Escaping Sandy, among other stories

Hello Mountains to Manhattan dedicated followers!  JP was kind enough to let me guest blog and catch you all up on our life out here, giving me the opportunity to fulfill my dream of becoming real-life Carrie Bradshaw! Only with fewer shoes and less man problems, but I'll take the trade-off.  See, we both like to go to Central Park with some of our best friends:

Well as most of you know, we escaped Hurricane Sandy, which the governor of NY has recently declared NY's Katrina and estimated costs at $42 billion.  Now, there were some real tragedies of Sandy and my heart goes out to those people who have lost enormously and have little resources to get them back on their feet, however the news coverage of the poor family in Hoboken who's house flooded and to make matters worse, oh no!, their 2nd home on the Jersey Shore was also hit.  Really local news, do you think I'm really concerned for the Mercedes-Benz hat wearing guy's SECOND home?  The governor of NJ showed up on SNL for a light-hearted take on the storm.  I just love that he has a fleece that says he's the Governor; no state designation necessary.

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Anyway, more about us.  I had very coincidentally scheduled my vacation for the exact week Sandy would knock NYC out of commission, so we got on a bus to DC on Sunday afternoon just before they shut the subway system down and we would have really been SOL (well, not really.  In a spoiler alert, our neighborhood was not hit bad at all and even though some of my fellow residents had to stay at the hospital Sunday to Wednesday in order to work a shift or two, we are close enough that I can walk back and forth to work and would not have been subjected to sterile hospital call rooms and slow growing insanity.).  But instead we spent an awesome week in DC and I got to show John where I called home for a year, once upon a time.  We also got a family filled week where John tried to prove his dominance in fort building over my brother Patrick   (Annie, my niece, was equally dismayed by the easy crush-ability of both their attempts),  we experienced trick-or-treating Alexandria, VA style, and spent some great nights hanging out with the DC Carr's (Patrick, Karen, and Annie), something we're trying to take advantage of while we are so close these next couple years.

Hello senators and congress people

Washington!

Oregon!

With our good friend, Abe

And then with our good friend, Barack

Cinderella, Patrick, and Karen

Representing at the Natural History Museum

And finally at the home of our good friend George Washington.  His home is actually John's dream life with the farm and the livestock and the self-sustainability.  I kindly pointed out that GW's life came with lots of helpers, not all of which were paid......

We were back in the city for just a few days when the day I was expecting and sort of dreading finally came: JP got a J.O.B.  So I lost my house husband just when he was really starting to get gourmet on me, and I was  really getting used to the pampered lifestyle.  For the best though (I guess.....) and it'll be nice to have extra income in this crazy expensive city we live in.  Most of you probably know John's job is at the clothing company Orvis.  He ended up being in charge of the stock room in the new store they opened, which is better than having to deal with customers all day (we all know John, Johnny, JP, Timber, Punkass, etc. .....).  Plus he got to buy a tool the other day so I feel less guilty all of a sudden about dragging him from the mountains to Manhattan.  The funniest part (maybe I shouldn't laugh, but it's just too good...) is that John Perry from the Eastern part of the state of Washington (greatest state in the union he would say.  I say tied for first.), who's never lived in any other state, with only one city-living experience in Spokane pop. 210,000, who never wanted to move from his beloved Cashmere pop. 3,104, now not only lives in one of the biggest cities in the world, but also everyday for work takes the subway from Harlem to Times Square, with the lights and the tourists and the street performers, and bobs and ducks in and out of people to get to his job which is across the street from the NY Public Library.  Who would've thought?????  And the next question is what have I done to him???!!!???

While we were happy for John to have something to do with his days besides cater to me and my schedule (sniff), it unfortunately screwed up our Thanksgiving plans to go back to DC (thank you Black Friday....), so instead we stayed in New York and did a very New York thing by going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Now, you may think this was my idea to subject ourselves to crowds of thousands of people, but you would be wrong!  I, of course, wanted to go but was super surprised when JP himself suggested it.  And it actually turned out to be a lot better than I even thought it would.  You see these things on TV and think it can't look that big in real life, but those balloons are serious!  We found a fairly uncrowded side street to watch about an hour of the parade go by, sadly missing the Hello Kitty! balloon, Carly Rae Jepsen, AND the US gymnastics team (no I am not a 13 year old girl), but we did get to see Mickey Mouse and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, so I felt less slighted.  No Woody Woodpecker balloon this year.....

