ROAD TRIP 2K6 - DATELINE:Astoria, NYC

Okay. on the road once again. It's getting on 4am local time (why even say such things?) and my buddy and i are on the road at last. I got about 5 hrs of sleep last night, got up and packed today (sunday), and we finally hit the road (after getting some grub) @6PM. I guess we cruised into new york somewhere around 10PM? Traffic was much lighter than expected, as lotsa folks were returning from their holidaze.

Tonight was interesting, yahoo maps served as well until the final leg of the journey, usually it does a bang-up job but tonight it petered out, well that is what cellphones are for. Anyway we met with my old college buddy in his pad in Astoria, anout a 20-odd $$$ cab-ride out from NYC proper (which we headed out to). I had lofty plans to get completely bomberated (bombed, and berated) at some wild NYC scene bar, which didn't quite materialize, but it was still quite a relaxing and enjoyable night of attractive waitresses and weak-ass drinks (fuckers!) The company was great though, it's always good times to catch up with old friends.. and I've all week to get loaded in strange bars in strange towns and talk to crazy people. Anyway, it was a good night all around, I am sure I will get in my New York City crazinesses at some point in my life, when appropriate (Ijust like to whine endlessly, pay no mind)

Tomorrow the plan is to head to Chicago, weather conditions allowing - a city I've never been to, but heard much praise of. My friend Mike recently moved there, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up with him, it should be an interesting time. That city's got a lot to live up to. I am more energized right now than I have been, Boston is a wild city but I have felt draggy the past several days - the excitement of new territory has my juices flowing.

Big thanks to my buddy who's traveling with me, he picked me up and we lit out in record time, and he exoertly manuevered the trip thus far (this one day, anyway). It's definitely strange to see him, as it's been years since we've hung out to any great capacity and honestly - we are VERY different people in many regards. He's a cool guy with a very unique perspective however, and I wouldn't have decided to embark on this trip if I didn't think it would change my life, and my outlook a bit - I can definitely see that in the travels ahead. We've got a lot to talk about (the poor guy!)

Of note is the fact that we were on the road for FIVE MINUTES before my girlfriend called me from my apartment back west, alerting me to the fact that my toilet was overflowing and that she and her friends didn't know how to fix it, I spent several minutes trying to explain to her how to use the BRIGHT YELLOW PLUNGER to unclog the drains. Love knows no boundaries... sigh...

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NYC is big and boundless and endlessly interesting, as usual. Arriving late at night is a whole different experience. I was fortunate enough to be a passenger, and so I peered out the window as the scenery rushed by while my buddy drove. I am a kid in a candy store here, I want to photograph every inch of this city, to absorb it all. At the same time, I have such a feeling of this place from my memory when I am away from it, and when I am actually in the middle of it, completely different - Hollywood I have a handle on, it's my "turf,' I know my way around. It is comfortable, it's safe, it feels like there's an understanding between the city and I. NYC, it's is huge, foreboding, alien. Endless, hacked together, patched together, bleeding out at all of it's edges. It is endlessly interesting, and yet impossible for my insignificance to fathom. Though I would love to know it, to have the chance to "understand it" as I do LA or Boston before it, I sort of cringe at the thought - it is too much, too big, too much information. Too many layers. Too much... character. I belabor the point, but I have never seen anything like it. I have been in older places, but NYC is old and new at the same time. It's just such a crazy place, it is too much, I struggle with its' concept (alright, enough already).