day one of the NYC experience

So the time has finally come to break down the big trip. Much apologies, it has been quite some time since it happened.
DAY 1-
we left P-town bright and early- around 7:00 for a 10 o'clock flight-i have my father's disease of goin to the airport way too early. It was a direct flight with some sweet little tv's which made the time go by much faster. We arrived in New York at JFK in the early evening and met up with Ryan and Joselyn at the bag claim. After a while of trying to figure out where to go for the Airtrain and what stop to get off, we finally found our bus that took us to our hotel. Me and Erika had no idea where the hotel was located because Ryan had planned out our stay, all we knew was that Ryan had picked it out and it was "super convenient." To our surprise, this "convenience" as it were, was in the middle of the ghetto of beautiful Queens, right across form the airport.

We decided to go into the city, because the night was young. we didn't know where the subway was, so we had to hop on the local bus. Thats when things got a little interesting. Allow me to paint you a picture: We get on the bus and go through ghetto Queens, travelling around Rockaway Blvd- the neighborhood that 50 cent comes from on a friday night. We were the only white one's on the bus, and when i say white, we are talking WHITE. Me and Ryan passed for locals- Ryan looked like Joey from Friends, and I can pull of the mexican, latin american pretty well. However, the women were a different story. Here are Erika and Joselyn, both white, blonde and stickin out like sore thumbs. Both wearing white designer jackets with fur, designer jeans, designer purses...plus both them with eyes the size of saucers as the neighborhood locals hopped on the bus.

We finally got to the subway station, and bought what we thought at the time were useful subway/bus cards. It took us nearly 2 hours to get from our Holiday Inn in Queens to Manhattan. We headed into the city and cruised around SOHO a little. Surprisingly Erika handled her fear of homeless people remarkably and we cruised the busy streets. After wandering for a whilewWe ended up in Little Italy starving. Meandering down Mulberry St. we settled at Caffe Palermo aka the "Cannoli King of New York. It was pretty amazing, good paninis and even better desserts.




After eating tiramisu, bread pudding and some sort of mocha concauction that blew my mind we decided to venture around some more up in SOHO and then decided to head back to our "convenient" hotel. The funny thing though, was that we were realtively new to the whole subyway thang. All we thought was the different color lines took you to the places we needed. However we failed to understand that there are different trains within the different colored tracks to take you to the various parts of NYC. Unfortunately we learned that the hard way. and I do mean hard. We ended up taking the wrong, very wrong subway into the heart of Queens, just in time for the last train of the evening left. We were stranded, once again in the ghetto, with no more trains to catch. After watching the locals shoot up and deal different drugs in dark street corners, the girls kind of lost their cool. Upon being extremely terrified of the hood, Joselyn had to pee and was becoming more and more uncomfortable by the second.

After one attempt of catching a cab gone awry, I rolled up to a pizza joint to ask for directions about getting a cab. The pizza dude was real coi aobut showing us the way to "the best cab co." in New York,which ended up to be down a dark alley, with broken down cars on the sides of the streets, under the subway overpass. We ended up getting a cab, and luckily made it back to our hotel safely. Our cab driver lightened our mood a bit as he could tell that we were not from Queens or NY at all. For some reason he kept complimenting Ryan on his ability to score three beautiful women on vacation. The old italian who was obssessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and tv in general kept us entertained for sure during the trek around Queens to the sweet Holiday Inn. To this day, we don't know how the driver got so confused- for one, how he confused me for a hot lady- I guess his standards are real low, or he is into his women having some serious 5 o'clock shadow. And 2nd, how Ryan could possibly be percieved as that big of a pimp.