These people had the best view

No real Thanksgiving dinner that night, but I decided to cook for my husband (working on the wife skills here) the next day while he was at work and I had the day off.  The meal was good (I even got a high-five for the mashed potatoes), but my timing is a little off and I alone ate a hot thanksgiving dinner on Friday night at 9pm while John slept in our bedroom, having fallen asleep around 8pm after getting up at something crazy like 5am to go to work.  So now I know to start the turkey earlier next year......

Other happenings in our life include going to watch the Portland Trailblazers play in the new Brooklyn Nets stadium, which unfortunately ended in a loss of Portland.  Still always enjoyable to see the Blazers, and John and I proudly wore out Portland gear in a sea of Brooklyn t-shirts (well, I may have been more proud since John never took his coat off, which I allowed since it was red and black).  I will say the Brooklyn Nets may have a better dance team than the Blazers (I've always been pretty sure I could make the Blazer Dancers team), but the fans don't even come close in comparison.  Portland fans, best fans in the union.  :)

After the game we crossed the street to use the bathroom in the mall John once was mistaken for a Jew in (you all remember that story!) and I had a sad experience of walking into the womens restroom to a nonsense muttering woman standing in front of the mirror, then checking the two open stalls to find one covered in urine (NOT squat-able with my long scarf and bulky jacket on and the possibility of contamination) and one covered in poop.  Yes, poop.  I walked out and John found me with a frown of disgust (the face you make after you see what I'd just seen) and wondered why I'd finally beat him out of the bathroom.

Which reminds me of my other poopy story!  We were going somewhere on the subway and waiting at a fairly busy platform.  A train approaches and it looks full in the beginning and then the cars towards the end start to clear out, but then to our excitement the car second to last is almost completely empty and I think to myself, "Sweet! We can get seats and not be constantly brushing up against other people puffy black jackets" (oh yes, that's all people wear here), and John says aloud, "I wonder if that car stinks".  And I don't really listen because I'm fantasizing about my own bench and no one else bags or boots or breath near me, and then we step onto the car.  Oh dear, we've made a mistake and the doors have already closed.  The car STUNK to high heaven and the reason John had correctly surmised we would be greeted by rancid odors was sitting at the far end of the car.  We, along with the two or three other people who had also made the mistake huddled at the other end with our coats and scarves covering our noses.  Yeah, it was that bad.  We promptly got off and on the next car over at the next stop and enjoyed watching people from then on get on the car, and then off really quickly either giggling (the teenagers) or eyes-watering and grimacing in disgust (everyone else).  Teenagers like to giggle even in the face of smelliness.

Well, I guess that's about it for now.  Still happy......

Thanks to John's mom, Manny's and Tillamook Cheese!

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Our life in the city has continued to be busy, adventurous, and astonishing.  Michelle (friend from back home) came out for a visit, and we spent a couple days walking all over the city.  We discovered a delicious little donut shop, and a great Italian restaurant not far from our place.  It was a great visit, with beautiful weather.  

I recently had a particularly entertaining afternoon outing, as I went out to explore a section of Brooklyn.   I jumped on the subway near our apartment, a few stops down as we waited at the platform I was looking out the window.  Standing against the wall in the dingy, litter strewn subway station were a rather unkempt looking man and woman.  What really drew my attention to these two was their posture and particularly the look on her face.  His back was to me, head tilted slightly to his left as he leaned into her.  She had her head cocked slightly opposite his, with her eyes closed.  I was witnessing a couple kissing, or at least that's what one would first assume.  But, there was something off about it.  As I focused in, there was something off about it, I could see her mouth fully and clearly.  The train began to pull away giving me an oblique view of the real passion, his hand giving a between the legs massage.

That alone would have made the trip memorable, but there was more to come.  After departing the train in Brooklyn, and after a little bit of exploration I needed to find a restroom.  I was lucky enough to be near a major shopping center and mall.  After locating the restroom I was making my way back outside when one of these guys...........

.............well, I guess it was really just some guy dressed like them said "Excuse me, are you Jewish?".  Its not the first, or probably the last time I will have that asked of me.  

