Given To Fly

PJ

Only for you would I go to a city, one where I have said many times I never wanted to visit, just to see you.

Friday, I went to bed at 10:30pm, I wanted to get to be sooner, but the business of life sometimes doesn’t cooperate.  So I say I went to bed at 10:30, I think I fell asleep at something like 1, then my phone rings at 1:30 as I became the subject of a drunk dial…..I read who it was, I didn’t answer, didn’t want to…that is a story all on it’s own and I don’t want to get side tracked. 

Saturday, got up at 4, made sure I had everything I needed in my back pack ready to go…..one day worth of clothes (check), toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, contact stuff (check), mp3 player with the Albany show that PJ played few weeks prior (check), Bible, and youth group stuff…..check.  Got to the airport at 5, on board and 5:40, flying by 6, and on my way to Milwaukee.  First time I have ever been there, and it is really green up there….they have obvisouly gotten more rainfall than we have in KC.  Wish I could say more about Milwaukee, but I was only at the airport.  Next stop NYC, got there about 11, as we were in a holding pattern for landing as there were storms around the area.  Waited for my buddy who landed about a half hour after I did, and we were off to get a shuttle from LaGuardia to our hotel, the Pan American Hotel.  It was kinda a cool, misty day in NYC, about 66, and kinda foggy.  Vinnie was our driver from the airport, and yeah, he had a really think NY dialect, it was kinda funny.  My first thoughts of NYC were this….in no particular order, it’s kinda grey and gloomy here, lots of people, lots of different kinds of people, lots of different kinds of people speaking lots of different kinds of languages, lot of traffic, lots of horns that work, and every one knows sign language.  We get to the hotel, the plan was to bring our backpacks up to our room, and then proceed to Times Square to walk around, and then to catch our bus (which left at 5) at the station just off of Times Square to go to the PJ show in Jersey.  However, here are the things that prevented that happening…

1.  Check in was at 12, we weren’t able to check in until 1:30 as housekeeping didn’t get to our room yet.  So we decided to walk around the neighborhood in Queens for a while…..uh….yeah….we are pretty sure we saw our first mugging the moment we walked out of the door.

2.  The R line of the subway system, the line that was to be our main mode of transportation around the city….well it was under construction at certain locations, therefore access at some stops was not permitted…..therefore, we had to take 5 steps back to move 4 steps forward….it was a nightmare!  In our travels in subway land, in which I felt a lot like Mario in Pipeland, I was actually asked for directions how to get from Queens to Manhattan by a cute girl with a heave dialect, and I was actually able to help her out.  Also we saw our first rat….about the size of a small dog.

So given these two events, we had planned on getting to the Square around 2-2:30.  I think we got there around 3:30, just enough time for us to walk around, see a few sights around the square area, such as, Broadway (we saw where Julia Roberts is doing her play, where Rent is being put on) etc…lots of sights.  Our hunger though was out weighing our need to sight see…so we walked around a bit more, looking for a good NY pizza place, and we settled on a place called Famiglia http://www.famousfamiglia.com/main.htm" title="http://www.famousfamiglia.com/main.htm" target="_blank"http://www.famousfamiglia.com....  It was damned yummy!  After having this slice of pizza, we decided we were still hungry, so we went and had some Nathan’s hotdogs.  Walked over to the bus station, and caught our bus that took us through the Lincoln Tunnel http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/tunne ls/html/lincoln.html" title="http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/tunne ls/html/lincoln.html" target="_blank"http://www.panynj.gov/Commuti... over to Jersey.  We got our tickets, 25 rows from the stage on Stone’s side, which is stage left.

Ed came out and did a cover of “The Boss’s” (since we were in Jersey this makes sense) No Surrender for a preset before My Morning Jacket joined him on stage for a song.

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down

We made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend
No retreat no surrender

Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I'm ready to grow young again
And hear your sister's voice calling us home across the open yards
Well maybe we could cut someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars

Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
you say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover's bed
with a wide open country in my eyes
and these romantic dreams in my head

After MMJ, who weren’t half bad, PJ took the stage at 8:50, and ripped through the set and encores, which took 3 hours.  Yeah, 3 hours of getting my PJ jig on.  I will get a setlist up soon, but some highlights for me were Porch, Rats, a new tough version of Garden, Don’t Gimmie No Lip, and Hard to Imagine.  Stone blew an amp, which was great, right before they were going into Animal, “one, two, three, four….five against one”, and the band stops….it was awesome. 

