Lower West Side Graffitti(Photo: NYCDreamin Archives)
Day 3.5 - 07/04/08 (10:00pm) - 07/05/08 (4:00pm)
"Welcome to The Jungle Baby, You're Gonna DiiiiiiiIIEEEEE!"
(Guns 'n' Roses - 1987)
OK, so maybe it wasn't all THAT bad. But my patriotic exhuberance quickly changed to bemused concern as the crowd began to clear out, driven along, perhaps a little more quickly than if it were not raining. The cool thing about being at the FRONT of a crowd of millions, is that when it's all over and the crowd turns to leave, you now find yourself at the BACK of the crowd. But people seemed to file west rather quickly, away from the river, then dispersed out into the city. I soon found it easier to walk the sidewalks as they grew less crowded the further west I continued. I stopped in at some random corner-deli and grabbed a bag of Doritos and a Gatorade. I munched my way all the way over to the west side, Hudson River, basically retracing my steps from earlier in the day. I decided I would go find a bench and sit by the river for a while. So peaceful...
In short order, I found my bench, somewhere near the water in Battery Park City. It came complete with an overhanging tree, to assist my umbrella in keeping me out of the rain. I finished off my chips, lit a cigarette, sat back and thought about the events of the day and what I would do to pass the upcoming 8 hours...on the street. In the rain...a little late night summer in the city adventure...
I sat there for a while, taking in the Jersey City, NJ skyline and watching the party boats make their way up and down the river. The rain was coming and going. Around midnight I decided that I would walk a few blocks east, hop the subway, and head up to west 59th at Central Park West and South...Columbus Circle. As I thought about it I was up and on my way.
After a brief trip, I came up out of the subway to find the scene at Columbus Circle just as I'd thought it would appear at nearly 1:00am - quite a few people still scattered about, despite the continuous light rain showers. And, as I'd noticed on previous late night excursions through this area, there, across the street, sat a NYPD van and a copule of cruisers as well. I knew these would remain parked here throughout the evening into the wee hours of the morning. This was definately the place to hang out for the next several hours. So I blended in among the people sitting on the benches in the circle around the Columbus statue, popped my umbrella, took off my shoes and socks and tried to get comfortable. It wasn't hard to blend in...several people were laying on benches here and there, couples wandered by holding hands and smooching, tourists were still taking photos despite the fact that it was now approaching 2:00am. A couple of homeless-looking dudes sat on some cardboard, under an umbrella, talking to each other. I sat there, taking it all in, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy walks up, jumps into the pool, and starts scooping up change. The he hopped out and just as fast as he had appeared, he was gone.
The rain continued to strengthen and weaken. Around 3:00am it settled into a nice mizerable drizzle. It was about this time that I noticed that there were no longer so many people out and about. In Columbus Circle, just me, the homeless dudes, and the couple that had been making out on the bench for the past 3 hours, remained. Then, the couple finally went on thier way. Now it was just me and the homeless dudes, who were, by this time, fast asleep. The fact that it had been raining off and on for the past 6 hours meant that the temperature began to drop slightly. I was dry, due to my super-mega-umbrella, but I was starting to get a little cold. Not real cold, just not real warm either. I was still wearing the shorts and t-shirt I had been wearing when I left the Hostel over 20 hous ago. But I was dry...
Around 3:30am I realized all I had eaten in the past 12 hours was a bag of chips. It occured to me that I was just a few blocks from the Bread Factory, (see Day #1 post) so I threw my shoes and socks back on and headed down the street, on my way to a nice warm bowl of soup. At 3:30 am...Man, I love New York City...
I walked in and sure enough, they had a few soups to choose from. I picked the spilt-pea and ham - the large. It comes with a free buttered hard roll. I grabbed a root-beer, sat down, and enjoyed my late, late meal. The soup went down well, my body temperature went back up, and in a short while I was feeling much better...kind of recharged. Soup, it IS good food. It was now almost 4:00am. 6:00am was only 2 more hours away, but it seemed pretty long-off at this point. I walked out of the Bread Factory, went south down 8th Avenue a few more blocks down to the Dun-Rite (I think that was the name) drugstore, open 24 hours. I went in and found what I needed, a box of trash bags. I was going to need a few of these later in the morning if it was going to continue raining.