This last Sunday we went and experienced a Giants football game.  Elizabeth's cousin was kind enough to give us his season tickets for the weeks game.  It was a great time, gorgeous day to be out there too. (Seth, a little public transit info for you.  We got on the 2/3 subway train to Penn Station, there we got tickets for a NJ Transit train that took us to Secaucus Station where we then transferred to a train that goes right to the Meadowlands/MetLife Stadium.  Round-trip for both of us was $30, takes about an hour of travel time, to go 15 miles.)

Michelle, Elizabeth and me in Central Park.

The Bee Hive (guys on dirt bikes, four wheelers  and street bikes).  Notice the two on the four wheeler on the sidewalk at the bottom of picture, and the guys on the wrong side of the road.

Now this made me feel at home, a box elder bug landing on my glasses as we rode the train.  Just hope I didn't bring it with me from back home.

Us at the Giants v Redskins game, with 82,000 others.

I can't say I have been busy, just too lazy to post.  So, since the last post we spent Labor Day weekend at the Jersey Shore(fist pump).  We were invited to stay at Elizabeth's cousins house down on the shore.  This was really great, we got out of the city, the town we stayed in was really nice, the beaches are great (even if they do charge you $8 to use them) and Liam (Elizabeth's cousin) and his wife Suzy were awesome hosts.  We learned a lot about 'the shore' culture, college kids and recent grads get a group together and rent houses out for the entire summer paying upfront and then just come in every weekend and party their asses off.  Also, much like the show, there are a great number of people who haven't heard that an over abundance of sun exposure is actually bad for you.  Lots of worn out leather bags walking around there.
We have also in the last month had a number of visitors, all Elizabeth's people (hint, hint), a good friend of Elizabeth's from college, her childhood friends from Silverton also visited, Joanne (Elizabeth's mom) just spent several days with us on her way to Spain, and we recently had dinner with a friend of Mike's (Elizabeth's brother) from Spain who was visiting NYC.  In the in-between time Elizabeth has been busy at work, currently working in the pediatric emergency room, and I continue achieving great success at my house husband duties.

Twilight on the Jersey shore.

Fist pumping at the Jersey shore.

The Jersey shore.

 Ambulance loading up some guy laying in the road outside our apartment.

 Coffee shop from Seinfeld.

 Best view of the city, leaving it!

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

Coming back to the city.

Having fun on an empty subway car.

Two weeks ago we caught a bus down to D.C.(after Elizabeth worked all night) to spend the weekend with Patrick, Karen, and Annie(it was Annie's 3rd birthday).  It was our first time out of the city since my return.  We were pretty excited to not only get out of the city, but to also get to spend some time with the family.  Its a long bus ride down there, about 5 hours and not much to see.  We arrived in the city just in time for Karen to meet up with as she was getting off work.  Went back to there place, the last weekend they will be living there as they have just purchased a house in Arlington, got ready and jumped in the car to go meet up with Annie and her nanny at the swimming pool.  After the pool we head back to their condo to meet up with Patrick and go out to dinner.  Went to a great pizza place and had some good beer.  The next day we had the opportunity to go to Annie soccer practice, pretty entertaining to see the coach and parents try to keep half a dozen three year-olds focused and involved in the practice  Pretty sure one kid just sat in the grass the entire time, until the picture, then he was interested.  Annie was far and away the most skilled and helpful of them all.  We spent the balance of the day hanging out, checked out where Elizabeth used to live, and the Georgetown area.  We stayed that night and the next in a nice bed and breakfast that was just around the block from Patrick and Karen's place.  On Sunday we celebrated Annie's birthday and enjoyed some more time with the family.  Monday morning we headed back on the bus and Elizabeth was fortunate enough to get to work that night.  In Elizabeth's name change experience we have also had the opportunity to spend a morning at the Harlem DMV office.  While not as bad as one might expect, the adventure afforded me the opportunity to further witness public restroom etiquette in the city.  As Elizabeth stood in numerous lines with a least another two hundred people I found a nice sunny spot in the hallway with significantly less people around.  In this hallway were the only restrooms available to the public, a single occupancy each men and women s restroom. First off, there was no indication on the door whether or not the restrooms were occupied, therefore everyone who came along had to grab the handle to find out.  Second, more often then not there was a line formed.  At one particular time a small statured man came along and grabbed the handle, to no avail, it was occupied.  He started the line, after a moment or so he knocked, and waited.  A few moments later he knocked again, and waited.  After a short time more, just as a couple came along, he figured maybe kicking the door would alert the occupant that there were other customers. The couple that had walked up, joined the line, and within less that a minute the lady took it upon herself to begin knocking on the door, this is the men's restroom I remind you.  As she knocked she also communicated that 'there is a long line out here, other people need to use the bathroom'.  Eventually they grabbed a security guard to unlock the door, they were convinced there was nobody in there.  I will say at this point I was distracted so I missed whether or not there really was somebody in there, but I can't see how it would get locked otherwise.  Needless to say, in this town even if you are on the toilet you receive no common courtesy, or privacy! Other than that we have continued to explore the city, show up to museum houses to late to tour them, and endeavor in our search for a location in this city that doesn't smell like urine, garbage, or cigarette smoke.   Stay tuned, we head to the Jersey Shore for Labor Day weekend, I have high hopes to witness some spectacular material for blogging purposes.  