Big Apple

the official day-to-day run down of the trip is coming soon!

the weekend update

so this past weekend was pretty enjoyable. me and the mrs. took a quick trip up to Park City to get away from the bubble for the night. it was a good change of pace and not very busy, which was also a plus. there was snow everywhere, which abruptly reminded us that it was winter. up and down main street, in and out of little shops and trying not to get too cold was how the evening went. we both endulged on some new jeans, and got our grub on at Main Street Noodle and Pizza Co. the best thing about gettting pizza is having it for breakfast the next day!a funny moment up in park city was this dude that was yelling at his wife/girlfriend for getting his car all dirty. let me paint you a picture: homeboy was in his late 40's maybe early 50's, but definitely stuck in the 80's. he was rockin one of the dirtiest mullets i had ever seen, even more hardcore than billy ray cyrus himself. the girl with him was distraught because she couldn't parrallel park, and mr. mullet was even more distraught by her pathetic excuse for a park job.

saturday was pretty sweet too. i woke up and took in the buggy to get an oil change and then started to clean the bathroom- etrain's orders. in the afternoon i went over to jake's house to watch a lil football. normally i am not much of a sports fanatic or football watcher, but it was good to get with the fellas. we watched the Ohio State vs. Michigan game, and it was just as intense as all the hype anticipated.even papa Katz came in and left Lil Sid Vicious with her mom. BYU put on a good show too, clinching the conference title and defeating New Mexico.

Later in the evening we went over to our friend Trish's b-day party. Not your typical girly party by any means. but then again, Trish isn't a typical girl. the party was themed around the UFC Welterweight Title fight between Hughes and St Pierre. I felt a lil outta place because i was the only dude there who couldn't dead lift 600 lbs. meat-head central, but good guys i suppose. we didn't stay to watch all the fights, but sent our b-day wishes to Miss Trish.

puppy training

we all have mile stones in our lives; our first day of school is probably the most memorable for our parents. well, we have reached that same mile stone with our pup and by request of my wife i will share it with you, while she is in san diego. tonight was his first day of obedience school, and it couldn't have come any sooner. there were a lot of puppies in the class, all different breeds and sizes, along with all different owners. some that stick out are jack the chihuahua and his gay owner, and the three hounds with there hippee parents. buster was all fired up about being around so many dogs and people, which caused a little a.d.d. he kept trying to play with the labradoodle next to him and steal her treats, instead of learn anything. the trainer was really nice. Karen has been doing this for quite some time, i just hope she can help us out with Buster. throughout the session Buster was a punk and wanted to play, not learn.he was used as a "demo dog" by the trainer to learn a command, but got distracted half-way through and tried to wrestle with the three hounds.we have our work cut out for us! plus he was a snob about the treats we had-which made training and positive reinforcement kind of hard. but, we have some homework to do- some commands and getting him used to his new training tool, the clicker. i worked with him when we got home, but he still wasn't havin any of it. anywho, i must go seeing as i have yet another test to study for. and etrain, i hope that was satisfactory to your needs.

tone the grad

so yesterday was a pretty sweet day. for one, it was about 75 degrees and the sun was shining. i was walking around campus with a short sleeve shirt on- or in my "shirt-sleeves" as my wonderful mother-in-law Mama G would say. school was a normal day, except for one little thing. what?what is it you say. well, i guess you can figure it out by the title of this entry. there goes the suspense.i applied for graduation!thats right, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter folks. it was quite an experience. the spanish department is a joke, and full of rude, unhelpful people. i won't go into details, but needless to say it will be a happy day when i turn my tassel, walk up to the podium, grab my diploma and walk out the door. i will never have to step foot on campus as a student again!

redemption

some people call me loke, some call me stroke...but i would like to refer to myslef from now on as the "comeback kid." thats right, after last weeks embarrassment and general dissapointment i came back strong with high hopes and full throttle. On friday night, Erika had hoped to be wined and dined and treated like royalty for our weekend date. Much to her dismay, I had planned for us to go out to dinner with the crew to celebrate "jakie-poo's" birthday. Erika had a rough day at school- to say the least- and i am sure she was just hoping to leave the night up to me. friday night was a bit unusual however. Jake had planned to go to the movies with some of who we like to refer as the "replacement friends" at around 6:30 or 7-ish. therefore, we- those friends who care about him most and vice-versa- had his Olive Garden b-day dinner at 4:45pm. Yup, just us and the denture squad. in fact, we had beat the senior citizen rush, if you could imagine. the dinner was fun though: nothing is better than gettin together with amazing people. the katz', francis, jake and the mendioroz's. we shared some pretty amazing laughs, and good food. i think that the quote that will be legendary forever is sarah's classic "Chris would be soo embarrassed!" as we discussed the new trend of nudist colonies becoming mainstream. sorry chris. what a line!

