Wild Man Jones

That’s right folks, I’m talking about the Taco Bell in Glen cove, New York. It’s your run of the mill taco bell in many aspects: the same look as the old taco bells, the same 62% “secret ingredients” in the beef, the same non-English speaking employees who may or may not be on the “libros”.
But this is not your average taco bell, this taco bell is special. When I entered, the man in front of me on line was a businessman wearing a suit; the man who came after me had on a shirt and tie. There were, of course, the crazy people that you always see at taco bell as well; the people you hear stories about but don’t actually believe until you see them for yourself (or in pictures I upload to Facebook). Long story short, I love this taco bell because business attire is accepted but it still maintains that attraction of diverse customers that I know and love.

So I left cedarville at 10 pm wednesday night to drive home through the night, finally get into the state of new york a few minutes before 9 am thursday morning. I was in the state for no more than two minutes when I first ran into trouble in manhattan, underneath the bus terminal uptown. I was sitting at the light and a cop motions for me to pull over when the light changes; I wasn’t wearing a seat belt. $130 fine, no points. Welcome to new york.

I dropped off Jason in manhattan, then went to drop rich off in the bronx. Instead of just going down the grand concourse like I should have, I decided I’d “take a short cut” (since I know the bronx SO well, right?). Somehow I ended up almost going back to manhattan (not where I want to go, for those of you keeping up). Finally I got back to the Deegan, only to hit traffic that would turn a forty minute drive into almost an hour and a half. Welcome to new york.

On saturday it was pouring rain all morning, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going to manhattan. After the family took an hour longer than they should have to get ready, we drove in. That was mistake number one. There was bumper to bumper traffic on the LIE because of the rain, so the drive that takes forty five minutes without traffic took about two hours. Once We got into soho, of course, it took twenty minutes to find a parking space. Welcome to new york.

I wanted to get two pairs of pants that needed to be tailored at UNIQLO. They said that they won’t be ready until 6pm tuesday night, which is still a pretty good turnaround for a tailor, but I’m leaving wednesday morning. I decided to do it anyway. Now on tuesday night I’m going to drive at least forty minutes each way for no other reason than to pick up two pairs of pants. (Welcome to new york? I think it fits here, but I guess I’ll leave it up to you).

Lessons learned from this trip home:

1. Don’t drive home through the night.
2. wear your seat belt in NYC, maybe everywhere.
3. Don’t take “shortcuts” when you’ve been up driving for almost 11 hours.
4. Don’t drive into the city when it’s raining, it is not worth it. Pay for the train.
5. Tailored pants may not be the best option if your crunched for time.

P.s. I saw emily sweet in soho and she went in UNIQLO with me. She also, with a bit of direction, made her way from midtown to soho all by herself on the subway.