Odometer: 6278

The miles just keep comin! I went on a pretty big trip this weekend. To where? New York City of course. Not sure if or how to make background music for a blog but if I knew how I'd but Empire State of Mind. Part of the trip it kept popping in my head. Well, over all I had a great time there. Saw a lot of things--some I'd seen before, and others which I didn't plan on seeing.

I'm not sure where to even start. We (my brother and I, and later Kelly) took a bus up from Union Station in DC to downtown Manhattan. The first thing which caught my attention, besides the lights of the big city, were two men in full drag. That's not what I was expecting to see the moment I arrived... and they wouldn't be the only ones. I also heard more F-words this weekend than probably the last several years of my life. A young man approached me downtown and offered to sell me marijuana. That was a first. Basically, NYC was an interesting trip outside of my bubble. And by the end of the weekend, my feet were suuuure tired.


Some things we saw/visited:

Thursday-

Times Square. Also, learned that the metro is the subway again (took me a while to say metro) and that it is a little more questionable than the DC metro system. My basic analysis is that the DC metro is much nicer, smoother, and safe feeling, but NY's subway is a lot more convenient and big. Contact me for further details if desired.

First view out of the subway 

Times Square of course 

Seen this on TV 

Subway, NY style 

Friday-

Walked around and saw many buildings. We visited a giant toy/candy store, Hershey's store, Disney store, Nintendo store. We saw NBC's big building and Rockefeller Plaza. Empire State building, Chrysler building, Central Park, 9/11 Memorial.

Big candy store and a Big piano

This dragon went all around the lego store 

Empire state building 

lovely fountain in central park 

Rockefeller Plaza 

Grand Central Station 

City from Central Park 

Saturday-

New York Stock Exchange, Toys R Us, Brooklyn Bridge, Charging Bowl Statue, China Town, Little Italy, biggest Buddha statue in America (probably the biggest according to the sign), Trinity Church, Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street.

Times Square 

China Town 

Little Italy 

Trinity Church 

Alexander Hamilton's grave in a very old graveyard 

9/11 Memorial. There is a fountain like this where each WTC tower stood. 

9/11 Memorial 

New York Stock Exchange 

View from Staten Island Ferry 

Statue of Liberty 

Manhattan bridge. Looks like a painting for some reason 

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge 

Big Buddha! 

Placed I didn't get to see but wanted to: South Street Seaport, Coney Island


I saw people dressed up as: Spiderman, Batman, Cat Woman, Elvis, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the Statue of Liberty, the Tin Man, Captain America, Mario and Luigi, Hello Kitty kitty, and other characters which I didn't recognize


 Celebrity Sightings!

"Who is this man (and I) taking a picture of?" you may ask... 

While strolling through Central Park, my brother luckily had to find a bathroom. As we were looking around we noticed a caravan of trailers on one road of the park. A movie crew perhaps? Luckily again, all the first bathrooms he tried were not open so this led us to one next to a large fountain which probably has a name. There is also an overpass things which is all decorative underneath--the perfect place to shoot a movie! There was a sign which said something like "by walking through this area you acknowledge you might be on camera... blah blah blah.... don't sue us for putting your face on the big screen." I don't mind. The movie is currently titled Can a Song Save your Life? Starring....? Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffulo (AKA the Hulk in The Avengers). They were shooting a scene of a band recording in this pleasant looking area but Ben and I were not sure if we would see any of the stars. Mark's great but nobody knows his name so we didn't care much about him. Keira was who I was interested in seeing. First Mark showed up on the set and a little bit later, Keira as well! It was kinda weird. I couldn't tell if it was her at first and even when I got a good close up look it didn't seem quite like her. I guess I've only seen her in pirate clothes. Anyway, we stayed for maybe a half hour and watched them shoot this scene several times. So look in the background when this comes out cause we might just show up!

