaning, and it can mean whatever we want. For me, it used to mean being with my Mom. But now it means being with you guys."

-- Abed, "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"


I'm always pleasantly surprised at how deep the comedy "Community" can cut emotionally. This comment by the show's stop-motion-animated character last night sums up what I'm feeling during this first Christmas after my divorce - and a realization that may have allowed my heart to grow like a little like the Grinch. Ironically, the image of him above looks a little like me today.

At first I tried to avoid Christmas completely, but it's impossible to do that here in the U.S., and eventually its warm, pine-scented tentacles got to me. I still didn't decorate, but I put up a string of USB lights at work and at home, and a pink Christmas Tree for my Flamingo collection. I still didn't listen to Christmas music (when possible), but I am watching the Christmas-themed TV shows that I normally have on my weekly list.

So what is Christmas to me this year?

Relaxation and good food. While I'm watching those shows on TV today and tomorrow, and a few flakes of snow are falling outside, I'll be preparing my favorite meal, a spicy pasta dish, to go with some Christmas cookies and candy I'll be enjoying later today and tomorrow. To go with that, a couple of movies I've been wanting to see ("Inception" and "Devil"), a stack of magazines, and my cat Star on my lap.

True, today he is my only companion, but that doesn't bother me, and I'd rather be here relaxing than anything else. This is probably another blog entry, but I think I'm finally comfortable with myself -- getting back something that I had earlier in my life, growing up as an only child. And that... may be the best present of all.

Me, getting the Christmas Tree at Age 13