This weekend saw me not doing anything new, so much as relaxing on my days off when I could, as well as helping to show some of New York to Josh's parents.
Friday started early as my plans for later that evening were canceled and Josh started inviting me along to show his parents around New York as we went about tidying up his apartment. Our later excursion to the post office was a confusing one as a local drug store advertised postal service but then referred us up the street to the crowded and un air conditioned post office. Upon finishing our business there Josh and I headed back to his apartment, but then separated soon thereafter as I headed into Manhattan to pick up my paycheck.
Once in Manhattan, I spent some time at my store saying hi to co-workers before heading out to decide what to do with my day. Deciding once again to make my way into Times Square to check out novelty T-Shirt prices for family members as well as to track down the MTV store to see what it was all about, I deposited my check and headed into headed up 7th Ave.
The trip was an ultimate disappointment, however, not only because I hate Times Square enough to begin with, but also in that the MTV store was nothing like I expected it to be. It was small, had only a meager selection of T-Shirts and housed a minimal selection of stickers at the front counter. To be honest, if any company or corporation had a market to advertise to, I figured MTV would be it. On a personal note, I was hoping for a vintage room featuring Liquid Television and Remote Control T-Shirts, a wall of nothing but Unplugged CD's and DVD's, and maybe even Duff's leather jacket or Kennedy's glasses encased in glass.
To be honest, the rest of my Friday nite was boring. My initial plan after my, er, initial plans got canceled, was to try to track down Joe and go get drunk with him. As it happened, however, he tried to call me around 8pm when I was napping and my phone was on silent. I woke up around 10pm as Josh and his parents walked in from their sightseeing and dinner.
On Saturday I decided to join Cait, along with Josh, his parents and two of their friends in more sightseeing. I'll be gin by saying that Josh's parents and their friends are in their late 40's or early 50's, hail from a suburb of Pittsburgh, and have never seen New York before. So their list of sights to see included the following:
1) Statue of Liberty
2) Ground Zero
3) Times Square
4) Eat at a "real" New York Deli
Instead of taking a ferry to get up close and personal with Lady Liberty in 90 degree weather, we decided to take the train into Battery Park which offers a fine view of the statue. The first to get frustrated with the pace we had to keep with Josh's parents, I saw Cait giving the same eye roll I was and found comfort and kinship in it. Still, Josh' parents (and now their friends) had been nothing but nice to me, and there I was saying to myself that these were the people I hate in New York - the slow walkers, the eons who take up the entire sidewalk, the ones who move with no purpose and take pictures in the middle of the street - I couldn't help but be frustrated, but I felt like a terrible person at the same time.
In perspective, however, seeing Ground Zero and Lady Liberty wound's be things I would go and do on my own, so I was glad ot see them, even if at my own pace our list of stops would've taken me two hours as opposed to a whole day. That evening, after Josh's parents made their way back to Pennsylvania, the three of us had a mini-bitchfest for a few minutes and then decided it was time to buy a twelve pack of beer and watch House re-runs.
My workday today was my making of amends for hating our tourist tagalongs yesterday I suppose. The store wasn't busy in the slightest due to the Memorial Day weekend, but what customers we did have all seemed to be tourists from out of the country. I was pleasant to all of them while still finding it odd that these fok would be taking a long weekend over Memorial Day weekend, an American holiday. One British woman told me she expected the city to not be as busy which I sort of chuckled at because A) it's New York, and B) I had actually thought it was a slow weekend int eh city from teh previous ones I had seen.
