New York City Trip

The day started well. Before hitting the road to New Haven, we had to stop for gas. Stacey wasn’t happy we hadn’t left for New Haven earlier. By the time we got to Union station in New Haven, we had missed the 10:57 a.m. train by a few minutes. This didn’t improve her mood. While we waited for the 11:57 a.m. train, we ate some lunch. I got mine from Subway while Stacey chose Dunkin Donuts. Part of her mood was caused by her trepidation of going into New York City. She mentioned she was a bundle of nerves when she was younger too. At that time, she went into the city with her mom and sister. I was nervous too. I hadn’t been into the city since I took a bus there over 17 years ago to go to a Fangoria Convention. At that time, I went by myself.

Once we got to New York City around 1:40 p.m., we walked to Times Square. It was my first time being in Times Square. When I was in the city years ago, I stayed in my hotel the whole time. This time was a lot different. I never knew back then how close I was to Times Square when I arrived at the Port Authority. Times Square is beautiful. Walking around, we were accosted with people trying to sell discounts to plays. Trying to avoid eye contact doesn’t work like it does with cellphone sellers at Christmas time. Some of these sellers made a little bit of an impact. The ones I remember were the people selling the tickets for Chicago and Wishful Drinking because they were dressed up. A guy cannot forget a woman dressed up as Princess Leia.

We went to Toys R Us and rode its indoor ferris wheel. It was well worth the $4 ticket price. How often can you tell someone you rode an indoor ferris wheel? The store has three floors. It had an animatronic dinosaur from Jurassic Park. It has Superman and Spider-man hanging from the ceiling. It also had Optimus Prime standing next to a wall.

After we left toy heaven, we went to candyland. The Hersey store was sweet. And I mean that literally. The minute you walk in the door an employee hands everybody a heresy kiss. This is a great marketing tool because once you eat the piece of candy you definitely want more. We didn’t have enough sugary goodness so we went to the M&M store after leaving candyland. Being in these stores definitely makes you feel like a kid again.

Later on as we were waiting for friends to arrive so we could go to dinner, we got in the line forming for the New York Times sponsored event “Timestalks: A Conversation with Novelist Stephen King.” The event started at 7:00 p.m. The line started forming around 4 p.m. I figured if something kept our friends from arriving on time, we would still have a good spot in line. Our friends arrived around 5:30 p.m. At this time, I didn’t want to lose my place in line. Stacey said, she would stay so I could go to dinner with our friends since I have known them longer. I knew Stacey would get bored. She gets bored quite easily. I told her to go and I would wait. She would be more entertaining and outgoing then I would so I knew our friends would have a better time with Stacey.

While they were gone, the line started moving. I started texting her to say the line was moving. By 6 p.m., I was heading into the Times Center. I was worried since I had Stacey’s ticket and wasn’t sure she would be able to get into the event. Before heading inside, I stopped at the door to ask the person ushering people inside if it was a problem with someone coming to the event later since I had my wife’s ticket. While this was happening, an asswhole behind me started trying to push by me while saying “move aside.” I wasn’t moving. I was planning on continuing after I asked my question. After I was told it would be ok for Stacey to get inside without her ticket, I started moving again. As I started walking again, I said to the guy and his buddy to have a little patience. Some good advice Axle Rose sung about years ago. The guy repeated what he said and I reiterated what I said. I didn’t care if the guy and his buddy weighed more than I did and could have kicked my ass. I cared more about my wife being able to get inside the event and get a seat close to the stage where King would sit. This was her first time seeing King live. It was 6 p.m. and the event was starting at 7 p.m. so he could have easily waited for me to ask my question. It wasn’t like he was going to miss any of King’s talk because of me.

While waiting for Stacey and everybody to get back from dinner, the event staff had people in line choose playing cards. I chose two; one for me and one for Stacey. This is how people were going to be chosen to purchase one of King’s signed copies of “Under the Dome.” If the card had something on it, you were getting an autograph as long as you were willing to purchase the book. I chose wisely since both cards had stuff on it. I was happy Stacey was going to get a King autograph. I have met King two other times. I would have gladly given up my card to her if I had too.

Stacy did bring back some dinner for me when I was right outside the auditorium. At that time, a staff member said no outside food could be in there so I put it in my bag. The last time I ate was a pretzel from a street vendor at 2 p.m. The food smelled good too. At least, I didn’t have to dump it. I ended up eating it on the drive home from New Haven at 11 p.m. Chicken fingers are not that great cold, but they were better than the cold fries.

Janet Maslin’s interview with King was great. He talked about his current book, his writing and other topics. One interesting tidbit he mentioned was that he wants to write another Dark Tower book which got around of applause. At the end of the talk, King took questions from the audience. Stacey was brave enough to walk to a microphone and ask about using humor in his work. His talk has inspired me to start writing again and also reading more.

It was a great day in New York City. I can’t wait for a reason to go back.