Out of the drugstore, back north up to Columbus Circle. The homeless dudes were still there, still sleeping. I sat down and waited and after a while the sun began to slowly rise behind the clouds, eventually bringing daylight. And clouds. And the prospect of yet more rain.
At around 5:45 I jumped up and headed for the subway. I survived the night in Columbus Circle. But this fiasco wasn't over just yet. I got on the #1, got back off at West 103rd, and walked over to the Hostel. I checked with the girl at the front desk and was told go ahead and go down to the storage lockers. I went down, grabbed a change of clothes, then snuck upstairs to one of the bathrooms on the 4th floor (the 4th floor has the nicest bathrooms) and changed quickly into some jeans and a sweatshirt. Run back down to the lockers, put stuff back in, deposit another $5.00 (good for 24 hours). I then walked back upstairs, to the lobby, and asked the girl at the front desk if there had been any cancellations overnight? She told me to come back after 7:00am. So I went outside, crossed the street and picked up a NYPost and something to drink. I then went back and sat in front of the Hostel, reading my paper...waitng for 7:10am. I figured I'd give her a few extra minutes.
At 7:10 sharp, I was up and back inside, again at the front desk. I repeated my request, "any cancellations?" And...can you stand it...there were some! I was BACK IN! Yes!! Yes!! Yes!! A shower! Some real sleep! Wow...this was great news.
-But, of course, none of this could occur for 7 more hours. Check in time was still 4:00pm. So I made arrangements for the following 3 nights (07/05 - 07/06 - 07/07). I then, with renewed spirits, hit the street. Only 7 more hours...easy. This would kind of turn today (07/05) into a 'wasted' day. A day spent waiting. But no matter. Things were looking up.
I went over to the Broadway Restaurant (2664 Broadway) and ordered the egg/toast/potatoes/juice. Took my time as I was definately in no hurry to go back outside. Soon enough though, I paid my bill and walked out. Now up Broadway a few blocks, and along the way I notice my man, the homeless guy with his garage-sale-on-the-street by the Duane Reed, still set up for business. I was glad to see him there.
I took a left and headed west a few blocks over to Riverside Park, then walked down into the park a ways. By now it was around 8:30am and the rain had actually let off for the past 2 hours or so. Things were starting to dry out a little, but the ground was still pretty wet. I found a good, level spot under a small pine tree, got out a few of the garbage bags I had purchased the previous evening (actually just a few hours ago!) and spread them out on the ground. Then I took off my shoes and socks and put them in the small backpack I had grabbed from my luggage at the hostel. I had stuffed a few xtra t-shirts in there as well. I zipped it up and it was nice and soft...I laid it down near the top of the garbage bags, then I laid down myself, using the backpack for a pillow. Pretty comfortable actually. And nice and dry. I watched the few early morning joggers and dog walkers. And slowly...slowly...I began to drift off to sleep. If you can call it that. Every once in a while a fly would buzz in my face or bite my my ankle, waking me up. Or a passing dog would bark, waking me up. Or I would just wake up for no reason, simply because I was outside, in the park. I managed maybe 2 hours of actual sleep , when around 11:30am I was so rudely awakened by the skies...just a few drops at first, but soon it was raining, heavily. I jumped up, thew on my shoes, broke camp (such as it was) and ran for the nearest park bench which, thankfully, wasn't very far.
