Are We There Yet?

We'll keep it short and sweet today, or as such that I can keep it. I've been told that I can be a bit long-winded ;)

Yesterday we had quite a bit of rain in the big apple. Our bus broke down, and we had to catch another bus. Abell, Sheena, and I did a bit of shopping on 34th St., and I got a new winter coat and haggled the price down on 2 t-shirts (a Venom one and a John Lennon one...if you know me, you know I'm a t-shirt honk). I also bought a good winter coat, that I wasn't sure if it was a woman's coat or not. I wanted a cool Pea Coat like my friend Matt has, and the price was great ($100). You know what, if it's meant for a woman, I really don't care because it looks great on me and I'm warm.

We then had dinner at TGIFriday's. Friday's is the most chainy, goofy, no substance restaurant on the planet. It had to have inspired Chotsky's in "Office Space." Now they advertise free refills on fountain drinks, which just doesn't happen in Manhattan. I open the menu and decide on a nice healthy burger, at the reasonable rate of $15.59. Really? OK, I was in the mood for a beer, but at nearly $16 for a burger, no thanks. What, am I going to have to re-finance and hope to get a better rate just to purchase a beer? Am I going to have to take a second mortgage just to get some fried cheese sticks as an app? We get the bill at the end, and I see my Diet Pepsi (sorry Stack, you're going to be hard pressed to find Diet Coke up here) cost $3.59. Oh, and our server wasn't too up on re-filling our drinks. So for those of you keeping score at home, my meal was $15.59, drink (non-alcoholic) was $3.59, and that was before tax. I should have asked if they carried Pabst Blue Ribbon, because you can probably get a six pack of that for cheaper than 1 Diet Pepsi at the Friday's across from Madison Square Garden. Friday's also includes a little handy guide on tipping (15% standard, 18% good, 20% excellent). That formula might have worked in 1962, but I give 20% just for basic service (it's a hard job, and who wants the rap of being a bad tipper). I guess it's for foreign guests who think they can run up a huge bill and not tip. Sorry for the rant, back to where we were. So Abell heads to her rehearsal, and Sheena and I go move my stuff into my new place. I love it there. I'll text everyone my new address, because I don't feel too safe leaving it out there in cyber space. We then met Abell after her rehearsal, and went to a Starbucks in Times Square, where I taught Helen (I just realized some of you may not have made the correlation that Helen and Abell are one in the same, since her name is Helen Abell) and Sheena about wine and a bit about liquor for when they go looking for restaurants jobs. Oh, and afterwards, I bought another t-shirt, because it gave me a good idea....

On a side note, the major drug store up here is Duane Reade. Ironically, when I was in one the other day, the guy cashing me out was named "Dwayne." So I kept insisting he was the Duane (or "Dwayne") of Duane Reade fame.I decide to make like my buddy Jeff Pack and be completely ridiculous with this guy. You're probably not laughing whilst you read this, and that's fine, because you should've been there. I put a smile on his face.

OK, Abell (of Helen fame) and I are going to look for jobs and get into more shennanigans. Until later!