.....New York, New York

This is a blog we wrote while we were in New York. We haven't had an opportunity to post it. Also, I am adding our pictures to blogs we have written, and some more to the one we haven't written.

Jared in Lavender
Kimberlee is Black

Unfortunately I have to start the blog tonight. It would be better if I had Kim's thoughts to get me started. Well, my dear, that is what marriage is all about….give a little, take a little. That's ok, I think I can come up with something. New York City was less exciting today and it all started when we ignored Frank Sinatra's advice. We didn't wake up in the city that doesn't sleep. Rather, we slept in, in the city that doesn't sleep. We set our alarm for 7:45 so we could be ready for the 9:00 shuttle and then woke up very briefly at 7:45 and bolted out of bed at 9:05. Oh well, it did cost us one leg of the tour bus schedule, but sleeping in felt really good. As it was, we got to do the “uptown” tour, and see a few cool things. Cool things like, Julliard and the bridge, and the Apollo…and the beautiful central park…did jared mention that we had to wait for almost an hour for our shuttle! It was really hot and really humid and really hard to find a street vendor that sold Gyros. We looked and looked and asked and asked again. One dude thought I was looking to exchange money when I asked “Hey man, you know any street vendors that sell Gyros (pronounced Euros)? Another said that there was no such thing.

Well, if you have never been to NYC you don’t realize just how many street vendors there are, but you also get to realize that there might be about 6 million of them but there are only about 4 varieties. Hot Dog guys, Peanut guys, Artwork guys and “genuine D & G handbag” guys. OK, there are a few others- sunglass guys, and magazine and candy guys, but for the most part you just see the same guys over and over again. But If you think there are a whole bunch of Gyro guys….well I have got news for you. My buddy Will and I went to NYC last April and looked all over for a gyro guy, we finally found a couple selling them down by Wall Street. Kim and I looked all over, and never did find one. I was defeated, and sad, and hot, and tired, and to top it off we ate a joint called the Belly Deli that by all appearances looked fantastic……and it was awful. Not to mention, expensive….we had to pay for our food by the pound, and the best stuff we ate, was the naked juice (Blue, of course) and the frozen yogurt…So there we were feeling full but unsatisfied, looking for the subway station to go back to the hotel to pick up our bags. All of a sudden, when I had given up on gyros completely, Kim says to me “Hey honey, there is a gyro guy right there.” What? Are you kiddin’ me? 20 steps away from the subway is the guy I have been looking for all day long. “But babe, I am stuffed” I say. “Just get one, you can eat it later” says my wife, sensing my anxiety. Let me clarify just a bit, it was not his anxiety that I was worried about; it was mine. Think about this for a minute, jared has been talking about “when we go to NY ---gyros this, and gyros, that” for months! Months! So, if I don’t find him a gyro…from a street vendor, not a restaurant, I am going to hear him complain and belly ache about this for the next 14 days! And, what if we don’t find one when we come back to new york in a few weeks….how long will I be the victim of his desire for a “new York, street vendor gyro???” Do you sense MY anxiety here????!!!!

So, I walk up to the gyro guy and say, “a gyro please.” He speaks fluently, just not English. I guess I should get used to this since I will wake up tomorrow in Germany. But I am pretty sure he wasn’t speaking German either. Anyway, he fixes me up a gyro, and it smells delicious, and in his native tongue, he says, “@#^*$” I say, “yes” as he squirts some tasty white sauce on my gyro. Then he says “@^%&**#,” I say “yes” not realizing that what he was trying to say was “would you like some of the hottest sauce that has ever touched the lips of a human?” I will attest to the spicy sauce comment, it was blazing!

In April, I was offered two sauces, cucumber sauce and BBQ sauce, I accepted both and realized a combination of flavors that made me long to visit Greece. In July, already full but not willing to go without that experience again, I unwittingly had the Gyro guy RUIN my Gyro with a sauce that made my lips scream for mercy. Well, there were parts of the Gyro that were delicious and reminiscent of my first NYC gyro experience, but after about half of it my lips were on fire, I had finished my water, and could not conceive of eating more of this gyro that I wasn’t hungry for in the first place. So, here we are at JFK, waiting for our Singapore Airlines flight to Frankfurt, and hoping we get some sleep on the plane. When we land it will be 11:15AM in Germany and 3:15AM in Utah. As we type, our gate has filled with people of all colors, shapes, and sizes….we are looking at a full flight. Oh, and I had quite an experience in the “international” airport bathroom….I walked in to see a completely nude women (we are still in america people…)washing her parts….then, when I went back in, she was clothed (thank heaven!) and brushing her teeth….Wow! We will be hungry, and really tired, and unable to go to bed, because if we give into jet lag it will ruin our trip. Lets hope I understand how to order condiments for my Sauer Kraut and Bratwurst. I’m just hoping to know how to ask for a bathroom….

Love you all!

P.S. I would not have belly-ached for 14 more days. I would have only belly ached for a few days, and then found something else to complain about.