My journey to JFK Airport

Sorry for not writing last night like I said I would. I got back from the movies last night and immediately started watching TV and was completely glued to The National Geographic Channel or Animal Planet or something equally as dorky. Oh wait! It was actually a show about some killer who looked online for someone who would willingly offer him or herself up to be eaten. WHAT??????? And guess what? Someone DID!!! Ew, gross. True story. Needless to say, I stayed up kinda late cause that show spooked me but I just wasn't in the mood to write.

I went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles last night. It was cute. Kinda silly every now and then, but cute. I mean it's a kids movie, it's supposed to be cute. My favorite thing about the whole movie had to be Mary Louise Parker, I just love her. I went with my friend Saum and we both agreed that no matter what she does she always manages to make us believe her. Seriously. There were hordes of goblins attacking her house at one point and she was just freaking out and I thought to myself, 'Yeah, that's probably how I would act if a horde of goblins were attacking my house.' She was hilarious.

But enough about that. This entry is about my trip to JFK Airport! Yesterday I accompanied Paul to the airport because he went to San Diego for the weekend to see a friend. I thought it would be a nice quick day trip, two hours tops. Oh no...no no no. First of all, we took the subway from around 160th street which is waaaaaaay uptown Manahattan for those of you who don't know. Here's a subway map just in case...

I think if you click on the image above it'll give you a bigger view of the subway map. Anyway, we got on the C train at the 163rd street station and then switched to the A train at the 145th street station which goes to the airport. Now try to find Howard Beach/JFK Airport on the A train line. See it way out there to the right??? Did you find it? WOW. That's a long ass trip, right?

Thankfully the train, like every NYC subway car, was filled with interesting people. Paul and I were treated to not one but two shows! The first was a cute little homeless man with these huge diva sunglasses who was singing his face off. Not kidding, he sounded a bit like James Brown hitting crazy high notes and wailing about women who had done him wrong. I know some people who read this may find it rude to find these performances entertaining since these homeless people are in such sad predicaments but you really should have seen this man. You would think he was having the time of his life.

What's really interesting is to see how most people recognize and get familiar with the homeless people who frequent their trains. The other night I was on the train up to Paul's house and the man I like to call the 'Lean back' man got on the train and started his show. He gets onto the most packed train he can find, grabs onto a pole for balance and then yells out "Lean back!" over and over as he, well, leans back further and further. You gotta see it to understand it but it is absolutely hilarious. He then begins telling bunches of jokes in both English and Spanish. Some of the ones I caught were, "What do you call a white person on fire? A firecracker!" I love it. "Why did Freddy Krueger kill Martin Luther King? Because he had a dream." What I'm saying, though, is that people recognize this man! When he started his "Lean back!" song some people actually started singing along with him! Only in New York, people.

Back to my A train to the airport story! Our second show on our long ass train ride consisted of two boys who turned up their boombox real loud and started break dancing for us. Now, these boys where very young so they weren't too good at what they were doing just yet. I've seen guys flipping over subway bars and throwing themselves all over the damn place on the train and it's really pretty amazing. But hey, at least these boys have the balls to get on the train and dance for a little extra money. What I especially loved about them was what they said once they were done. It went something like this, "Thank you for watching, ladies and gentlemen. We accept dollars, nickels, dimes, quarters, and American Express."

As we got further out the train began to quiet down a bit. Paul and I then met a couple from Ireland who were on their way to the airport as well. We spoke mainly to the wife who told us she lived in the North Western part of Ireland. Right at that moment I realized how badly I wanted to be on my way someplace fantastic like Ireland. Or even San Diego.

Once we got off the subway that feeling only got stronger. In order to get to the actual airport you have to ride an AirTrain which is kinda like the monorail at Disney World. It rides on an elevated track and gives you views of all the planes and terminals. The smell on the AirTrain was just like that smell on an airplane...and for some very strange reason I love that smell. I guess it kinda reminds me of when I was a bit younger; back then I always got to ride in airplanes since I lived all over the damn place. Once we left the AirTrain we walked to Paul's terminal, got him checked in, and then he was off. Aw :( He'll be back on Monday, though. Woo!

So, the trip back on the subway was a lot less entertaining because I was totally fed up with the trains and just wanted to get back home and eat. Which I did. A lot.

I guess that's my post for today. Kinda pointless, but hey, hopefully you learned something...um, about the NYC subway system? Whateva!

Love you all. Talk to you later.