sashaying through the sarcasm

I went to Trader Joes to grab some lunch. This is a picture from halfway through one of the two lines that feed into the main line for the cashiers. When I was finally through I couldn’t see the cashier I was told to go and didn’t move fast enough, so a lady sniped my spot.

Me most of the time: Yeah, I can handle cities. I’m not from NYC but I grew up right near there. The NYC I grew up with was a lot meaner, grittier, more cuthroat than today's NYC.

Me actually in NYC: Help, mean lady stole my cashier!

Since getting food had taken so long, by the time I ate it was getting decently late. So, I decided to change my plans for the rest of the day. I was near Grand Central Station, so I hopped over there. Last time I was there, the ceiling was dark with one light blue spot, like bright sunlight was hitting it. It was the test patch to see if the mural on the ceiling could be restored and if it was still even there.

Today's Grand Central





The train station I remember was a lot different. This article talks about how the ceiling had "half-inch-thick layer of residue from cigarettes, diesel fumes, steel dust, and lead" over the mural and that stone work. Also, "Before the renovation, the Main Concourse was a bit dim, largely because blackout paint was applied to the windows during World War II." Yeah, the windows just weren't cleaned for decades, that was the state of it. That's the train station I remember. Dim light, murals and stone work hidden under decades of grime, the main walkways clear only because during rush hours the sheer mass of people would wear away the dirt leaving only the corners still covered.

From the article, a more familiar site:



Walking into the main concourse today:





The building is amazing with grand stairways and walkways, elaborate stone and metalwork doorways to plain concrete train and subway platforms. There are amazing contrasts and fantastic shots are possible, but I couldn't stay long. I looked over and saw the train to where I grew up, the train my Dad rode on his commute, and nearly fucking lost it. I hadn't been back east since my parents passed. Grand Central is not a place to have a sudden break down so I exited down into the dining hall.

I considered going back to my hometown since I was in the area and likely wont be again, but I knew there was no good outcome. Either I'd feel nothing or I'd be very not okay, and very not okay alone in public. As I know from experience, being emotional in public without someone to act as a buffer can lead to bad shit.

Then I went back up to the main hall and decided I should go. However, being an idiot I decided to leave by going into and through the Met Life Building and then through the Leona Helmsly Building (it's still really called that? amazing):



I walked my Dad's commute to his office building. It's a weird commute. Outside of cutting through two other buildings, you start on on a wide street with massive, recognizable buildings... and then turn down a narrow cross street where most of the sidewalk is subway grating. Just, thin metal mesh over a portal to hell or something that stretches the entire length of the sidewalk and the lion's share of the width. Underneath the trains are making noise, up on the street the metal is making noise as you walk and it moves a bit, and subway exhaust just blows up at you from under your feet. I used to hate having to walk over that, especially at rush hour as a kid because I couldn't see where I was going, I was just being pulled over something that didn't feel solid enough to be walked on, and also there was all the sounds, vibrations and the gross, warm air.

I found the building he worked at, looked over at the buildings I used to look down on from his office, and then decided it was time to head back to my hotel for the night.

I took the Lakeshore Limited to NYC. It passes by the Great Lakes and not far from the Finger Lakes, but not near enough to see them. Turns out, the pictures of the train by the water is the section is goes down the Hudson.

Seeing the Hudson river was cool, but I wish I had more context for what I was seeing. I know there is a lot of interesting and historical stuff there, but I was not connecting the sites I was seeing to the local history I learned back in middle school.

Yup, it was snowing:


Familiar places outside the window:





Train:



Islands in the Hudson had lighthouses:



I don't know what this place is, but how do I find it and live there?




Coming into NYC - The windows were super dirty. Annoying, or did they add to the atmosphere:?



Then I arrived and was in Penn Station, an absolute monument to the fact that modern NYC and the NYC I grew up next to are very different places. It was bright and clean and lovely, and not the dangerous hellhole it used to be. Me, being me, I stopped to take some pictures. Then some guy comes up to me.

Him: I was on your train
Me: Okay
Him: Are you also looking for the baggage pick up?
Me: Nope
Him: Because you look lost and it’s dangerous to look lost in this city.

As he said that last part he went from standing slightly closer than I’d like to way too fucking close. I switched to the local dialect and assured him I am fine, and am in fact from the area. That isn’t exactly what I said, but for this post I’ve translated it from New Yorker back into standard American English.

The man may have been on my train, but I doubt it.

