I have just completed an incredible week. So many friends. So many places. So much money spent. So much fun. And I want to jump right into it… but I really can’t. I have two things I need to tell you first, then I can talk about New York and all the fun there in.
First, you may recall if you are an avid reader of my blog (and you aren’t) that in my post on December 15 there was something I did the last Friday of classes that I couldn’t talk to you about back then. Well, I can talk about it now. I cut off my hair. All of it. For those not clued in, I had had hair that went down past my shoulders (and when pulled straight it went down to the middle of my back). But on December 9 I had it cut off. I donated it to Locks Of Love, a group that will make a wig from it and give it to a kid who has cancer. At first I got a regular haircut. It looked a lot like what I had my senior year of high school. Nothing all that remarkable. The only difference was that over the past four years I’ve lost a good bit of hair, and it was pretty noticeable. So when I got home I decided the rest had to go. That’s right, I shaved my head. And thankfully I have a head that isn’t oddly shaped. I can pull this look off. I didn’t want to write about it because it was so much more fun shocking people visually. The day after I cut it I went to a ministry team meeting and the Nav Christmas party. Between the two I got some great reactions. I had arrived at Villa Special to help cook breakfast Saturday morning. James hadn’t woken up yet. When he came out of his room he went into the kitchen, saw me, and immediately turned back around. Liz almost introduced herself to me, and she’s known me longer than every Nav except Mike and Mandi. Scout’s jaw dropped and was completely speechless. That’s just to name a few. I got to shock my Connecticut friends about a week later. In New York I got to surprise my NCP buddies. It’s been fun. So I apologize for not being completely forthcoming with you as I usually am, but this was a special circumstance. Now you know. If you go to my Facebook entry or to my NCP reunion photos you can see what I look like.
Alright, so that’s preliminary news item number one. Second, everyone in my family is getting married! Okay, that didn’t come out right. I don’t mean to say that the people in my family are marrying each other. What I mean is that I have three cousins who are now engaged. I sort of expected to see my cousins Carrie and Lindsay get a ring soon, but just yesterday I found out that my cousin Ryan proposed to his girlfriend on New Years Eve. After thinking about how great this was for him I wondered how his sister, older than him by about twelve years and unmarried, was taking the news. I thought she might be jealous or something. Then as I thought about it some more I realized that he’s also younger than me! Granted, only by six months, but he’s younger than me. And then, strangely enough, I began to get jealous. Which is absurd because I don’t want to be married this young. But he’s not supposed to beat me to it. You know what I mean? Whatever. I’m over it. I’m happy for him, for all three of them. But I must admit, I’m feeling much more single than I was when I woke up yesterday morning.
Alright, on to the main event. It began the morning of December 30th when I got to spend the morning and early afternoon with Renee Leduc and Rachel Christofel. Renee moved to Boston last fall after graduating from FSU and Rachel was up north visiting her. They came into Connecticut for the day both to see me and so that Rachel could say that she had been to Connecticut. I was to play the part of host and tour guide. The only problem is that I really don’t know all that much about Connecticut and even less about its “hot spots”. In fact I’m convinced there isn’t really much to do here at all. After toying around with the idea of going to Mystic, which would have meant a lot of time in the car and not much time of actually doing anything, I decided to show them Old Wethersfield. Yes, there’s not all that much there but there are old buildings. And it truly is a stereotypical old New England town. We drove to the cove and walked up and down the main street. For lunch I brought them to Rein’s Deli in Vernon, giving them more of a taste of New York than anything else but oh well. I had a good time, so good that I almost missed my train.
You see I told them that I needed to be back to my home by 2:00 PM in order to catch my train. Now that wasn’t exactly true. I knew that whatever deadline I set would not be made so I added a little fudge factor. As it turned out we didn’t even look at our watches while eating until it was 1:45. I got home at around 2:30 and raced to the train station. Even with rush hour traffic it only took an hour to get there. Good thing too because my train was leaving at 3:50.
