Wang's Mandatory Blog Post

Today is October 17. I visited Raman and Christie almost 2 months ago. As I stepped into the threshold of their apartment, I was told that a mandatory blog post is required. During these last 2 months, both of them have been very persistent reminding me about the requirement that I needed to fulfill or they would charge me the average rack rate for the stay, roughly $250/night plus penalties incurred of leaving the television blasting while passed out drunk.

My apologies for the delay about my experiences of New York read through my words, but I think I just needed a little reminder that writing about your daily comings and goings puts life into perspective, something we sometimes tend forget with our hectic schedules (that and my work server is currently offline, so I thought I'd finally start and finish this in one sitting)

I originally had a draft written a few weeks back. I was going to go at it from a detailed event of what each day entailed in New York. However I thought that to be rather cumbersome and boring. The memories ascertained from August 25-29, 2011:



This is a 18.00 lobser roll from Luke's Lobster at the Financial District location. I just came back from Boston where I spent $22.00 and $15.00 respectively for lobster rolls, and both of them could not compare to Luke's. The roll just had the right amount mayo and butter on the roll without taking anything away from the lobster meat. Thank you Christie for picking this place for lunch. You know you're in New York's Financial District when a bottle of water costs $3.50.


To the right is a photo of me stockpiling water because Hurricane Irene was going to hit New York City that night. Christie, being the cautious one, thought that it would be a good idea to stock up on food and water and to fill the bathtub with water. Raman and I, on the other hand were ready to battle Hurricane Irene head on. We had no qualms about getting a car and driving up to the Jersey Shore, however it's only because of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie forbidding it that we didn't go. On a side note, if there is ever a trivia question about who was the first person that clogged up Raman and Christie's toilet and and flooded the tiles, please answer Wang Dizzle. That sexy man to your right with the infamous farmer's tan did that.






A few hours before Hurricane Irene is suppose to travel Manhattan. There was no hustle bustle that is the norm for such a crowded intersection. It was interesting to see New York in a different light, to be able to walk around when things are dead. Not many people can say that. As you can see from the photo of Raman, there is ample space to his left, his right, behind, and in front of him to take this photo without any issues of bumping into anyone else. As for the t-shirt, Raman had the brilliant idea to buy a "I LOVE NY" shirt and replace the heart symbol with a hurricane instead. We were selfless and decided to turn down the opportunity to mass produce these shirts and sell them at optimal intersections and venues with a 500% markup so that we can continue to work at our perspective jobs and have our life be fulfilling instead of retiring at the ripe age of 29. Also we didn't really fight the storm like Raman and I had originally planned...we ended up sleeping through everything and waking up at 11am. Hurricane survivors nonetheless.
The best bar in all of New York City....HIGHLAND PARK! (Tip: Don't go there during the night before a hurricane, for some reason they though it wasn't going to be busy so they had 1 cook, 1 waiter, and 1 hostess, and 2 bartenders for the whole place...but what they lack in very slow service they make up for in great people watching and music)



The morning of Hurricane Irene hits, and the three of us are figuring out what to eat. Our original choice was to eat at this one Dim Sum place that sits 200,000 people according to Christie, but we found out later that one was being used as an emergency evacuation center.

Actually the conversation for dim sum at the apartment went something like this:

Wang: I'm hungry
Raman or Christie: What do you guys want to eat
Wang: I don't know, how about dim sum?
Christie: Is Dim Sum even open? Almost every place is closed because of Hurricane Irene
Wang: Please! Chinese restaurants are always open, we even open on Christmas and Chinese New Years because we're greedy and want more money.

To summarize, that dim sum place was open, tasty, and packed, just not 200,000 people packed.

We did a lot of jumping photos, this is one of a few that turned out pretty well on my cellphone.



















Trying to find a pickup game at the famed "Cage", Irene-1 Wang -0




What was the biggest thing that I wanted to check out while in New York besides catching a Broadway show (Irene- 2, Wang-0)...it was to check out the famed facade of the Huxtable house from the Cosby show. Irene can't take this away from me.

Let me introduce you to New York's biggest sandwich. At first we though this would be a good idea to get and split between Raman and I. Live and learn right. Christie as usual, had the foresight to question what the hell we were thinking buying this, I cannot say I was drunk, so let's chalk this up to just pure stupidity and the curiousness of the words "New York's Biggest"

A view atop the Empire State Building on Monday morning, when everything was reopened after Hurricane Irene left. It might be said that the weekend I picked might not have been the best, that the things Christie and Raman wanted to show me, they couldn't due to unforeseen circumstances. The way I look at it, I got to witness New York in a rare form, the city that never sleeps, seemed almost dead and barren for 3 days. Just another reason to head back and witness the norm instead. Thanks again to Raman and Christie for everything.