Entries this day: Cannot_see Paige Timezones

Cannot see

6:19am ADT Monday 18 July 2005

500 meter visibility. The ship is honking its horn every couple of minutes. Interesting to not be able to see shit.

I hope Captain Costas still lets us go up to the bridge.

7:19am ADT Monday 18 July 2005

He cancelled. d'oh.

On the top deck now, and it's funny: we cleaned the shit out of this ship, but the set of piers to which we are headed are ugly and old and crappy lookin' as anything.

9:25am ADT Monday 18 July 2005

Americans have been summoned to the sports bar.

1:25pm ADT Monday 18 July 2005

From Pier 90, Berth 3 I emerge into the streets of New York City. About four lanes of traffic each direction. Just gotta get change and then call Frank.

Brick buildings and dirty streets. I'm walkin' like a bad-ass like "Ima fuckin' kill you," but there is no one around to see. This is like the edge of the city.

Dirty ol' fucked up couches behind buildings. I'm on 50th street, one way with three lanes, two of which are used for parking.

I wonder what there is to love about the city. I don't love it yet.

2:30pm

I just mailed stuff to the family: a cat for dad, sand for Fred and Ma, and some backup CDs entrusted to Fred via Ma.

Paige

3:18pm ADT Monday 18 July 2005

Paige just radiates beautiful golden loving awesome energy. Huge beautiful smile and so lovely and tall. When I called her, she was like, "meet me at 6th street and 34th in front of Macy's" so I went there and was like, shit; I don't know if I remember what she looks like - okay, she's tall, beautiful, big smile, ummmm so she'll be smiling I'm sure, man... so I waited a bit with this worry hanging over my brain and then I saw her and it was like, Bang. No question.

We met and talked about our respective Pb voyages (she's been on 3 voyages) and she was in New York at the time of Airplane Day, and she was in London recently on Train Day. Holy fuck!

We are at her favorite bookstore, The Strand, featuring 18 miles of books. We have specified that we'll meet back at the front at exactly 3:40pm. She and I both love books slash bookstores, so we could be here for a while, but that could get expensive (and heavy).

It's so weird to see all these books in English! Man; there is so much to read!

7pm

Paige has been giving me a brief history of places she's lived in New York. I will remember some of it, e.g.

Broadway cuts diagnolly across all the streets.

Fifth avenue ends at Washington Square.

I should see the movie Kids and American History X

8pm

We are going to Bowery Bar later, but I am zipping back to the boat to put on some nicer clothes and she is doing the same at her apartment. We will meet at her apartment in a bit.

I called Frank on Paige's phone and invited him to Bowery Bar. He declined, saying he'll have to wake up early tomorrow, but we will meet tomorrow.

I ran barefootedly back to the boat cause I am faster running but couldn't run in my sandals. I met a guy named Pat when I stopped to put on my sandals to walk across some horseshit water coming from the horse drawn carriage barn.

He was like, "now here's a guy I like; where you from? Jersey?" and I was like "Houston," and he goes, "Houston is hot. I have a brother from Austin," and he told me a bit about what's what in his life, and I gave him a brief overview of mine.

12:05am

I am in a cab heading back to the boat. Just hung out with Paige and her peeps at Bowery Bar, where we played Mafia (I narrated the games) twice. The first game was short cause I hadn't done a good job of describing the rules:

I handed out shuffled pieces of my business card to specify who would be commissioner, mafia, townspeople. Everyone saw their little piece and I specified, "okay, don't show anyone your card. whoever has my first name, 'Rob' is the mafia. Whoever has 'Nugen' is the commissioner. Everyone else is a townsperson." Everyone understood, and the first night came. I was like, "okay, everyone put your heads down. Mafia person, wake up and touch one person on the head." I had my head down, too, because we didn't really have enough people to play otherwise. "Okay, everyone wake up, except the person who was touched: you have died," and then for effect, "Oh No!!" So one guy woke up all dramatically dead and then I was like, "aight guys; who do you think did it?"

And one guy goes, "I did it," like, well *that* was an easy question!

I was like oops and explained the rules more carefully the next time.

Oh my gosh, *AND* I met a man named Earth who (looks a lot like my cousin Peter, and is superfluent in Japanese, and has a birthday soon, AND) knows Silent Football!!!! I was describing the overview of the game, and he goes, "oh, you mean Silent Football?" and my heart lept like, WOW! "yeah! you know it??"

He said he learned it in college and showed me some of the moves he remembered. They were different than what we use in Southwest District, but similar moves to what I remember from some of the UU groups up in the northeast US..

We didn't actually play SF, but had a great time chattering and such. My first night out in New York City was a great success.

At one point I saw Earth's shirt was wrong side out, so I said, "hey Earth, why is your shirt inside out?"

He goes, "wha?" and looked and "hey, my shirt is inside out!"

So I turned my shirt inside out as well, just to be the first one in on this new fashion statement. Paige joked about turning her own shirt inside out, but it would have been a bit more revealing than our button shirts over T-shirts.

12:10am ADT Tuesday 19 July 2005

Just dropped of Paige, Sarah and Alex at Sarah and Alex apartment where Paige is staying.

I have had the absolutely best time ever today, and really enjoyed the *feeling* of being in New York City, just like stories I have read of people in New York City, cause now, after all these years, I can say I have done this stuff in New York City, too.

Hmmm; I never asked Paige how she is funding her travels... It's like I want to be told the answer, but I know it has to come from myself.

12:17am ADT Tuesday 19 July 2005

I walked through the metal detector, but it went off, but they were like, "whateva" and let me through. Also, there is a sign that says something like, "BLAH BLAH BLAH IS A BREECH OF SECURITY." Breech? Come the fuck on guys; use a dictionary!

I told one of the security guards in the hopes that he would tell someone who could fix the sign.

Timezones

12:08am ADT Monday 18 July 2005

I think I'm off one timezone, though the time is correct. When I talked about the hour jumping by two units, I think that fucked it up. Maybe I shoulda reset the clock but kept the timezone.

8:06pm EDT Wednesday 20 July 2005

I just fixed the timezone; I'm going to create One Big Entry for each day we've been here.