So there I am waiting to board my train. I’m out on the platform; the train hasn’t come yet. There’s a rather large man to my left. I see him drop a pin that had been on his shirt. He didn’t notice. I bend down, pick it up and hand it to him and he looks at me as though I’ve found his lost child. He was Hispanic and was speaking fluent Spanglish so I was having a hard time understanding exactly what he was saying. But I do pick up on a couple of words like “devil” and “father”. Then he puts the pin back on his shirt. I hadn’t even looked at it. It was a rectangular pin that had a single word on it: “misionero”. I had just run into a missionary. The train comes and I invite him to sit with me. I’m not sure I could relay to you what he told me but he was very excited to tell me. I did catch that his name was Dario. He got off about half way to New York and even though I’m not sure what he told me I remember sitting there feeling so encouraged. It wasn’t just me. Other people were trying to reach the nations too.
Before I get into the events let me introduce the cast of characters. We had eight NCP men, including myself, make the trip. That would be me, Mark, Jim, Sterling, Mikey, Adam, Bova, and Tim Sparks. We had four of the NCP women; they were Kate, Kat, Kelsey and Heather. In addition to these we had two of Sterlings friends, Ellis and Jenny, join us for the week.
I got to the train station to find five people waiting for me. After convincing them that it was indeed me we headed to Chinatown where the guys would be staying and where we were going to do some initial planning. We met the owner of the apartment Peter Trautmann, the NYU Nav staff, and together we all threw out some ideas for the week. After dinner at a local Chinese restaurant (a restaurant that featured these funky soup balls) we went into Time Square, thinking that if we didn’t go that night we wouldn’t make it there for at least another two days. We walked around wide-eyed and dumbstruck for a while, then came back to the apartment and turned in for the evening. The plan had initially been to move the girls and their things to their apartment that night but we were all pretty tired, so we all slept at Peter’s. Now don’t get all crazy, the girls were in their own room.
The next day was New Years Eve. No one in our crew really wanted to do New Years in Time Square since you had to get there at around 4:00 PM to get your spot, and even then you may or may not be able to see the ball. Since our time in the state was limited we decided to pass. We woke up sort of late that day, most of the crew being pretty tired from a long day of travel the day before. We first went to Central Park, hoping to ice skate. The lines were amazing and the weather was turning for the worse. Freezing rain was starting to come down. But as we were walking through the park it turned into snow. I have to tell you I was grinning ear to ear when it started to snow. I mean think about it. We were in Central Park and it was snowing! It was so perfect. We walked on and came to F.A.O. Schwartz. We couldn’t help ourselves. Our inner child was giddy at the thought of going into the giant toy store. We spent over an hour in there looking at all the elaborate and ridiculously expensive toys. Some of us got to play the giant foot piano. All in all a very fun stop.
But it was getting late in the day. After a quick stop at the local Catholic church and a trip to go see the big Christmas tree (yeah that’s right, Christmas tree) at the Rockefeller center we went to Little Italy and found a restaurant recommended by Bova. It was really good, if not really expensive. At that point three of the group left us to go to Time Square. What, so late? Yeah. They had an in. When they confronted the cops at the perimeter they just told them that they lived there. What are they going to do? So they got to see the ball drop. The rest of us went to the Brooklyn Bridge, which was also reasonably crowded. We saw a couple of fireworks displays, though they were partly obscured by the tall buildings around them. It was a unique way to ring in the new year. Before we got to end the day we had to bring the girls’ luggage to their new place (not to mention talk to a guy who was high as a kite on the way there). I have to admit I was dead when I hit the pillow that night.
Once again we were up late, and so once again we would get a late start to the day. This was the only day we were joined by Heather. You know, the girl who swoons when I wink at her (see entry on 8.2.05; she will never live that down). Which was a shame because New Years Day was the one day on the trip that really was wasted. And I don’t think it was anyone’s fault that it was wasted. We started the day late and a lot of things were closed. We went to Battery Park anyway, hoping we would be able to go over and see the Statue of Liberty that day. We weren’t able to. I did get some very beautiful shots of the Statue at sunset though, so I was happy with the trip. After spending a good bit of time there we went out for dinner. We ate on Wall Street. I know there’s nothing all that special about the restaurants on Wall Street, but it is a famous street so I figured I’d throw that in there. The day wasn’t a total loss. After dinner we went back to Central Park to go ice skating. I myself did not go skating. I was the photographer. This was the first time I actually needed to have a camera with a 12x optical zoom. I got a bunch of pictures (could have used a little more light, but whatever) and two videos of skating. Thus ended the slow day of the trip.