3 hours later, exhausted, but still very pumped….we board one of the 12-15 busses lined up outside the arena on our way back to NYC, it took far more time to get back to NYC than it did to leave.  Once we got back…we were starving again, and looking for something to coat our sore and rough throats, so we walked around to find a diner….and wouldn’t you know it, we found one at 1:00 am….just a few blocks off Times Square.  We ate breakfast, I had the waffle platter, my buddy had the pancake platter…and we washed them down with a milkshake.  Hit the spot like no other!  Neither of us wanting to tackle the challenge at hand…how to get back to our hotel with the R line being very unreliable.  So….we looked at a map in the subway station….we decided to take the 7 train to a station 10 blocks away from where we were staying, and pray that we can catch a cab there to take us the rest of the way.  Queens at 2 am to a couple of out of small town guys is kinda scary.  So the train ride across Manhattan and Queens at night was neat, looking out the window watching the city pass by makes a person feel pretty small, and makes the world seem that much bigger.  The dark, black backdrop with white holes punched in it, passing by…..more while holes than stars in the say it seemed…..just amazing. 

So we reached the station, the smell of urine greeting us as we get off the train….we walk down off the platform, make it to ground level, and the first things we see…..a cop car, cherries blazing, and more prostitutes than you can shake a dollar bill at…..needless to say, this part of Queens…not so pleasant at 2 in the morning.  Lucky for us, there was a line of cabs there, I waved one down, and 5 minutes later, 10 bucks later we were at the hotel….the best 10 bucks I ever spent! 

We slept for 4 hours, got up, went to the airport.  Our flight left at 11:30, we figured given our NYC travels up to that point, we should allow as much time as possible to get to the airport, so we did, and made it in plenty of time.  We both had different flights back, however as I was getting my ticket, the guy asked, are you two traveling together?  Yeah, ok…well let me get you on his flight, and he did free of charge.  Nice guy!  However, we weren’t able to sit together on the way back.  Instead I had to listen to a 50 year old lady talk about how much she LOVED NYC while I worked on my Bible Study lesson plan for the youth that night.  After I was done with that, she proceeded to want to talk to me more about how much she loved the place….I pretended to fall asleep for the remainder of the flight.

NYC, honestly, if it wasn’t for the great big cluster f of getting jerked around by the MTA, I think that it would have been far more tolerable.  Most people were friendly enough, I mean I wore my Red Sox hat there the whole time, and only got one guy give me crap about it, and that was at the concert and was totally all tongue in cheek.  However, I think somewhere between KC and NYC the words “Thank you” used together in a sentence are lost.  Time after time, when my buddy and I were waited on, or whenever we had an opportunity to say thank you we would…..people would just act as if they didn’t even hear what you just heard….like it came across in translation as a grunt, or a pause in communication.  Strange.  I only had one person respond to a “thank you” and it was from a very smiley lady at the airport where I got my morning coffee on Sunday…..Krystal, was her name, I said thank you, she responded “you are very welcome, have a good morning and a safe flight.”  Krystal, I like you.  Thank you for giving me hope that all people in your town aren’t beaten and worn to the point of forgetting how to be considerate.

I will talk more about the PJ show it’s self once I get the set list in front of me…..until then, I hope this proves as a good enough journal to get you by for now.  There is a lot more to tell, but I am afraid not enough time….

I haven't posted for a while huh? Excited!?!

You think you are excited, you should feel these nipples!

Well tomorrow about this time, I will be in NYC putzing around until 5 so my buddy and I can take a bus to see Pearl Jam in New Jersey.  Looks to be a good time.  We are both really excited to go not only to see PJ, but deep down we both love to go to new places.  Neither of us small town country bumpkins have been to NYC.  We both went to Chicago a few years back with our respective women at the time, this time we will be going solo......and it looks to be a great time.

I told him today that it seemed like only yesterday when we used to tell each other that we had dreams of seeing PJ in concert, and we would tell each other in great detail what happened in our dreams.  Now we are flying halfway across the country to see our favorite band in concert together.  We are needless to say pumped.  I have been pretty worthless all day long today just waiting to get going.  My mind is already there, my bags feel like they are already packed.....and Footsteps is playing as I write this.....

Don't even think about reachin' me
I won't be home
Don't even think about stoppin' by
Don't think of me at all
I did, what I had to do
If there was a reason, it was you...

Don't even think about gettin' inside
Voices in my head, voices
I got scratches, all over my arms
One for each day, since I fell apart
I did, what I had to do
If there was a reason, it was you...

Footsteps in the hall, it was you, you
Pictures on my chest, it was you
It was you...

I did, what I had to do
And if there was a reason
Oh, there wasn't no reason, no
And if, there's something you'd like to do
Just let me continue, to blame you

Footsteps in the hall, it was you, you
Pictures on my chest, it was you, you

Next week, I hope to have some pictures up somewhere....I will keep you posted.

Happy Pearl Jam Day!!!