Voices from the streets:

One woman speaking at(and I do mean 'at' not 'to') another woman, just as we walk by

'We were an enslaved people, we still an enslaved people.  Do you understand that?'

Woman speaking notices us, and continues...

'You think you are supposed to act like those white people.'

Evidently, to her walking down the street eating frozen yogurt is only for white people'

I was too lost in trying to comprehend her very intelligent comment, otherwise we would have lingered to see how much more knowledge we could have acquired from such a philosopher.

 The Perrys in D.C., I think George Washington crossed the river here.

Bell peppers stuffed with chicken and rice, topped with pepper jack cheese, side of garlic toast, and a side of beer.  (Every good house husband needs to provide a delicious meal for his sugar mama)

I have been back in the city for just over a week.  Really happy to be back with Elizabeth, and I am even getting comfortable with being here.  When I first returned to the city Elizabeth's father was out for a visit as well as to attend his nephew's wedding.  It was good to have him visit, and sooth some of his anxiety over his daughter living in Harlem!  Elizabeth has begun working in the emergency department, long days/nights full of interesting people and ailments(the guy with maggots in between his toes topping the list). We have ventured past, looking forward to going into, a few historical homes nearby.  One being Alexander Hamilton's country home, just a half-mile away or so, the other being a pre-revolutionary war home built in 1765.  Other notable experiences; encountered our first bootleg DVD seller on the subway, and then saw her again a few days later on the some train(must be her route), had our first NY Bagel(unfortunately H&H Bagels closed down in January), walked over the Brooklyn Bridge.  We found a relatively quiet pub in Brooklyn Heights to wet our whistles in, and were rewarded with a west coast brew on tap, Rogue Dead Guy.  We also discussed our waitress, she was personable, seemed to want to do her job, and asked a very rare question for the East Coast 'how are you?'.  So, we of course decided she was not from around her, and naturally assumed she came from the West Coast.  I had to ask, she wasn't from either coast but from Tennessee.  That was a good experience.

 Checking Elizabeth's ears for wax in the good sunlight of the Brooklyn waterfront.

 The cream cheese case at Absolute Bagel.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, with downtown in the back. 

She can't keep her lips off of me, Brooklyn Bridge and downtown in the back.

