Jamaica

Sunday morning I had brunch with Rafi at a sidewalk cafe near his house. I ordered the buttermilk pancakes with bananas and strawberries but actually got the lemon ricotta pancakes which were very good. We had a big meal planned for that evening so brunch was perfect to hold me over til then.
Every now and then you see someone who's eyes are so beautiful that you can't look away. Well, a young girl and her mom (I'm guessing) sat next to us out on the sidewalk. The daughter had some similarities to Keri Russel with these light blue eyes that were perfectly arranged between her nose and forehead. She ordered a mimosa so she must've been at least 21 which made Rafi and I feel a little better that we weren't checking out a teenager :)
My head was hurting from Saturday night so we went back to Rafi's and relaxed. I watched a few recorded episodes of House. It's a show about a doctor with the last name of House who goes about treating his patients a little bit different but with good results. Around 5 o'clock we headed out down to Brooklyn for our 6:45 reservation at Peter Luger's Steak House. We showed up about 30 minutes early after changing subway trains 3 times. Going North or South through Manhattan on the subway is quite easy but once you have to get across town or over to the lower east side it actually takes quite a bit of time. I guess you can't really complain though, at $2 per trip no matter how many trains you take it's a lot cheaper than a cab.
We walked up to the host to let them know we were there and a bit early. They couldn't find Rafi's name anywhere on the list. I actually think the guy didn't believe us and tried to tell us that there was no way Rafi had made a reservation within 2 weeks for 6:45pm cause that slot fills up 1.5 to 2 months ahead. Rafi let me listen to the voicemail from Peter Luger's confirming our reservation and spelling out the date and time. Anyways, we got seated within about 20 minutes! We had a porterhouse for 2. It was a little more rare than medium rare but it was still good. The giant shrimp cocktail appetizer was very good as well.
After dinner, we went back to Rafi's apartment to try to find a comedy show to go to but they were all sold out. We ended up a bar called Prohibition on Columbus. They had a good band there playing covers of artists like John Denver, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, etc. Our waitress was from Sweden and had lived in New York about 7 years. For a Sunday night it was pretty dead so we had fun cutting up with Julia. We tried to drink enough so that our tip woudl help cover the $150 dress she bought that day.
Monday morning we had brunch at the Popover Cafe near Rafi's. Ham and cheese omelette for me and Rafi tried soem crazy Crab, mushroom, special... it didn't look good!
We went down to the giant Macy's to check it out. The place has 10 floors and takes up the entire block. I'd hate to pay the rent there. I towed my luggage down to Penn Station and saw that the next train that I needed was leaving in < 2 min so I ran down some steps and hopped aboard. I had a round trip ticket already in my wallet from the train ride in. My goal was to get back to ISLIP airport for my 4pm flight and it was now 12:31pm.
After stopping at every stop between Penn Station and the end of the line at Babylon, I got off the train. I had ridden 70 minutes in a car with no A/C and was sweating a bit. After getting off the train I realized that I had left my ticket on my seat so I had to go in and buy another 1way ticket to ISLIP. $2.25 later, I was good to go. Next train to ISLIP leaves at 2:26 and it was about 1:45. Hanging out on a train platform in the middle of no where with a bunch of people you don't know isn't all that cool but there I was. They had 3 platforms to choose from and I finally decided at the last minute to get on the train at platform 2 being that it departed at 2:26 and someone confirmed that it went to ISLIP. 5 stops later, I get off the train at ISLIP, the train pulls away and I look around and think... Ummm, where's the airport?
I stop a man who was also on the train to ask him for directions and help and he suggested that I call a cab. Well, without a cab phone number that wasn't going to be easy. A jamaican woman who overheard my conversation offered to help and said she would drive me to the airport. HOW NICE! She was a very nice, religious woman named Olive. We listened to praise music on the 20 min drive out to the airport and she told me all the good places to visit in Jamaica. In my limited knowledge I didn't realize that the town of ISLIP is different than the ISLIP airport and the two aren't even in the same place! It was now 3:25pm as we pulled up to the airport terminals. She told me that earlier that morning she had prayed to God so that he would let her help someone today and that I was that person. It was nice to meet a stranger who was willing to give her time to assist in my despair. I handed her a couple of $20s for the trip and she said she would give them to her church. Thank you Olive!
Boarding pass in hand, I now stood by my gate. The plane was delayed about 25 minutes so I wasn't really late after all. 1 stop in Baltimore and then a 3 hr flight back to Austin. My friend Miranda met me in Austin and drove me home.
7 days out of the office, 6 days in New York and some rainy fireworks over Town Lake. My 4th of July was quite fun and I definitely look forward to getting back to New York.