The next day we got an earlier start. We made it over to Battery Park early to get our tickets for the Statue of Liberty. The only downside was not everyone showed up at the same time. All the girls came, but only myself and two of the guys came. The rest stayed in bed and had Mark buy their tickets. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive we spread out, each going to their own place. Kate went into a Starbucks and was given five cakes! They were a holiday cake of some sort that they needed to get rid of and so this guy just gave them to her. She never even ordered anything. We’re all pretty sure it wasn’t as easy as all that. There was a consensus opinion that she batted her eyelashes at the barista. Poor guy never had a chance. So after everyone arrived and had their free breakfast we took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. It’s impressive I must say. Next we went to Ellis Island for no other reason than it was the next stop on the boat’s tour. That’s mean of me to say. Some people got a lot out of it I’m sure. I used it as a place to have lunch and nothing more.
We left Ellis Island in a rush because we needed to get in line in Time Square to try to get cheap tickets for a Broadway or off-Broadway show. We got in line, standing there as it rained on us. We knew we weren’t all going to be able to go to the same show, and we probably weren’t even going to be able to go to a show we’d ever heard of, but we all agreed we wanted the experience of going to a show. As we were in line a couple of people came up to us and asked if we wanted to be on TV. Of course we said we’d love to be on TV. They invited us to be on CBS’s Early Show the following morning for the weather report. Literally just minutes after signing up for that a woman comes along and tells us that she can get our entire group tickets to an off-Broadway play called Perfect Crime because a tour bus just canceled. We all quickly agree, since it was more important to us to see it together than to see any of the other random shows that may have been available. We buy our tickets and officially reach cloud nine. We were all just so amped. God blessed us unbelievably in the span of five minutes. For dinner the majority of the group stayed in Time Square, eating at the Olive Garden. Now I know you’re thinking that’s lame, but it had a great view of the city and good food too so I’m not complaining. After dinner we went to see Perfect Crime. I was pretty impressed. Think Agatha Christie murder mystery on stage. The only bummer was that it was set up so that you couldn’t possibly figure out the ending until the final scene. But whatever, it was still really good. Since we knew we’d have to get up early the next day we turned in early, though not until we moved the girls’ luggage from one apartment to another in the cold rain (not complaining, just recounting). And actually none of the guys really did go to bed when they got back since we heard Mikey’s epic story for a good hour or so. Oh well. We had the best intentions.
The next day was January 3, our last full day in the city. And it began really early. The guys with CBS had told us to arrive at 7:30 AM, and we wanted to get there on time. We got there early and we came to find that they were only going to do one weather segment because the weather was so bad outside (ironic, I know). And let me tell you, the weather was bad. I was glad to be wearing my dad’s big winter coat that morning. We did finally make it on TV. From what I’ve been told you couldn’t see me too well. Kate had her hood up and was blocking the view of me. That’s fine. I actually would have had a front row spot but behind me were standing these two little girls who couldn’t haven been much taller than five feet, so I let them be in front. I had called my roommate the night before to tell him to watch for me. According to him I looked like a giant pillowman on TV because of my coat. Dude, if I hadn’t worn that coat I would have died. Seriously, no Floridian was made for that weather. We all went back to Peter’s apartment afterwards and took a nap. After sleeping we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was amazed by some of the works they have in there. Monet, Manet, van Gogh. I even found a couple of works by Titian, an artist I had been introduced to through my Italian Renaissance Art class. There was just too much to see though; we had only allotted two hours for the Met unfortunately. I say that, but honestly, my brain was a scrambled egg when I came out of there. I was not in culture vulture mode when I walked in. I just can’t handle that much art like I was able to a year and a half ago.