Its been several days since I last posted, and I really need to get caught up on the happenings.  On the 4th Elizabeth and I went out to New Jersey with her cousins for a BBQ.  It was really nice to get out of the city and be around her family.  We came back into the city to watch the fireworks show from her cousins apartment building rooftop.   That was pretty amazing to be in lower Manhattan, on a rooftop with a view of the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building in the background, surreal.  What was really crazy was our subway ride back.  There were so many people packing into the cars that after a few stops there was no more room, so I thought.  People began reaching into the subway cars, grabbing the hand bars and literally just pulling themselves into the car, packing it tighter.  We truly were just cattle on a train, disgusting.  On Thursday we went to pick up an air conditioner so we could finally stay at our new apartment.  Since the air conditioner is such a cumbersome item we decided to get a gypsy cab to hall us and it home.  A gypsy cab is essentially just hiring some guy off the street to drive you, meaning they are not legal taxi drivers.  This also means the fare is not standerdized and is up for negotiation.  The new place is pretty comfortable and we have enjoyed it thus far.  We did have to spend some time scrubbing the place down, evidently $1600 a month doesn't get  you a clean apartment to move into.  On Saturday we took a train up to Bridgeport, Connecticut to try to escape the city and find a beach to lay on.  We did find a pretty decent beach to lay on, but it was not quiet, as we had hoped.  There were ice cream vendors pushing carts up and down the beach, all the time honking a little horn that you might find on a kids bicyle.  Needless to say it was annoying.  To tell you a little more about Bridgeport, it is the birthplace of Subway Restaurants, the frisbee, PT Barnum lived there, and its the largest city in Connecticut.  Don't bother visiting.  Tomorrow I head home for a month or so, I am not looking forward to leaving Elizabeth, but I really look forward to some peace and quiet that this city does not seem to offer.



Quotes of the Week:


Person #1:  "Don't you have like 10 babies mamas?"
Person #2:  "I only have 2"



and another dialogue........


Different Person #1:  "My blood is pure" "I aint never had no STD"  "I don't play that"

                                               'look to the cookie Elaine, look to the cookie'

                                    Empire State Builing lit in red, white and blue on the 4th

                                                                         Elizabeth!

                                            Just a couple of New Yorkers, in Times Square

Took the weekend off from writing.  We went downtown Saturday afternoon to do the tourist thing.  Walked around the financial district and saw Wall Street, Trinity Church, and St. Paul's Chapel.  Mostly it was a tour to the epicenter of this country's wealth, greed, corruption, and reason for the current economy.  Best part was a realatively quite Irish pub with pretty good food (bacon cheeseburger mac n cheese) and affordable beers. We will be going back there.  Sunday we looked for more household goods, and explored the park a little more.  Elizabeth started orientation this moring, and has her first ER shift tomorrow night.  She says its should be pretty crazy.  Our bed is getting delivered tomorrow, and we are getting internet hooked up.  Its just a different place, wow!

This morning Elizabeth had to go to her hospital for some more paperwork.  We headed up on the subway, I jumped off to unload stuff at our apartment while she went on to the hospital.  Then I walked the mile or so from our apartment to the hospital to meet up with her.  On the way over I had an orthodox jewish guy(side curls) in a truck at a stop light ask me for directions, of course I was no help.  Then he handed me some jewish pamphlet on juadism vs zionism.  I took it as him believing me to be jewish.  At the hospital Elizabeth and I ran into a guy sporting a University of Oregon badge lanyard and a green and yellow tie, so of course Elizabeth had to chat him up.  It was great to meet somebody else there that knew where we were coming from.  After the hospital we spent the rest of the day, picking up household goods and exploring.  This afternoon we did get to enjoy a great example of the healthy respect people have here for one another.  A young teenage couple was crossing the street, when they weren't supposed to be, and a car pulled up on them.  So, the girl sayed some nasty stuff to the middle aged couple in the car.  When the lady in the car spouted back at the young girl, the girl flipped them off, much to her boyfriends dismay.  The car pulled around the corner, and the lady got out and followed the young couple down the street exchanging verbal insults.  As we caught up to the scene the man driving the car was out in the street with his car parked in traffic on a busy arterial.  The lady finally walked back, still grumbling, her husband trying to figure out what she was doing, and the guy next to us added his own commentary on the situation.  Also great, this evening we watched three guys tearing down another busy street on two stroke dirt bikes.  Two of them were doing wheelies, and none of them had helmets on.  Oh this is going to be a great experience.  I love Elizabeth. 

Not much to say today. We slept in again, then headed to our apartment to drop some stuff off and walked over to Target, in the Bronx.  Spent awhile there picking up house hold goods.  We did enjoy some guy walking the aisle speaking loudly and spreading the word of god, incoherently.  We also realized that we are very much in the minority when we saw another white couple in Target.  I think they also appreciated see us, as we did them.  We explored out neighborhood a little more, saw the Apollo theater on 125th, and tried the fried chicken place that is below our apartment. 

