I Luff New York: Day #2 Part 1

What a glorious, glorious day to explore NYC! What an amazing, amazing bed we slept on, which is a nice change from the horrid, horrid green gumby from God-knows-when (I’m guessing 1940) that I usually sleep on when I’m in Gonzales.

I’m going to go ahead and preface the remaining NYC stories by saying:
1.) I don’t think I’ve ever slept so much
2.) It takes a lot just to get somewhere, and there’s always a wait, so we didn’t get to do allll that much.
3.) For my first REAL vacation outside of college besides some “road trip thrown together by the seat of our checking account pants across Texas”, this was a REAL treat!

Day #2 finally got started after we got off the train in Brooklyn in search of Grimaldi’s, which older guy (okay, you know what, I know I give nicknames to everyone on my blog to protect their identity, but he didn’t like any of my ‘old’ jokes. So I’m naming him A+. How’s about that. He’s pretty smart, after all) (I like smart guys) (But only when they don’t try to punish me later for being smart, adaptable, and naturally skilled at things they would rather I not be) (anyway) We got to Grimaldi’s and there’s a line outside on the sidewalk. We stand in this line for about half an hour when a very cheery gentlemen every-so-often opens the door and says “two please! Next party of two!” and I believe the line moved fairly quickly.

We had a great time people watching and enjoying the view from that other side of the Brooklyn Bridge. We especially got a laugh out of the two women who threw a fit because they waited o n a take-out pizza for twenty minutes and demanded their money back from the doorman. “Happily! I will HAPPILY refund your money, ladies!” as they cackled and cried “THeese peo-pah ah MEAN!” in their Staten Island accents to all of us standing in line. We laughed and wanted to give the guy a gold star. Clearly from their lineup of celebrity fans, and this line that has now grown around the corner at 2 in the afternoon, they won’t miss these two chicks’ carryout order. I wanted to applaud and secretly wished I was in the position to deliver such customer service at work, since I am usually caught being forced to apologize over a free service that people don’t have to use (riddle me THAT).

We also caught this little gem: A NYFD eating his thai noodles, sitting on the front of his firetruck, in the middle of a busy street!

So after about half an hour waiting we get called and they point to a small table. I feel dangerous and order a Black Cherry soda, which turns out to be a locally based Brooklyn soda. A+ says to get whatever toppings I want, and mentions the fresh garlic topping is a must (I love a boy who’s adventurous with food as I am). A very nice, quiet, and racially ambiguous couple (I say this because I have no idea where they were from, but my small-town girl Texan idiot would guess to say Peru) (Also they were speaking a language I did not understand) asked us what “fresh garlic” was.

Have you ever tried to explain what fresh garlic is?! It was like trying to describe the color ‘red’!

I basically compared it to an onion for them with a very, very distinct taste, that it was a vegetable, herb, what have you, and added that the reviews say it was a must-do. Now, whether or not they were a garlic-friendly couple, I’ll never know. They were reading a book on the subway maps, so I can only assume they were tourists like us.

I hate looking like a tourist. If I have to look at a map, I’ll duck behind a dumpster or run into a bathroom stall to double check to avoid looking like one. A+ doesn’t mind looking at maps in public and that kind of gave me some serious anxiety (I was FINALLY over that by Sunday) (Also he’s really into hand-holding, and THAT gave me serious anxiety, too, but I was not in the position to be making hand-holding demands) (and come on, he’s a nice guy. I can hold his hand) (I finally got over that by Sunday as well).

Anyway, there we were, A+ and me, the cute Peruvian couple, all sitting next to the coal pizza chambers and regular-looking pizza guys. I remember most the sun-dried tomatoes, the fresh garlic, the amazing thin crust, and the great pizza sauce. It’s no wonder the place is so famous.

A+ then suggested we walk across the Brooklyn Bridge instead of taking the subway back. I kind of squeeled 🙂 I get to walk where Miranda and Steve made up!!

Okay, stop creating lines between reality NY and S&TC NY. For all you know, the people of NY hate S&TC.