after dinner we went up to the Riverwoods and saw "The Prestige" with Chris and Sarah. it was our second time, and we still haven't gotten it all figured out. what a great flick-i highly recommend it. the first time with ty and jenny left us stumped, confused and wanting to figure out what had happened. the second time, we got most of the plot worked out, but still are lost on a few things. its awesome.

Now, for the whole reason of the new name- saturday was my turn to sing the great Bob Marley's Redemption song as i planned out our night. Erika had been gone all day at school, I didn't have to work, so i focused on "her day." as she was away, i got my domestication on. thats right, i have been known to cook from time to time, yet baking i have not ventured into. My boss made an amazing pumpkin cake thing the other day at work, and i brought a nugget home for erika to sample. if you know erika at all, you know that this is her favorite time of year because pumpkins are everywhere, in every form of edible food and she can't get enough of it. after 2 days of raving about the "punkin goodness" as she called it, i got the recipe and baked it while Erika was off at school pampering jeff.

i also went grocery shopping to put togther her new new favorite dinner- Giatta's veggie paninis- which i made for her hot and fresh when she walked in the door. she enjoyed the panini, but was distracted by the huge pan of pumpking deliciousness. with no hesitation we dove into the dessert and her eyes lit up. jackpot! she loved it.

the night did not end there however. after stuffing our faces with pumpkin, and letting our guts settle from such a quality meal, we headed up north to enjoy the highlight of the evening. i took her to see the classic "Man of La Mancha" up in SLC at the Hale Theatre. The cool thing about this particular theatre is that its a "theatre in the round," like Shakespeare's Globe. The drive up was a joke, we almost missed the show. I guess there was some orchestra concert at the E Center accross the street, which caused serious traffic. there is nothing worse than a utahrd traffic jam. But the gods were smiling because the show started late and we were able to make it.
the play really was entertaining, Don Quixote was really good and soo was Dulcinea, but the real show stopper was Sancho.one of my favorite parts was when he sang to a dying Quixote about "this and that." Also the fight against Gypsies was a classic scene. he was hillarious and the production was great. we still have the songs stuck in our heads today.it was good to be enriched with culture, especially spanish culture and it was a great end to a great night.

most important of all was the appreciation and happiness that oozed from erika all night long. i always love seeing her face light up, as she gets treated special or is pampered in any way. its soo worth the time and effort to really show how much you love someone, and then feel the love ten times more right back.

dropping the ball

so this past weekend was a sad one folks. nothing tragic happened, nothing exciting. just sad. it was sad because i totally let erika down and that is probably the worst feeling that i can have. the thing that sucks is that i was trying to plan all week long a fun date to take her on.it being around halloween there are lots of haunted houses and such to check out. erika loves scary things and its the perfect time for it.i had been making calls all week to get other friends to come along, but it all came down to saturday afternoon and no one could go. sadly, we just went to dinner then went home to watch a movie on tv. i write this because i feel like i owe her an apology, becuase even though our friends couldn't go out, i should have taken her out all by ourselves. besides thats what its all about anyway right?making her feel loved and special. those of you who are married know how much it hurts when you know you have let someone down, even though they claim to not care. for all the guys out there, we should consider ourselves lucky that our wives still keep us around after dropping the ball soo much. at least i feel lucky.

i feel lucky to be in the game still, and have a wife who does so much for me. its the little things ya know? as i sit hear i realize that there are so many little things that she does for me everyday. lots of times i drop the ball and don't recognize them or just fail to acknowledge them.little things like get my favorite ice cream at the store, or taking out buster early in the morning. or paying all the bills on time.i really am lucky to have such a keeper of a wife and that she keeps me around.i am sorry that i dropped the ball snig. i love you.thanks for all you do.