Big Apple, Day 2

Well, that was fun!

Tuesday was Brooklyn Day. The plan was for me to be picked up at the hotel and driven to the library. It was a great plan. The one part that didn’t quite work out the way we planned was that several of the roads and exits we were supposed to take were closed due to construction. My driver, Donna (who is the sexual assault awareness expert writing the SPEAK/sexual assault curriculum for New York City schools) is from Jersey. I am from Philly. We had no freaking idea where we were in Brooklyn. We needed a hero.

And we got one – Rickie, the janitor at the King’ Bay library. Thank you, Rickie. Thank you, thank you, thank you. He talked us through the confusing streets and parkways and avenues. We got to the library late, but everyone was really kind about it.

And then I got to talk with the students from Sheepshead Bay High School (Home of the Sharks). Wow – they were fantastic. I had so much fun hanging out with them. Brooklyn is definitely my new favorite place. Let me pour a few more gallons of gratitude: thank you very much to all the students for their respect, smiles, and great questions. Thanks also to the teachers (who were much nicer than I remember any of my teachers being!) and Alan, the school administrator whose title I forgot (sorry) for making the experience rock.

Image hosted by TinyPic.com The only thing was they weren’t exactly thrilled that I took their picture. They were much happier looking in person that they appear to be here.

We did not get lost heading back to Manhattan, thanks to Rickie again. However…

A Note To Amtrak
Yo. I like trains. I think public transportation is fantastic. And I’m cheap. Normally I take NJ Transit to get from Trenton to New York. It costs $14 one way. But I was given Amtrak tickets for this trip, and I wasn’t going to turn them down. Amtrak trains are much more comfortable than NJT trains, and are not as crowded. They are also outrageously expensive: $41. So imagine my surprise when I got to Penn Station to find out that I had to stand in line for an hour because Amtrak has no signs explaining the whole reserved/unreserved ticket thing, because they didn’t have enough staff working, and because the staff that was working was ill-informed. Next time, I’ll go NJT.

Thank you for indulging that rant.

For those of you who had money riding on this, my cup of tea at the hotel only cost $1.48. The banana, however, cost $1.50. It’s hard growing banana trees in the city, I guess.

The good news was I got home in time to watch the final Parent Performance of Mer’s drum line team. They spent all last night on a bus to Ohio. Their preliminary round is at 8:30 tonight.

I have a day of laundry and packing. I’m going to escape up North to spend a couple days with Beloved Husband, Number One Son, and the Creature With Fangs.