I sat, popped my umbrella, was quite comfortable and most important, still dry. It was warm out, despite the showers and I sat and watched with amusement as people continued to run, jog and bike in the rain. Some of them looked at me as they passed, sitting there on my bench under my umbrella, like I was crazy to be sitting there. I thought the same thing about them as the jogged by. Quite some time passed, and around 2:30pm I decided I was gonna go hop the subway down to 8th Avenue and 51st and have 'Chipotle' for lunch. As I started to walk out of the park I kept hearing police sirens close by. Soon, as I continued south, I could see out on to the West Side Highway, and there was a three-car smashup in the north-bound lanes. The middle car was munched up pretty good. Police vehicles were on the scene, trying to remove the wreckage and keep traffic flowing.
As I was looking on all this, my phone rang. I picked up and answered without looking to see who was calling.
"Welcome to The Jungle Baby, You're Gonna DiiiiiiiIIEEEEE!"
(Guns 'n' Roses - 1987)
OK, so maybe it wasn't all THAT bad. But my patriotic exhuberance quickly changed to bemused concern as the crowd began to clear out, driven along, perhaps a little more quickly than if it were not raining. The cool thing about being at the FRONT of a crowd of millions, is that when it's all over and the crowd turns to leave, you now find yourself at the BACK of the crowd. But people seemed to file west rather quickly, away from the river, then dispersed out into the city. I soon found it easier to walk the sidewalks as they grew less crowded the further west I continued. I stopped in at some random corner-deli and grabbed a bag of Doritos and a Gatorade. I munched my way all the way over to the west side, Hudson River, basically retracing my steps from earlier in the day. I decided I would go find a bench and sit by the river for a while. So peaceful...
In short order, I found my bench, somewhere near the water in Battery Park City. It came complete with an overhanging tree, to assist my umbrella in keeping me out of the rain. I finished off my chips, lit a cigarette, sat back and thought about the events of the day and what I would do to pass the upcoming 8 hours...on the street. In the rain...a little late night summer in the city adventure...
I sat there for a while, taking in the Jersey City, NJ skyline and watching the party boats make their way up and down the river. The rain was coming and going. Around midnight I decided that I would walk a few blocks east, hop the subway, and head up to west 59th at Central Park West and South...Columbus Circle. As I thought about it I was up and on my way.
After a brief trip, I came up out of the subway to find the scene at Columbus Circle just as I'd thought it would appear at nearly 1:00am - quite a few people still scattered about, despite the continuous light rain showers. And, as I'd noticed on previous late night excursions through this area, there, across the street, sat a NYPD van and a copule of cruisers as well. I knew these would remain parked here throughout the evening into the wee hours of the morning. This was definately the place to hang out for the next several hours. So I blended in among the people sitting on the benches in the circle around the Columbus statue, popped my umbrella, took off my shoes and socks and tried to get comfortable. It wasn't hard to blend in...several people were laying on benches here and there, couples wandered by holding hands and smooching, tourists were still taking photos despite the fact that it was now approaching 2:00am. A couple of homeless-looking dudes sat on some cardboard, under an umbrella, talking to each other. I sat there, taking it all in, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy walks up, jumps into the pool, and starts scooping up change. The he hopped out and just as fast as he had appeared, he was gone.
The rain continued to strengthen and weaken. Around 3:00am it settled into a nice mizerable drizzle. It was about this time that I noticed that there were no longer so many people out and about. In Columbus Circle, just me, the homeless dudes, and the couple that had been making out on the bench for the past 3 hours, remained. Then, the couple finally went on thier way. Now it was just me and the homeless dudes, who were, by this time, fast asleep. The fact that it had been raining off and on for the past 6 hours meant that the temperature began to drop slightly. I was dry, due to my super-mega-umbrella, but I was starting to get a little cold. Not real cold, just not real warm either. I was still wearing the shorts and t-shirt I had been wearing when I left the Hostel over 20 hous ago. But I was dry...
Around 3:30am I realized all I had eaten in the past 12 hours was a bag of chips. It occured to me that I was just a few blocks from the Bread Factory, (see Day #1 post) so I threw my shoes and socks back on and headed down the street, on my way to a nice warm bowl of soup. At 3:30 am...Man, I love New York City...
