My NYC trip started off a little bit shaky with my flight being delayed on the runaway and big delays at the baggage claim at JFK.  After I got my bags I wondered how in the world I was going to hook up with Joe not having anyway to really get in contact with him other than calling his apartment, then he walked right through the doors.  I knew the trip was going to work out great with timing like that!!

Night one of my mini trip in NYC started with us driving back to Brooklyn to Joe’s apartment.  Having not eaten anything but the airline meal the whole day I was starving.  I dropped off the bags and after briefly meeting Shelly we were cruising down 7^th Ave. looking for a late night spot to eat.  Heading into NYC I had 2 big positive views of the city, the great public transportation and that places stayed open really late.  We found a nice Greek diner on 7^th Ave. and had a great meal.

Catching up with Joe was great as we had a lot of things to discuss in our lives, part of my reasoning for this little vacation was to clear my mind and get some clarity on the fork in the road I’m at in my life.  Joe always provides a fresh perspective and his adventurous spirit can be pretty inspirational.  Needless to say our talks gave me a good viewpoint to counter my own thoughts and plans for the future.

Day 2 began pretty friggon’ early 8:30am EST is really 5:30am for my body’s clock, which is usually the ENDING of a good night.  At any rate I was excited because it was going to be my first trip to historic Yankee Stadium to see the Oakland A’s play there.  The weather reports said 70% chance of rain in the Bronx and I was a little worried that the game might get rained out or delayed.  We rode what had to be one of the longest subway rides ever to 161^st exit in the Bronx and we were at the “House That Ruth Built”.

The history and legacy of Yankee Stadium is pretty dope and I got to see the people there were pretty classy, I was decked out in my green Athletics jersey and visor and really didn’t catch too much grief for it at all.  Once we were at our seats the sun started to shine providing further evidence to the great timing of my trip.  Joe “Benedict” Harrison had told me he’d be staying true to his roots and representing for the Bay Area A’s, but when we got to the game Joe starts rooting for the Yankees.  Fueled by Joe’s betrayal and a couple bad breaks the A’s lost to the Yankees 5-1 but I still had a great time.

After the game we rode around the subway a bit more, eating at a great place in Manhattan (Sammy’s right by the West 4^th exit) and Joe showed me “The Cage” famous basketball courts.  We got back to the apartment around 7:30ish and formulated our plan for the night.  Initially we were going to see Spike Lee’s new movie “She Hate Me” but instead we stayed in and Shelly was nice enough to do the tarot reading for me.  It was a lot of fun and insightful as I drew the “Hour of Power” card which says to utilize my special connection with the universe that generally comes at a set time each day.

The night was capped off with a trip our to some of Brooklyn’s night spots, we had some bad luck and both the places we went to were pretty dead.  We settled on “Royale” which was pretty nice but the bartender was a little rude and typecast me as “ghetto-ish” when I tried to order Hennessey.  “We don’t carry Hennessey, or any cognac, no Courvoieser, no Alize”.  I felt like I was in one of those hateful montages from Spike Lee’s movies.  It was all good though and just showed me haters are universal.  The highlight of the night was our conversation in the car afterwards as we rolled off to try White Castle for the first time.  While explaining to Shelly that Joe has his first taste of bubble/pearl tea at dinner the word “tapioca” accidentally got heard as “tampon” which took the conversation way into left field.

We all had some great talks about tampons, buying duties in relationships, the sacred vagina, and blurry photography.  It was a night of crazy conversations and dialogue that only a sitcom like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” could top.  I had a great 2 days and I can’t wait to come back to NYC with more time.  I have to admit I was lukewarm to NYC at first, but seeing Brooklyn up close and personal has me thinking about following in Joe’s footsteps.  NYC definitely has the best mix of different cultures and personalities in one city that I’ve ever seen.  They are real lucky that they have Joe and Shelly contributing to that mix!!!