Down to the wire
Loose plans for our trip. (Leaving in about 36 hours! Yikes, I gotta pack sometime!)
There's room on most every day to add/delete/change things.
Trying to meet up with the bus group from my hall got to complicated, so I eliminated it. Oh, well, I see these people every week anyhow...

Saturday- Me- Leave Atlanta at 6am, Fly in to Buffalo, pick up rental car, drive to Toronto, go to Hindi congregation dedication. Party. Sleep.
B&C-Fly in to NYC, go to B&B, wherever else they wanna go.

Sunday-Me-Up at an obscenely early hour, try to leave without waking my hosts, drive back to Buffalo, fly to NYC, meet up with my friends. Then whatever Cam & Reb want to do.

Monday- Hopefully, get to sleep until at LEAST 6am. (Whoohoo!) Tour Brooklyn Bethel, lunch there too.

Tuesday-Up at a ridiculous hour again. Who set this sadistic schedule, anyhow?!? In the audience for Good Morning, America! by 6am. Jump up and down and wave like a lunatic for the people watching back home.
Shows over, look around at Times Square. Split up again- B&C head off to see the Stanley Theater and have dinner with Colette's brother, I go back to the room and get in some quality nap time.
Wednesday-Leave early, AGAIN! To go try and tour Wallkill and Patterson in the same day. Lunch with Jake and Yedda.
Thursday- Start on our list of must-see sites in NYC. Possibly take double decker bus tour, so that I can sleep... er, that is, rest my feet. Meeting in evening.
Friday-More touring. Decided what's left on our I-really-have-to-see-(insert cultural, historical, or kitschy place here)-or-I-will-never-be-happy-again list. Hopefully visit those. Give B&C the list of "Most Romantic Places to Visit in New York" to entertain them while I go back to the room and sleep some more. (Are we sensing a recurring theme here?)
Saturday-Sleep in? Now there's an idea! Afternoon, MOVIE! Semi-certain guest list is currently at an even dozen. Pizza, cards, tears when everyone leaves again.
Sunday-Meeting, then home. To sleep.

Between the three of us, I think this is the must see list we've come up with (thus far)

Central Park (free)
http://www.centralpark.org/ Includes Belvedere Castle, Bethesda Terrace, Rowboat on lake ($10 per hour),Alice in Wonderland Statue, Shakespeare Garden, King Jagiello statue, literary walk, Balto, wisteria pergola, bandshell, Delacort theatre, Cleopatra's Needle, Carousel, etc...


Times Square (free unless we go shopping...) http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/livelennon.html

Wall Street (free unless we get aught up and start investing)

Empire State Building (Free to look at, $12 to ride the elevator.)http://www.esbnyc.com/


China Town, Little Italy, Little India- (again, free until we start shopping.And eating.)

The Cloisters (at the Met) ($15 "recommended" admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cloisters)


Places we would like to see but might not die if we miss-
Grand Central Terminal http://www.grandcentralterminal.com

Ellis Island (museum is free, but ferry to get there is $10) http://www.ellisisland.org/

NY Botanical Gardens http://www.nybg.org/

Staten Island Ferry (free!)http://www.siferry.com/ Is it me or is that a rather unencouraging picture on the page header there?

Lincoln Center (tour $9.50) http://www.lincolncenter.org/index2.asp


Radio City Music Hall (tour $17- ouch!!) http://www.radiocity.com

Rockefeller Center (I'm guessing it's free to explore on your own, $12 tour. Ouch again.)http://www.rockefellercenter.com

Museum of Modern Art ($20 ) http://www.moma.org/

Brooklyn Museum of Art ($8) http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

Frick Collection ($12) http://www.frick.org/

Guggenheim ($15. Free to just look at the really cool buildig from outside.)
http://www.guggenheim.org/

Strand Bookstore (Free until I buy a case of books and have to cart 'em home.) http://www.strandbooks.com 18 miles of books? Heaven!

One of the flea markets http://www.ny.com/shopping/flea/

Chumley's. Former speakeasy, supposedly the best burgers on earth.

Tom's Restaurant (The diner from Seinfeld)

We'd love to catch a show somewhere.

Ok, I'll stop there. For now.
In case you can't tell, I am all about the free stuff.


HMM

Mission to Mars
Wow, who knew we could take in a trip to Mars along the way?

Mars2112

Menu and reviews

I think we may need to at least have a drink here... you just can't find kitsch like this many places outside of Orlando or Las Vegas.

but no soylent green, please and thank you.