Why does this keep happening? I arrive in a city, step off train, and immediately something fucking happens. I decided to just hoof it to my hotel. The lack of traffic in NYC these days is surreal. People talk gridlock sometimes, but old school NYC gridlock was on a whole ‘nother level. Even during ‘low traffic’ times, it wouldn’t be unusual for a light to cycle without a car even being able to move. You’d literally sit through green lights because the cars on the other side of the intersections hadn’t moved and you had no place for your car.



I enjoy staying at CitMs, but it’s starting to feel odd how I am staying in the same room, different view. The system remembers my lighting preferences, like the shade of purple mood lighting I want in the bathroom. Same layout, décor, etc. As it starts to become familiar to me, it’s strange to be having the same room different cityscape.

I had an early flight, but didn't think it would be too hard to get there. The light rail to the airport was having issues with the airport stop being closed. Also, the train I needed to take to that train was having ~staffing issues~ so there are delays of up to 38 minutes. So, I planned on a rideshare and just leaving extra time in case it took a minute to get a car. It took almost 20 minutes for Lyft to find me a ride, and then it said that pick up would be in another 20 minutes. It took the guy 30 minutes to get to me, but I chalked that up to Lyft’s estimates often being overly rosy.

Shortly into the ride the guy started describing to me his plan for a democratic economy based on divination using the art of college art students to predict the future. With his plan, we’d go back to the 20 hour work weeks we had in the 40s and earlier, before gender equality broke everything. He just kept talking, from how his divination method has been proven using it to predict silver prices.

Also, he drove an EV and it’s battery was low. There was a large screen on his dash showing the warning. Halfway through the ride his hazards came on automatically. I was just listening to ramblings, watching the battery tick down and also watching him miss 5 turns. The trip took way longer than it should have and I was already in 'if security is backed up, I'm screwed' territory. Also, I was seriously worried about his car dying before we got there and being stranded with this guy somewhere in the dark.

Then he went quiet for a bit. Then he started to apologize over and over again because he drank caffeine and every ‘future reality’ in which he drinks caffeine things go bad. He also started talking about seeing things. I should have made him pull over and launched myself from the car, even though that would mean missing both my flight and my train connection. I don't know if it's because I'd had two hours of sleep and was completely tunnel visioned on making my flight somehow, but I talked to him, got him calmed down and got him through the last few turns. I wish I hadn't. My report on him would have been taken more seriously by Lyft if I'd ended the ride early, but also like... would they even really care? Nothing works like it should now.

When he got there I told him to see where the nearest charging station was, the airport had to have one. He said he was fine to get home. I told him I didn’t want him stranded. He wouldn’t listen.

Then I got inside and got my boarding pass. I had trouble because I was so stressed from the ride I was literally shaking. It had been about 45 minutes of sheer stress. When the kiosk pulled up my info said ‘first class’ and my boarding class was ‘pri’ for priority. I figured it was just a boarding categorization thing. PDX’s redesign means that we have fast security, shoes stay on, and you have to pass slowly two at a time through a large area with sniffer dogs.

I made my flight, just barely. And yup, my seat was in the first class section, which is not what I’d booked. I went back and triple checked. I had booked seat 3A, but I'd booked the 'extra legroom' option on a small plane without a first class cabin. This is weird, because my impression is that surprise upgrades, like 'oops we changed planes and now you get to try first class' used to be a thing that happened, but not anymore. It was a marketing strat to make flying seem more exciting, twenty years ago. Maybe for reasons they are bringing that back, especially for Alaska Airlines flights out of PDX?

Anyway, the important part is that I was offered champaign as soon as I got on. I don’t typically drink before 7 AM, but if there was a day to do it. I felt a lot better after that. I was able to eat some of the food in first class, including some of the snacks. The food they offer is almost never edible to me, so I ate some because I could. I had champaign, orange juice, coffee, bacon, fruit and potato chips for breakfast.

I may break up my trip into a stupid number of posts, but yeah, just this post had gotten long enough. I still feel shitty about not launching myself from that car, but like what if the guy tried to stay with me? I just wanted to get to that airport so badly.

I am back and both exhausted and also slammed. It might be a minute before I have a spare brain cell to do photos, so I will start with getting caught up with books

No spoilers, I just added in a few LJ cuts since this got long.

The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The book: Simple, short and effective description of the toxicity and entitlement that runs rampant in Connecticut

Me: OMG, this is so nostalgic!

I picked this up based on a 'judging you based on what your favorite book is' video. the quip for this one was something like 'your ideal TV show is Buffy, but without Xander' It's an urban fantasy based on Yale, which is a honestly a great UF setting. For those who don't know, they do have some secret societies and major politicians have come out of Skull and Bones.