I walked in and sure enough, they had a few soups to choose from. I picked the spilt-pea and ham - the large. It comes with a free buttered hard roll. I grabbed a root-beer, sat down, and enjoyed my late, late meal. The soup went down well, my body temperature went back up, and in a short while I was feeling much better...kind of recharged. Soup, it IS good food. It was now almost 4:00am. 6:00am was only 2 more hours away, but it seemed pretty long-off at this point. I walked out of the Bread Factory, went south down 8th Avenue a few more blocks down to the Dun-Rite (I think that was the name) drugstore, open 24 hours. I went in and found what I needed, a box of trash bags. I was going to need a few of these later in the morning if it was going to continue raining.
Out of the drugstore, back north up to Columbus Circle. The homeless dudes were still there, still sleeping. I sat down and waited and after a while the sun began to slowly rise behind the clouds, eventually bringing daylight. And clouds. And the prospect of yet more rain.
At around 5:45 I jumped up and headed for the subway. I survived the night in Columbus Circle. But this fiasco wasn't over just yet. I got on the #1, got back off at West 103rd, and walked over to the Hostel. I checked with the girl at the front desk and was told go ahead and go down to the storage lockers. I went down, grabbed a change of clothes, then snuck upstairs to one of the bathrooms on the 4th floor (the 4th floor has the nicest bathrooms) and changed quickly into some jeans and a sweatshirt. Run back down to the lockers, put stuff back in, deposit another $5.00 (good for 24 hours). I then walked back upstairs, to the lobby, and asked the girl at the front desk if there had been any cancellations overnight? She told me to come back after 7:00am. So I went outside, crossed the street and picked up a NYPost and something to drink. I then went back and sat in front of the Hostel, reading my paper...waitng for 7:10am. I figured I'd give her a few extra minutes.
At 7:10 sharp, I was up and back inside, again at the front desk. I repeated my request, "any cancellations?" And...can you stand it...there were some! I was BACK IN! Yes!! Yes!! Yes!! A shower! Some real sleep! Wow...this was great news.
-But, of course, none of this could occur for 7 more hours. Check in time was still 4:00pm. So I made arrangements for the following 3 nights (07/05 - 07/06 - 07/07). I then, with renewed spirits, hit the street. Only 7 more hours...easy. This would kind of turn today (07/05) into a 'wasted' day. A day spent waiting. But no matter. Things were looking up.
I went over to the Broadway Restaurant (2664 Broadway) and ordered the egg/toast/potatoes/juice. Took my time as I was definately in no hurry to go back outside. Soon enough though, I paid my bill and walked out. Now up Broadway a few blocks, and along the way I notice my man, the homeless guy with his garage-sale-on-the-street by the Duane Reed, still set up for business. I was glad to see him there.
I took a left and headed west a few blocks over to Riverside Park, then walked down into the park a ways. By now it was around 8:30am and the rain had actually let off for the past 2 hours or so. Things were starting to dry out a little, but the ground was still pretty wet. I found a good, level spot under a small pine tree, got out a few of the garbage bags I had purchased the previous evening (actually just a few hours ago!) and spread them out on the ground. Then I took off my shoes and socks and put them in the small backpack I had grabbed from my luggage at the hostel. I had stuffed a few xtra t-shirts in there as well. I zipped it up and it was nice and soft...I laid it down near the top of the garbage bags, then I laid down myself, using the backpack for a pillow. Pretty comfortable actually. And nice and dry. I watched the few early morning joggers and dog walkers. And slowly...slowly...I began to drift off to sleep. If you can call it that. Every once in a while a fly would buzz in my face or bite my my ankle, waking me up. Or a passing dog would bark, waking me up. Or I would just wake up for no reason, simply because I was outside, in the park. I managed maybe 2 hours of actual sleep , when around 11:30am I was so rudely awakened by the skies...just a few drops at first, but soon it was raining, heavily. I jumped up, thew on my shoes, broke camp (such as it was) and ran for the nearest park bench which, thankfully, wasn't very far.