We slept in this morning, much needed.  We headed out at about 11:30 to go sign our lease for our apartment in Harlem, crazy.  We will spend at least the next year at 139th and Lenox.  Its close to a subway stop for Elizabeth, has a supermaket across the street, and has a couple parks close by.  We are pretty happy with it, so far.  After signing our lease we walked the neighborhood, and found our way back to where we are staying temporarily.  After restting up we took a stroll through Central Park, which I can see why its so popular in this crazy town.  Its quite nice, and such a contrast to the mass of human development. 

Interesing happenings in the city today........

-two 60 plus year old men, one shirtless (of course), getting into a physical dispute at 11:30 in the morning. 

-street life seems to be part of the city culture, just people with their folding chair sitting out everywhere, young and old. 

-we spotted a mullet in the city today, which i found comforting

-more bathroom struggles, I managed to clog 2 of the 3 toilets in Elizabeth's aunt apartment this morning, with no plunger to be found!  Ironically when we went to sign our lease one of the rules was we had to have a plunger in our apartment.  So, I assume the plumbing/toilets in this city are lousy.

                                                       The Perrys on the streets of NYC.

View from our new apartment! (well just from the kitchen and bathroom)

                                                                 Our bathroom.

Us in our new living room.

Us on a bench in Central Park.

By a reservoir in Central Park.  (Notice the 'Cashmeracle' and 'Lady Foxes' shirts)

Well we survived our first full day in the largest city in this country.  We landed about 10 p.m. last night at Newark. After getting out bags (4 very large checked bags and 2 backpacks) we found our way to the train station.  The combination of narrow aisle ways, large bags, and stairs made getting on the train a challenge and very funny.  We arrived at Penn Station (under Madison Square Gardens) and made our way street side, and there I was for my first time, on the streets of NYC.  It was everything you would expect, lots of people, noise, and bright lights.  We loaded into a cab and made our way north along Central Park West, to Elizabeth's aunt Mary's apartment.  We were greeted by the doorman, received our key and dropped off our bags.  I needed a beer, so we hit the streets at about midnight in search.  I think Martin's Market Place is open as late as the Whole Foods we went to.  Isn't this 'the city that never sleeps'?  So we hit the local gourmet deli, complete with loitering teens, and picked up our $12 6-pack!!!  Made our way back past the housing project and settled in for the night.

Today we woke up early to go to Linclon Medical and Mental Hospital where Elizabeth will be working for the next 3 years.  We walked through Central Park to catch our subway on 110th, my first subway experience, it again did not dissappoint, it was dirt, smelly, and hot.  A quick ride into the South Bronx and we were in a whole new environment. Its a predominatley spanish speaking population, many signs with in the hospital itself were only in spanish.  We went to several departments so Elizabeth could fill out paperwork.  Some were very welcoming and helpful, others exemplefied the nasty New York attitude (dirty bitches). While Elizabeth was filling out paperwork, I went on my own little hospital adventure.  I attempted to find a restroom, after wandering the hallways only finding employee restrooms, I located an unlocked one.  But it wasn't meant to be, after waiting for the occupant to leave the stall, I found there was no toilet paper(that guy didn't wipe).  So my search continued, the next one I found the door latches did not function, and there was no toilet paper in either stall, strike two.  Third times a charm, founding a nice, unlocked restroom in a quiet wing, just cleaned, and there was Toilet Paper!  I suppose because we are in the city, and its a city run hospital that they have a lot of low class people going through there eveidentley stealing toilet paper.  After the hospital we jumped on a bus (we were the only white faces to be had) back over to Harlem to meet a real estate broker to start our apartment search.  Randomly enough she was from Washington, should be a good sign.  We saw several apartments, all old, but not to bad.  Most had been remodeled recently.  We decided to jump on a pretty nice 1 bedroom with an actual view of the sky.  After being raped and jerked around by the NYC apartment game ( to keep it short), we should be signing and getting the keys tomorrow. 

To sum up my experience so far; I have two blisters from todays walk, we watched some lady scream and cuss at a subway attendant, some dispute on the street, and got an apartment.  This is crazy, overwhelming, and just not real yet.  I Love Elizabeth!!

Welcome to my therapy.  Our adventure begins tomorrow, this should be interesting.  -jp