On the set about 20 ft away

Keira and Mark just chattin 

Looks straight out of BYU 

Saturday night I was out in Times Square just watching all of the interesting things happening. At one point 

we heard a car with lots of bass and shouts of "it's Snoop Dogg!" I ran to street and everyone had their cameras out taking pictures of a caravan of shiny pimped-out rides. I took a picture as well but didn't get a good look to see his face or anything. Apparently he just takes a cruise down the middle of Times Square whenever he feels like it.

Just Snoop's ride 

Other incidents:

Kurrazy

There were some Black Israelites out preaching on the sidewalks. Apparently they're there a lot. They were preaching about how America is receiving punishment for all the bad things that people, particular white people, had done. I watched them arguing with random people and it was quite amusing. It reminded me of the arguing talking heads who never let the other person finish what they're saying and both just talk over each other the whole time. This annoys me so bad. Then tons of people and cops started running around the corner, so I did too! There were more of these Israelites who apprently got in a scuffle with the street congregation if you will. I heard they were hitting with their sticks and maybe even a knife came out? Tons of cops showed up and two of the preachers got arrested. Interesting night.

Watcha gonna do when they come for you? 

Salsa in Manhattan? OK!

I've heard from many of my salsa friends that New York is the place to go dancing. I wasn't entirely sure when I went if I would end up going or not since I knew neither my brother or friend would want to go with me. Long story short, I decided to go out and give it a try. Partly for the fun but partly because I knew that all of my salsa friends would have given me a hard time if I went to New York without going out dancing. I found a place in the heart of Manhatten in a 12th story dance studio. It wasn't a very large venue, but high-premium property is usually small in these areas anyway. To my surprise the cover was only $1! Not at all what I expected to pay so I treated myself to a $1.50 bottled water as well. The dancers there were so good! The worst person I danced with was better than a lot of the DC dancers, and better than the majority of the Utah dancers. Another cool thing was that everybody dances in the on2 style. On1 is what most people do I believe. On2 is considered cooler I think by the salsa society, or at least that's the perception I've gotten. I think it's more fun. Not sure why but it's always spelled out without a space. Good time.


Food:

New York is supposed to buy a big food place. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy as much as I could have. I ate at a random Chinese restaurant, had some New York pizza, and a lamb gyro from a food stand on the corner. Didn't get a hot dog cause I was waiting till Coney Island, which we never made it to.

So that was my trip. Live vicariously through my good times!

Odometer: 5989

It's been nearly 2000 miles since I last wrote something. Oops. Not a lot of things have happened but yes, some things did.

This year I probably experienced one of the most impressionable Independence Days thus far in my life. This year it was on a Wednesday, so naturally the Sunday before, most of the songs at church were patriotic. I enjoyed singing the national anthem and it was the first time I remember actually feeling emotional while standing and singing the Star Bangled Banner. Don't get me wrong, I love my country; I just don't usually get very emotional about it. Also, why do we only sing the first verse usually? It ends with a question which the other versus are the answer too... This year I've been more appreciative of the men and women who made America free. I'm grateful to be an American and to live now with all the modern luxuries we enjoy.

It was especially enjoyable to be in our nation's capital to celebrate. I spent the day outside, being burned by the sun, with my brother, who somehow is part Latino or something cause he just tans. We did all the American things such as watch the parade, watch the fire works, and eat at McDonald's.

Parade: We were right at the beginning of the parade by the National Archives. Still haven't gone in their to see the Declaration of Independence.

. 

I'm grateful for my family members who have served.

Air Force for my dad. 

Navy for my grandfather

Some other interesting things we saw.

Maybe I ought to get myself one of these, but I won't

Long parade to stand there like that I imagine

 Later we checked out some neato artwork.

The evening was spent on the National Mall. There were many many many people, including lots from other countries. I heard that July 4th is the busiest day for tourism in DC and I believe it. There were people everywhere! After a long day of walking around in the sun, it was nice to sit down and enjoy some music and fireworks.

Army band with a guest artist who I don't remember

Celebrating independence in the heart of America


Some good fireworks videos. The one with music reminds me of the Sandlot.

