So a few months went by...

So a few months went by and nothing much happened. A whole lot of travelling which I am thankful for. Some of them on my dime and some on someone else's, but it put some pep in my step. Nothing much else happened. Something concrete like a new job offer or a new man, or to be in talks with either one, be in talks with a new company on a new job or a new man on a new relationship. None of that. Just a lot of money and mileage spent and not a whole lot accomplished. 

I had a shuddering thought yesterday. I am, to my utter dismay, going to spend another Christmas without that tingling feeling of having made any accomplishments. I am devoid of the sensation that makes you happy to see the holidays and you embrace it knowing, you are in talks for a new job or a new relationship. It just sort of crushed me and I keep thinking, how distraight will I be to head into this New Year with this uncertainty, without making any head way into accomplishing my goals. Pffttt...

So that ths is not all somber, let's summarize the trips. 

I went to California again, at the start of October in talks with a company for a job. That's as close as I've gotten in my callbacks. Several written tests, video interviews and in person interviews later, still no offer. They actually are dodging my phone calls now. 

Then, to round off a very disappointing month, which I thought would be rather interesting considering I travelled to the West Coast at the start of it, to round off the month, I went to New York. This time on my dime. To finish off my back piece, hopefully see a Broadway musical (this was to no avail) and visit a friend in Brooklyn (had to do this instead of the play which was not a wise choice). Trip was too short, weather was too cold, New York was the same but better, every time I see it, it never seems old. It's like an old black and white classic rolled into a box.  Now I know why some of the greatest movies were written by people based in New York, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese. It inspires great art, just being in that space and you already feel inspired. Talk to any non-artist and they will beg to differ, hacking away at how difficult life is in New York. But a true artist knows what I am talking about.

Then, I go to Houston for Thanksgiving.

Not as many trips as I had initially thought but the West Coast-East Coast jaunt took their toll on me.

New York Tat Adventure ...Part 2

Got off plane. What to do? Go to JFK to drop off bag or go to the city. Undecided. Wasted about an hour trying to decide. How do I log this bag all the way to the Lower East Side? Finally decided. Going into the city, with bag, don't care, I'll deal with it when I get there. 

Took a bus to Grand Central Terminal. Found a good breakfast place. Starved. Can you believe I haven't had breakfast? Had breakfast at Pershing Square.  They serve coffee in this cute little delicate teacups. Made me want to go home and dig up mine. So cute. Makes the coffee taste better. True story. After 4 cups, felt so much better. Wheeled bag around, ready to start adventure. Oh, look, there's Grand Central Terminal. Must take a picture. Took so many but pictures not very good, but they will do.

Walked around a little more but no much traction, bag is heavy. Very heavy. Security guard smiles at me in office building on Fifth Avenue. I smile back. Why not ask him to take care of my bag? It's crazy I know, but it's worth a shot. What are you going to do, lug this all the way to LES? So I do, and he obliges as long as I keep on smiling, and get back on time before his shift ends.

I take risks I know. But if he's trustworthy enough to secure a whole building, then my bag shouldn't be that much of an enticement. "Hey, there can you watch my bag. Thanks. Here's my number. I will be back this evening to pick it up. Thank you." And there it was... that simple. People can actually be nice. Color me amazed.

The walk begins.

Lower East Side

Ludlow Street, LES

Pinups and Pimps

Listened to this intersection - corner of Ludlow and Orchard

 Breathtaking Times Square scene of stragglers. No matter how many times I see it, never gets old.

Dream Destination

There it is!
Amanda Wachob piece just underneath my camera
Five flowers and some branches

My New York trip in pictures.

Union Square. Lower East Side. Pimps and Pinups. Corner of Ludlow and Orchard. The Bisous Ciao shop. An entire store dedicated to, of all things, Macaroons. Me sitting on a stoop waiting on my appointment. Shoes hurt. Rested. Wait, why is there a bench in front of a store, on the street?! Is it weird that I'm sitting here? People pass. No one seems to think so. Ohh, listened to the street. Cat calls, inconsistent car horns, trucks beep as they back up, steam coming from the sewer (?), folks yelling at each other from their bedroom windows, very earthy neighborhood. This is what America feels like.

Then, the Setai. I remember walking past this place and thinking, one day I am going to afford to stay in a nice place like this here. So I took a picture to remind myself of when I sent that wish up into the atmosphere.

Finally, the reason for the trip - An Amanda Wachob addition to my back piece. Six months wait list, several hundred miles and an early morning plane flight later, I got the piece done in about 3 hours. It was well worth the trip to New York to get some new ink.

Traveling especially solo puts you in touch with yourself, with how you feel, with what you want to feel, what it feels like to be alive and alert enough to listen to the sights and sounds around you, it helps you connect with your other self, your inner self, with the self that wants to open up themselves to adventure.

It's an amazing indescribable feeling which I hope I've described with pictures. 

New York Tat Adventure ...Part 1

High rise magnificence - what NYC is known for

What say ye about Bucket Lists?

I never thought I’d make it but by jove I did. On time as well! Months later, I am finally here.