I sat, popped my umbrella, was quite comfortable and most important, still dry. It was warm out, despite the showers and I sat and watched with amusement as people continued to run, jog and bike in the rain. Some of them looked at me as they passed, sitting there on my bench under my umbrella, like I was crazy to be sitting there. I thought the same thing about them as the jogged by. Quite some time passed, and around 2:30pm I decided I was gonna go hop the subway down to 8th Avenue and 51st and have 'Chipotle' for lunch. As I started to walk out of the park I kept hearing police sirens close by. Soon, as I continued south, I could see out on to the West Side Highway, and there was a three-car smashup in the north-bound lanes. The middle car was munched up pretty good. Police vehicles were on the scene, trying to remove the wreckage and keep traffic flowing.
As I was looking on all this, my phone rang. I picked up and answered without looking to see who was calling.
"Hello?"
'Hi, NYCDreamin?' said the voice on the other end.
'This is (name changed to protect the guilty!) MaximumMetalHead.'
I respond with "MaximumMetalHead...MaximumMetalHead...?"
And he says, 'You know, from Long Island...your tape-trader buddy...MaximumMetalHead...!"
"OH!" I respond, "THAT MaximumMetalHead! How's it going?"
He proceeds to tell me that we should hit the Lita Ford concert the following evening, out in Farmingdale, Long Island. He wanted to know if I wanted to go? I was planning on seeing her either there or at BB Kings in the City, but I figured it was about time to meet MaximumMetalHead in person, since we've known each other for around 12 years but never met face to face. A rock-show would be the perfect excuse to finally get together. So we agreed to get in touch the following afternoon and make plans for the show later that evening.
I hung up my phone and was on my way to lunch at Chipotle. After I was done eating, I was walking back up the street, and when I got about 10 or 12 blocks from Chipotle, I realized I had left my umbrella there! CRAP! I knew there was NO WAY that it was still there...I had been gone too long already. Someone just scored a very nice, very free umbrella. A costly oversight on my part. I stopped in at the first Duane Reed I came across and, with thoughts of "Good Job Dumb Shit!" running through my head, I plunked down another $15.99 for another umbrella. I then got on the subway and went back up to 103rd street, to wait, just a little longer, until 4:00pm.
It was FINALLY time to check in and get off the street...and wouldn't you know it, the sun was breaking out...it looked like it was going to be another beautiful evening in Fun City...
To Be Continued...
'Hi, NYCDreamin?' said the voice on the other end.
'This is (name changed to protect the guilty!) MaximumMetalHead.'
I respond with "MaximumMetalHead...MaximumMetalHead...?"
And he says, 'You know, from Long Island...your tape-trader buddy...MaximumMetalHead...!"
"OH!" I respond, "THAT MaximumMetalHead! How's it going?"
He proceeds to tell me that we should hit the Lita Ford concert the following evening, out in Farmingdale, Long Island. He wanted to know if I wanted to go? I was planning on seeing her either there or at BB Kings in the City, but I figured it was about time to meet MaximumMetalHead in person, since we've known each other for around 12 years but never met face to face. A rock-show would be the perfect excuse to finally get together. So we agreed to get in touch the following afternoon and make plans for the show later that evening.
I hung up my phone and was on my way to lunch at Chipotle. After I was done eating, I was walking back up the street, and when I got about 10 or 12 blocks from Chipotle, I realized I had left my umbrella there! CRAP! I knew there was NO WAY that it was still there...I had been gone too long already. Someone just scored a very nice, very free umbrella. A costly oversight on my part. I stopped in at the first Duane Reed I came across and, with thoughts of "Good Job Dumb Shit!" running through my head, I plunked down another $15.99 for another umbrella. I then got on the subway and went back up to 103rd street, to wait, just a little longer, until 4:00pm.
It was FINALLY time to check in and get off the street...and wouldn't you know it, the sun was breaking out...it looked like it was going to be another beautiful evening in Fun City...
To Be Continued...
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