2000-07-26 | 05:02:22

nictate does new york - part #1

in today's episode, nictate experiences the city of new york for the first time and ends up with two guys in her hotel room for the first time.

new york, here i come:

i was really nervous about flying so far to such a big city. i sound like a clampett saying that, but i was. and i had this sneaking suspicion that my plane would be making an unscheduled landing in a cornfield halfway there. i really didn't want to end life as a crop circle.

i gave up most of my trip anxiety at the exact moment i exited a long-term parking shuttle bus to catch another. the driver pointed me to the correct connecting shuttle, and as i walked off, called out, "goodbye, beautiful. i wish you were riding my bus." awwwww, man. i suddenly knew it was going to be a great trip. what an benevolent precursor. (hey, do you think "riding my bus" was a double entendre? hubba bussa. doh!)

so i took the red eye and didn't sleep much, due to being in a middle seat and suffering from a serious case of the when-your-own-head-bobbing-awakens-you-at-five-minute-intervals syndrome.

we coasted into nyc around 10 a.m. and as i looked down at the approaching metropolis, i experienced a mindblow like no other. this is the city. my take was, "whoa." i just about popped. the sheer density of the buildings...the way it stretched on forever and a day. now that was a motherfuckin' CITY! los angeles and chicago were sweaty, little, asthmatic phlegm coughs you wipe on your sleeve compared to this brickhouse mo fo. shit howdy!

so i deplane, deplane, and hook up with my fellow los angelean friend whose interviewing/apartment hunt was already in full effect. we grabbed some soul comfort food with her web guru buddie, eddie, and then shopped our way back through soho. that night, we kicked it at a club under the manhattan bridge that had the street i.d. of a blue awning imprinted with white letters that said: "white letters on blue awning." my kind of town, new york, she is.

the club thing was an open-bar (oh yeah!) anniversary party for the .com company steph is thinking of joining. it was cool club, even though the dj snubbed my request for "destiny's child." ah, man. moted for real. video projection was all around, as were very nice people. in new york! nice people, new york. who knew?! after a couple vodka cranberrys, i got my flirt on with a shameless mack daddy--just gettin' ma jetlagged groove back, yaknow.

when the party started emptying, me, stephanie, eddie and four other .comrades, david, thai, mars and ken, cabbed on over to the "w" hotel where she and i were staying due to the way-discounted rate benevolence of her cousin who is employed by said hotel.

yo, so you ask how were the digs? let's just say if pottery barn and banana republic had a love child, this hotel would be it. very posh and very NOW. kinda free, kinda young, charlie.

so after tequila shots with heineken chasers(!), ken falls asleep on the bar lounge couch, much to the chagrin of the hotel security guard who could have easily been mistaken for suge knight. as the bar began the get-the-hell-out ejection refrain, david ever-so-kindly suggests that he and ken stay over in the hotel since they are both too drunk to ride cabs home(?). oh reeeeeaaaallllly? the other two boys book it into the night.

well, so yeah, d and k stayed over. hey! we kept it clean! i raided a maid's closet for extra pillows and sheets and the boys made a makeshift bed next to ours on the floor. both contact wearers, they had to borrow my saline and store their peeps in hotel glasses. "you guys, don't drink our contacts," they reiterated several times. "you guys, serious."

for some silly-ass reason we still don't understand, steph and i gave up our celadon, brushed cotton, down-stuffed duvet to cover up their sorry, floor-sleeping asses. the rest of the night she and i froze it out in the w's a/c'd breeze. what we won't do for fellow barcrawlers, i tell ya.

at one point in the morning light, i woke up to feel the tugging of the sheet by my fetal-positioned knee. ken was sending some kind of 250-count smoke signal from ground zero that my sleep-inebriated mind was not receiving. i think i croaked out a "hi" (with the subtext of "hey, cut it out, bart. lisa be sleeping and shit.") and rolled over.

a bit later, they were both standing at the end of the bed mumbling, probably trying to figure out if they should wake us up to say "bye." then a door click. our two bedfellows were swallowed into the friday morning commute.

stephanie and i were swallowed soon after into cabs, the best-tasting custard i ever did see, a pretentious interview at another .com studio, the purchase of funky-butt nyc shoes, a cyber cafe stop-off, my first subway ride and a trip to see her newly rented, fly new pad in brooklyn. no sleep 'til, baby baby.

when we return: subway denizens and me, and the first time i meet a friend-formed-through-internet-interaction-only in person. until then, peace out.

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