____________________________________________________

Another show diner (Touristy? Well, yeah. That's what I'm here for.)
Ellen's Stardust Diner


Menu and Review

Call me crazy (it's been done before) but wait staff who sing and dance always get better tips from me.

10
Time is very very short, need some plans.
Went to my Doctor yesterday, the lovely woman gave my a couple of shots in my worst affected (effected? affected, I think. maybe.) joints, so I'm feeling much less pain.
Lovely, lovely woman. I think she may be my new best friend.

So, she has decided to take me off of the antibiotics for a month, let my body recover a bit, then hopefully start the IV antibiotics. Which means that I should be less sun sensitive next week, but I don't know if it means that I'll be feeling better or worse. She is very sternly telling me to be careful not to "overdo it", especially on the trip.
What's the fun of a vacation if you don't come home exhausted from too much fun?!
Anyhow, I'm trying to limit my must-see/do list. Here's my list.
1)Visit with my friends.
2) Tour the Bethels- at least some.
3)Visit Little India, at least briefly
4) Explore Central Park, at least a bit.

I think that's it. I'd like to do the hop on/hop off bus, tour the UN, Staten Island Ferry, a few museums, botanical gardens, Chinatown, Little Italy, shopping, Battery Park, WTC site, Empire State Building, the Cloisters (Oh, I might have to add the Cloisters to my musts lists.)... but all that is optional. As long as I got the first four items covered, I'll be happy.

Ok.
Item number one- meeting up in the airport.
The Ellisons flight arrives about 30 minutes after mine, but in another concourse on the opposite side of the airport. Baggage claim in each concourse. Once you claim your bag, you can't go back in the airport.
So, how abouts I get my bag, then meet ya'll at your baggage claim? With the help of cell phones, shouldn't be too hard.

Item two- getting there. Looks like taxi is our best option, should be about $30. By the time we get our bags, get together, and get to Dekoven, I'm guessing it'll be pretty close to check in time. If we can't check in yet, I feel certain they'd let us drop our bags there, and there are numerous eating establishments within walking distance. Grab lunch, come back, check in, crash for a while. See how we feel later, if we want to go anywhere special or just dinner.


Item three- Sunday- whatever Cam & Reb want to do. If anybody else wants to join in, cool.

Did I just say cool? I think the muscle relaxants may have worked their way to my brain. Oh dear.

More soon.

HM

three weeks and counting...
Mood:  incredulous
I don't know why I bother, nobody is reading this.
Anyway.

THREE WEEKS!!

I am taking the lack of dissent as a glowing round of consent. Therefore, we are all going to the movie on Saturday, May 7.

I would kinda like to have at least a loose plan for the rest of our time, though, so we don't waste half of our time deciding what to do next.

In other news... We just received word that the Hindi language group in Toronto is becoming an official congregation. They are having their dedication on Saturday, April 30, and they invited our whole Hindi group to join them. They'll be having the dedication, followed by a Watchtower study, then going to a reception hall for a get-together. Told us that all we had to do was get there, and they'd provide the accomodations and everything.
It's killing me, I want to go so bad. New York is SO much closer to Toronto than Atlanta is, but I still just don't see how the logistics would work. My flight arrives at La Guardia at noon- no matter how I tried to get to Toronto from there, it would be very tight timing and exhausting. But it would be such an experience.

Other exciting news, they also announced that we will finally be starting our Hindi classes in two weeks! Then (yikes) the very next week after that, we're going full Hindi with our study, no more bilingual. In June we have a speaker coming down from Bethel to give our first public talk, then we're planning to have a public talk once every other month after that. I really need to find a study partner and start studying a lot harder or I'm going to be completely left behind.

By the way- does anyone know if I can count trip expenses as a tax write off, since my Doctor told me that I need a vacation? ;o)

Details, details
Less than a month away, time to start nailing down some details.

1)I'm thinking the best time to plan to see the movie is probably Saturday, May 7. Possibility more friends will be able to join us then. Does that work for everyone?

2)It turns out that about half of my congregation will be in New York that same week on a bus tour. I would really like to hook up with them at some point, just to confuse people.
"Hey, I didn't see you on the bus?"
"What do you mean, I'm sitting right behind you!"

hehehehe
Anyway, the tour leader has invited us to join them for breakfast Monday morning. Ellison's, you interested?