I loved this book, but partially because it really nails where I grew up. I read this while on the train headed east, and that was a wild experience, especially as I started to recognize the scenery outside of the train.

( Read more... )

I love the writing so much. I was instantly on board with picking up more my the same writer. When I was looking to see if the author had written anything else, maybe if the next book was out yet, I saw that one of her books is called Six Of Crows. I was like “That’s funny, that’s the same title as…. Oh wait.” So, everyone who told me I should read the books of Grishaverse, guess what?

Smoke & Shadows by Tanya Huff

I was very confused reading this because with every page turn I was like, I've read this before... but I don't remember the overall plot. But I was pretty sure I’d bought it recently and Kindle had no record of me having started it. I don’t have the physical book or audiobook. So, I searched my email inbox and found a very old DW post of mine where I said that ‘Audible made this seem like book 1 in a series, but it’s book 6. At first I was impressed by how complex the relationships of the characters are, but then I realized I was missing stuff I as supposed to know and looked into it’ At the time I was only doing audiobooks due to an injury and the earlier books were not available as audiobooks. So, I’d returned it.

I’ve now bought this book twice thinking it was the start of a series due to how it's listed. Holy fuck. I am actually going to read this from the start at a point. As I am writing this I am in NYC, so I’m moving onto another book I have for now.

The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune

It was okay. It’s a good take on the ‘young girl with powers wanted by government’ trope. The plot and lots of things about it were very good, but the main character is just sort of numb and non-reactive for too much of the story. Being like that at first? Sure, but after a while it starts to feel like he’s missing from his own story. Especially since it's supposed to be a thriller and he's supposed to have certain skills, I really came away from it feeling like he was just checked out and never really chose to be part of things.

I’ve seen this book described as ‘Stranger Things if Steve and Hopper ran off with El’, but it’s really not. ( Read more... )

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Oof, I wanted to like this. It’s a bit disjointed and jumps around a bit. I don’t typically do this, but I did look up other reviews of the book before posting just to double check that certain things just weren’t resolved. I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something. Also, I was switching between the ebook and the audiobook and wound up re-reading chunks to make sure that I hadn’t missed stuff due to syncing issues. I hadn’t. I put a chunk of effort into making sure I hadn’t like accidentally a chapter.

( Read more... )

A Rival Most Vial by R. K. Ashwick

It’s Lit-RPG but also gay romance.

It’s a very solid book, I just don’t know if I fully click with Lit-RPG, or maybe this style of Lit-RPG? A lot of cozy fantasy rubs me the wrong way, and this doesn’t. That aspect feels more solid and earned than in anything else I’ve read in the cozy genre. I don’t want to damn it with faint praise, I think for some readers this might be The Book they’ve been looking for. In a lot of ways it’s fantastic, just not quite my thing.

Basically, if you wanted to like Legends and Lattes but didn't, maybe had some 'not sure about that' type reactions, I’d highly recc at least giving this a look.

Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey

This is actually a prequel to her earlier Di Tregarde stories, setting up Lenny, Andre and some Guardian worldbuilding, and also retconning earlier world building. I wish I'd made notes on the retconning, but I actually started this right after Burning Water, but my collapse of interest in playing GW2 meant less time listening to audiobooks so I wound up with a big gap between when I started and now.

She was very early to the urban fantasy trend especially when it involves grittiness and smooching vampires. I've been told my whole life that other authors pioneered the genre, but when I read those earlier UF books they are pretty much portal fantasies. A lot of the weaknesses of the book are just from being a very early example of something that later became a very developed genre. There is still a lot of off-screen stuff, most notably the Nightflier situation, but when I was younger I liked the feeling that these books existed in a larger world and that there were more stories out there. The romance has unusual pacing, but I kinda like that about it.

However, she is still very weird about Romani people. The book isn't as moralistic and know-it-all as Burning Water, but it's still got that while also not being consistent. It's like the book wants to speak from a strong viewpoint on how the world works, but hadn't actually figured out that viewpoint yet. Also, weird jabs at people into BDSM again.

It was a weird book to revisit, as I read it so much when I was young that at times I remembered what the next sentence was going to be. How much she'd impacted how I write is like... while I was listening to this I felt like I was going back to an old, overly wordy, style of writing (and maybe talking?) like... like a New Yorker hearing a New York accent and falling back into it.

Audiobook specific note: I overall love Traci Odom's work on the series, but I hate her voice for Andre. She really vamps up the French accent.