Sometimes, when life gets boring, you gotta do something to give it a little jolt, that little vigor that lets you know you are still alive and well, you still have some more fire in you. And here I am and that brings me to today’s story.

Back in February, March or some awkward month, I booked an appointment to get tatted by the “Amanda Wachob.” She is so good that she gets booked so far in advance. When she told me how far ahead my appointment would be, I thought, that’s fine, it will give me time to plan a trip to New York, make an adventure out of it - a little solo trip. I'll go see a Broadway play, enjoy some fine dining, do a little shopping, it would be great. During the course of the year, other trips came up and got me sidetracked. The impromptu trip to San Fran in April, then the LA trip in June. I just knew I wouldn’t be able to get up and go again in July. So I moved it from July and this time she was down to October appointments. An October appointment set in June? Seems like an impossible task. Who plans that far ahead? How does she get so good that she is booked for months in advance? Regardless of the answers to these questions, I still made the appointment. Why not?

Sometime in July, I seriously doubted the possibility of meeting that appointment. I even tried to give it away just so long as I could get my deposit back. But there were no takers; the only taker actually didn’t want to pay me the deposit money. So what, I’ll just give you the appointment that took me time and money to make?

Then, August rolled around and I was pissed off at work. Go figure for the second time this year, I’ve booked a trip around the fact that I was pissed with work. Being pissed caused me to just say, okay then, it’s time to make good on this plan to go spend Halloween in New York. Besides, who wouldn’t want to spend Halloween night in the Big Apple? And with two clicks of a button, the tickets were booked.

I had considered coming in with the first flight that morning into New York, go in for my appointment and then, take the last flight back to Atlanta. But then, I thought I would miss out on the whole change of environment thing. How can you resist spending at least one night in an amazing place such as New York? Who does that? This is not Milwaukee, it’s the Big Apple. Just imagine how amazing it would be with all the crazies in costume?

As time rolled around I just thought: Will I actually do this? I just might.

Hotel in Jamaica actually had comfy sheets

Finding suitable accommodation was a hassle. It’s New York after all and housing is such an exhaustible commodity. I almost got swindled by some accommodation ads on Craigslist – stay in my Upper West Side Apartment for $60 a night but pay me in advance via Western Union. Cute. Do I really sound that naïve?

In the end (due to serious budgetary constraints), I chose some airport hotel in Jamaica. A part of town I have often heard of but never been. Who says New York always has to be about Manhattan, there’s the “other” New York that everyone ignores?

The time was slowly approaching and then I started to have those little nervous butterflies. I thought something would come take this from me, that work issues would stick a fork in it, that I would forget something, and that something would go wrong. I was actually kind of nervous. I kept telling myself, why are you nervous? You’ve done so many trips by yourself, about 4 this year alone, I can do this.

The stage was set ready for me to make it there. The final touches to my plan had been laid, I made arrangements for my car, cleaned my house, everything was slowly in place for me to leave crack of dawn Saturday morning. 

By the time I went through airport security and got to the gate at the airport, the passengers had already boarded. There I was sipping coffee thinking, "Okay, there’s no one here. I made it here with time to chill." Little did I know that there was no one there because they had all boarded the plane. Silly me. Flight was a breeze. I packed light so I could wheel my bag with ease. With no delays, we were ready to go, I had the entire 3 seats to myself, I stretched out and cuddled up to catch up on my sleep and by the time I woke up... we were in the Big Apple. Not a bad way to start the weekend, aye?

It is rather an astounding feeling to say, yes, I am going to spend the weekend in New York. You have a sense of power, not a lot, but just enough to make you smirk inside. You are just elated. Maybe I am exaggerating because this is my first time embarking on such an adventure. Or my first time prompted by such a silly thing as a tattoo. I did it 4 years ago in December to see New York Christmas lights; I went up with my sister to spend the weekend. We left very late on Friday and came in Monday afternoon. It was a nice trip that was marred by poor planning and exceptionally cold weather. The city lights at Christmas are great but I don’t know, something was off. That trip was bittersweet. This time around I was solo and quite prepared to do the adventuring by myself. It was an indescribable sense of freedom, like dumping the boyfriend you should never have had for so long and just releasing yourself from his shackles. It was like saying goodbye to all those boring weekends holed up in my apartment and finally doing something, experiencing something during my weekend. 

Times Square stragglers

This New York Tat Adventure continues...

New York state of mind

And so it is, where have I been?

I've been in New York. I spent Halloween weekend in New York. Feels so so good to say that. I had a pretty nice, no, awesome, fabulously delightful experience. Could have been better if I didn't have to pretend work, but what can I say, it pays the bills.

More to come.

Me arriving...what do I do, where do I keep my bags?

Oh ye vey, me arriving in the Big Apple, Grand Central Terminal, my very first time seeing this, can you believe I've never been to Grand Central?....had breakfast at Pershing Square! I had Saturday breakfast at Pershing Square...that is just too awesome I had to say it twice. Last week Saturday I had leftovers for Brunch, this Saturday I'm eating with some New Yorker tourists. Like some high fancy rich girl, "weekending" in New York? How wickedly awesome is that?

Grand Central's Architectural Splendor

Read on for the deets on my New York Tat Adventure:
Part 1
Part 2