3) The good news is, my Doctor has decided not to start me on IV antibiotics yet after all. (Assuming we can even get the insurance people to approve it whenever she decides to try..)So, anyway, I won't be pulling along my own IV pole thru the city.

The bad news is, the meds I'm on are making me REALLY light and sun sensitive. I got second degree burns on my hands while driving. So, I'm living in long sleeves, gloves, wide brimmed hats, lots of sunscreen. Carrying at least two pair sunglasses with me at all times- one for indoor, darker for outdoor. At the meetings I've been sitting in the library with the lights out.
So, while I want to experience as much spring in the city as I can take, the more indoor and dimly lit adventures the better. Alternatively, since it's the city that never sleeps, I would be just as happy, if perhaps monumentally less safe, to sleep all day and explore at night.
Sorry. I'm wandering again.

4)B&C- What's our plan for going to the Farm and Patterson?

5) What's the best plan for transport to and from the airport? I don't really think we want to try public transport with our luggage.
Any and all (well, most) ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Heather

Whoo-hoo!
My flight is now also booked, same days and almost the same times as Billy & Colette. Goin' for broke, April 30- May 8.

In more good news, I don't know when this was released because I haven't checked the movie site regularly, but the movie has been rated.... PG! Wow! (I've actually had nightmares that I got up this whole group and then they somehow managed to make the movie R rated.)

Update
Billy and Colette have booked their tickets, April 30- May 8. (Hooray!)

I just got news Thursday that my job is going full time. I, of course, can’t/won’t go full time. It wasn’t totally unexpected with the level of growth that the company has been enjoying, but still unnerving.
I’m assured of a job for at least the next 6-8 months, after that a couple of other departments here are interested in having me transfer. So far I’ve been with this company 4 ? years and held 5 different positions… so they know that I can be flexible. Still makes me feel a bit insecure.

My first thought was that I needed to shorten my trip, save my $$ just in case.
My second thought was that I should use up my meager paid vacation time while I have it.
After all, what’s the fun in being rear-ended by a Lincoln if you don’t blow a little bit of the settlement?
So I’m stifling my practical, penny pinching side that usually always wins, and I’ll just concentrate on cheap meals and free entertainment.

But if I ever try to arrange a group trip again, somebody please slap me upside the head.

Thanks!

Shameless begging
Rebbie, I took the liberty of posting your letter here, so my first post won't look so lonely. HM
Hello everybody!
First I have to say, Heather, thanks so much for keeping up the enthusiasm on this plan! It's been something we keep looking forward to, the thought of seeing a whole group of old friends all together at once... :-) yay!
The movie may be an excuse but it seems like a good one. Hopefully it will not disappoint. As far as when to get together for it, if it worked to have everyone come opening weekend that's fine by us. Actually it might be slightly better because I'll just be starting a new weekend duty in May and of course the first one is on that first weekend- I can try to trade but I have to trade the second one for sure to go to convention (not exactly the best start). Worse case scenario with that though is just that I'd have to work just that Saturday morning even if the crew was here May 7th.
Really my room to complain and change things is practically nonexistent- anytime you all can come out here to see us and all we have to do is meet you somewhere close- wow, great!
Can I throw in as more incentive the info that the movie theater we go to here has about 15 escalators to ride to get you to your show? Who wants to miss that experience??
Let us know how we can help in trip-planning.
Love,
Reb & Cam

Feedback, please
So. I sent ya'll an email requesting to know whether anyone is interested in/actually planning to get together in NYC to go to the premiere of the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie.

The lack of response is overwhelming.

Maybe all of your enthusiastic responses got lost in the mail- yahoo does love to eat my important messages. Now, here's a handy dandy new way to coordinate!

You are all hereby invited to post here, whether or not you can come. If you don't care for HHGTTG, we will not force you to come to the movie.
You can come ride the escalators.
See another movie.
Visit the Empire State Building.
Socialize with the friendly locals.
Eat pretzels.
Have fun getting lost.
Risk your life in a taxi.
Whatever- we'll only be in the movie what, two hours? It's just an excuse to get everyone together.

If you have or create a Tripod ID, let me know, I'll invite you to join with full posting privilidges. Otherwise, just hit the "post your comment" link below. You don't have to sign in or anything, just type in a name and message. However, only I have the power to delete messages... *insert evil laughter here*

If you missed it before, the preview is now on the official site.


*Shameless begging may now begin.

Heather