After a quick stop by the “Friends fountain” in Central Park (which was bone dry) and after moving the girls’ luggage yet again (still not complaining), this time back to Peter’s place, we went home to have an easy evening. We ordered Chinese food and planned to stay in to worship God and pray and such. Or, rather, the group planned all that. I had other plans. You see, January 3 was the day of the Orange Bowl: Florida State vs Penn State. Curtis (from FSU) and Tim (from NCP) met up with me at ESPNZone to watch the game. Part of it anyway. I watched from the middle of the first quarter to halftime with the score 14-13 in favor of Penn State. I left because I knew we had lost. I felt it in my bones when we missed the extra point and was sure of it when they gave up a touchdown with :06 left in the second quarter. Also the rest of Curtis’ crew met up with him, and Lindsey hadn’t seen much of Time Square yet so we walked around for a while just enjoying the sights. After another trip to see Rockefeller’s Christmas tree (ha!) I said goodbye to the FSU crew. Tim and I headed back to Chinatown to rejoin the NCP bunch, where we found them praying for each other’s family members. This was a great way to end the trip. It just feels good to lift up people you care about with other people you care about.
So there I am, in a deep sleep, having a really crazy dream. I dreamt that I was back in elementary school but instead of the kids I grew up with I was with the NCP crew. It was a good dream. But there I am, dreaming away, when I am woken up by Mark. And he’s saying something. “Wake up guys. It’s hot breakfast today. Come on, hot breakfast.” And I’m thinking I’m crazy. You see, that’s what we would say in Colorado Springs. We had hot breakfast three times a week, and it was a real incentive to actually get out of bed, especially the one that came on your day off. But here Mark was, saying it to us in New York. Evidently after I had gone to bed some of the guys had gone out shopping and picked up some breakfast food: eggs, bacon, fresh pineapple, cinnamon raison bread. I was blown away. How awesome was that. We sat around and ate breakfast together. I couldn’t help but think that it would probably be my last meal with a lot of them. I suppose there could always be another reunion, and I’m sure I’ll see some of them again, but I’m sure I’ll grow apart from many of them too.
We began to say goodbye to people after breakfast. Some of us, including me, made a quick trip to the World Trade Center. I hadn’t been since the summer of 2002. It’s changed a lot since then. I was told that it is the second most popular tourist attraction in New York City. It even looks like a tourist attraction now, complete with people selling pictures of the towers right as they’ve been struck by the planes. As I was taking a picture through the chain link fence the skylight filter on my camera fell off to the other side of the fence. It was already broken, as it had fallen off a number of times over the course of the trip, but it would have been nice to come home with it. Anyway, this was our last excursion. Slowly we said goodbye to the rest of the crew. Bova, Kat and I went to Grand Central to catch our trains. It turned out that Bova and I were taking the same one. He was getting off at the first stop, I was getting off at the last stop. A woman sat down next to us named Lorelai who was reading Lewis’ The Great Divorce. We got to talking with her, a very interesting woman. What are the odds that on both trains I would have conversations with other Christians? So awesome.
I am doing my best not to think about the fact that I may not see many of those people ever again. I had a great time in New York, due mostly from the company and partially because I did almost none of the work. This reunion was unlike other reunions I’ve been to. I’ve had the chance to reunite with people from Miami STP, from my Cuba mission trip, from Italy, but those didn’t feel like this. This felt like a family reunion. I think it goes to show just how much God moved in our lives this summer. We have a unique closeness, a unique bond. It makes sad to the point of cynicism. No training program could ever be as good as the 2005 NCP.
Since returning home things have moved much slower. I’ve been sleeping in, something I almost never do. I don’t have too many friends at home for break, and many of the ones that are seem to always be busy. It’s just as well I suppose. I could probably use the rest before going back to Tallahassee.
Speaking of which, I’m flying back there tomorrow. On Tuesday I will begin my final semester as an undergrad. I thought I’d be excited. Instead I’m scared about finding the right job and sad that the best season in my life thus far is about to come to an end. For the next four months I need to do everything that I will regret having not done if I leave them undone. (Did that make sense?) I should probably make a list. And if you’re really lucky I’ll post it on here so you can scoff at it. Anyway, my next post will come from Florida. Until then.
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