When the show was over the masses filled the streets and crowded the metro. Reminded me of a zombie apocalypse, not that I've seen one personally, but they've been becoming a popular conversation topic. The metro ride took forever because of all these peeps. But I made it home.

I was planning on writing more but now I don't feel like it an you probably don't feel like reading more anyway. The other stuff I've done hasn't been as patriotic. Visited Baltimore and National Harbor. Internship is going well. Car hasn't broken down yet and hopefully it never will.

Odometer: 4213

Wow, passed 4000 already too! When you don't update a blog in a couple weeks, you drive over a thousand miles obviously. Luckily I've discovered I can save on gas by going to Costco. It's only $3.25 a gallon there. I also discovered that at Costco I can get milk for less than $4 a gallon, which is what it costs everywhere else; one gallon at Costco costs $2.78. Much better. I haven't wrote much in the last little while mostly because not a lot of noteworthy things have happened.

Work has gotten more busy. Instead of learning how to do things and about stuff, I'm actually doing things. It's not incredibly exciting, but it's good experience to prepare for a future career in financial planning. I'm starting to feel more like this is a career I would enjoy, especially with Edward Jones. I keep learning about more and more great benefits about the company. For example, there was recently a hurricane close by and every Edward Jones employee got a call from headquarters to check if they were ok. If not, they sent help to their home. Financial advisors can earn trips all over the world my meeting certain criteria each year. Employees can be invited to be limited partners and share the profits of the company. EJ cares about its employees and helps them. I thought there might be a lot of competition between advisors, but all the advisors work together. They're encouraged to share ideas and ask for help from each other. Local leadership roles are voluntary and not compensated so people do things to actually help others and not just for their own benefit. It's really a great place to work.


The only really cool thing I've done was some more touring. My brother and I and two friends got a tour of the Capitol Building yesterday. Although the building is huge, we only got to tour a small part of it. I love the oldness of the building. Working there would be pretty cool just because there is so much history there. One thing I like about museums and historical places is knowing that people used those things and walked those halls many years ago. I can imagine Abraham Lincoln or some other historical figure walking down the same hall that I'm going down. Or at the postal museum, some railway worker from way back when using the machinery that I was looking at. Maybe that's weird but I enjoy that more than looking at paintings and strange modern art, neither of which I understand, unless it's a painting of a mountain, cause than I know it's a mountain and that's it. Sorry Alyssa.

Headphones for the tour and someone who doesn't believe in taking pictures

Rotunda of the Capitol

Another room with lots of statues, reminded me of Harry Potter and the chess room

 Brigham Young, representing Utah. Who know he was in the Capitol...

Library of Congress was really cool but it was hard to capture it in pictures

Also went to the building museum which had some cool stuff. Also it took me probably 20 minutes to find my car at the parking garage when I got back to my metro stop.

Other random notes.

I saw one random episode of Lost a few years ago and thought, wow this show is weird. I'm not sure why everyone likes it so much. I thought 24 was sooo much better. While I've been here, and enjoyed roommate privileges of Netflix use, I've started watching from the beginning. When you watch a series in order, it actually makes sense when you see an episode of the third season. Basically, I've become addicted to this show. It's so good. It keeps you hanging and wanting more. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON ON THAT ISLAND!!! But don't nobody go tellin me cause I wanna see it for myself! I only recommend watching this show if you have a lot of free time because you're going to need it.

Lots of the time, there are signs like "enforced by radar" or "photo enforced" near traffic signs. I've seen one here that I've never seen before and I want to know what is going on. On the drive home from work I pass this sign that says "Speed 55. Enforced by aircraft." ??? Every time I pass this sign, I imagine some car speeding passed me, followed by unmanned military drone which drops in and fires a missile at the car for speeding. Either that or a police helicopter which chases it down the road at low altitude telling them to pull over. Hopefully somebody speeds passed me before I leave so I can see what happens.