5/30/05
3:35pm
Day Six of Trip
The train was on time! The train was on time! Hallelujah, the train was on time! New York was incredible. Simply put, it was amazing. However, I do not think I have ever been happier to be headed back to Florida. I love Florida. I miss Florida. And while I love traveling to exciting cities and I enjoy my time there, nothing can compare to home. Home, home, home. Home is where the heart is, that’s true, but I think my heart is there because the rest of my stuff is as well. My heart figured it would just be the most convenient place to put up shop, I think.
Random thought: I really like graffiti. I like that the abandon buildings that line the train tracks are dressed up with letters resembling misspelled words in all the colors of the rainbow. It is a welcomed change from the red brick and broken glass that I have seen way too much of as we pass through Jersey.
Ok, so let me tell you all about Sunday and Today.
Sunday was pretty great. We led worship at a church in Manhattan called Harvest Fellowship. Worship went ok, but after God moved in such a powerful way in Brooklyn on Saturday, it all seemed a bit anti-climatic to me. After church was a fabulous meal at Carmine’s in Central Park West, followed by a visit to a Police Precinct and Fire Department as part of a prayer walk. Let me say this: I am amazed by people who work in rescue services. The Fire Department we went to (on the upper west side, the opposite end of Manhattan than the financial district where the World Trade Center went down) lost eleven men on Sept. 11, 2001. That is ridiculous. It blew my mind. I don’t why I had never thought about that before. Anyways, after that we got dressed and took the train to the village. Grenich Village is an interesting place. It gives you a great example of what society would look like if neo-hippies had millions of dollars, and wanted to start their own community. Don’t get me wrong. I liked it. It is just that I could never see living in a place where tattoo parlors and tobacco (weed) shops out numbered actual useful places (i.e. grocery stores, etc.). However, the Village has lots of cool record stores, and if I were ever to live in NYC, I would certainly live close by. The whole reason we went to the Village, though, was to see “Stomp.” Stomp did not disappoint in any way. It was incredible. I kept saying afterwards that the music was inside me and it had to find a way out. I was beating on everything I could, pretending, even if just for a moment, that I had rhythm. I don’t, so obviously it was a wash, but it was fun while it lasted.
Sunday evening ended very early, as we had to be up at 5:30am today so that we could sing on “Fox and Friends.” I am not a big fan of the Fox News network, or their “fair and balanced” approach to news that seems to lean almost always to the far right. However, we did get to be one of the featured guests on the show and that was quite the treat for all of the kids. Shortly after our paying our debt of service to Rupert Murdoch, we went to sing at the Intrepid, which is a floating Naval museum on the Hudson side of Manhattan. Considering that today was the finale of Fleet Week in NYC, it was an incredible privilege to be able to sing. Also, it was at the Intrepid that today’s three best things happened. First, at the Intrepid we were singing along with a split track, and the sound engineer had no idea of this. So, four measures into our first song, the pre-recorded voices of other singers came blaring through the sound system. It was pretty funny. We instantly all looked like Ashlee Simpson on SNL. Classic. Second, at the Intrepid almost every armed forces branch had a large table where they provided information and recruitment applications. The best of these was the Coast Guard table because it was there that you could find Lt. Cmdr. Michael Torres. Mr. Torres approached our group, introduced himself, and then (I swear to you) let everyone know that he would sign autographs, but only for a short while. I immediately thought of the scene in Anchorman where Ron Burgundy hits on the woman by telling her that he is “kind of a big deal.” Anyways, you had to be there, I guess, but it was great. Third, I found half of a book on Shakespeare lying on the ground and decided that, for fun, I would rip the pages out and give one to each kid with us and let them pick out there favorite line from each page. It was really cool how much fun some of the group had with this random task.
Well, it is now almost 5:00pm and we are in the train heading home. Like, I said before, it was a great trip, but I am ready to be home. Home where my heart and the rest of my stuff wait patiently for me. I will leave you all with the award for NYC quote of the week. The winner is the woman at the Oscar Meyer Weiner truck on Fox and Friends this morning. She said, in reference to our performance, “That was Weinerful.”
Much love and affection to you all,
(soon to be) Uncle Rob
3:35pm
Day Six of Trip
The train was on time! The train was on time! Hallelujah, the train was on time! New York was incredible. Simply put, it was amazing. However, I do not think I have ever been happier to be headed back to Florida. I love Florida. I miss Florida. And while I love traveling to exciting cities and I enjoy my time there, nothing can compare to home. Home, home, home. Home is where the heart is, that’s true, but I think my heart is there because the rest of my stuff is as well. My heart figured it would just be the most convenient place to put up shop, I think.
Random thought: I really like graffiti. I like that the abandon buildings that line the train tracks are dressed up with letters resembling misspelled words in all the colors of the rainbow. It is a welcomed change from the red brick and broken glass that I have seen way too much of as we pass through Jersey.
Ok, so let me tell you all about Sunday and Today.
Sunday was pretty great. We led worship at a church in Manhattan called Harvest Fellowship. Worship went ok, but after God moved in such a powerful way in Brooklyn on Saturday, it all seemed a bit anti-climatic to me. After church was a fabulous meal at Carmine’s in Central Park West, followed by a visit to a Police Precinct and Fire Department as part of a prayer walk. Let me say this: I am amazed by people who work in rescue services. The Fire Department we went to (on the upper west side, the opposite end of Manhattan than the financial district where the World Trade Center went down) lost eleven men on Sept. 11, 2001. That is ridiculous. It blew my mind. I don’t why I had never thought about that before. Anyways, after that we got dressed and took the train to the village. Grenich Village is an interesting place. It gives you a great example of what society would look like if neo-hippies had millions of dollars, and wanted to start their own community. Don’t get me wrong. I liked it. It is just that I could never see living in a place where tattoo parlors and tobacco (weed) shops out numbered actual useful places (i.e. grocery stores, etc.). However, the Village has lots of cool record stores, and if I were ever to live in NYC, I would certainly live close by. The whole reason we went to the Village, though, was to see “Stomp.” Stomp did not disappoint in any way. It was incredible. I kept saying afterwards that the music was inside me and it had to find a way out. I was beating on everything I could, pretending, even if just for a moment, that I had rhythm. I don’t, so obviously it was a wash, but it was fun while it lasted.
Sunday evening ended very early, as we had to be up at 5:30am today so that we could sing on “Fox and Friends.” I am not a big fan of the Fox News network, or their “fair and balanced” approach to news that seems to lean almost always to the far right. However, we did get to be one of the featured guests on the show and that was quite the treat for all of the kids. Shortly after our paying our debt of service to Rupert Murdoch, we went to sing at the Intrepid, which is a floating Naval museum on the Hudson side of Manhattan. Considering that today was the finale of Fleet Week in NYC, it was an incredible privilege to be able to sing. Also, it was at the Intrepid that today’s three best things happened. First, at the Intrepid we were singing along with a split track, and the sound engineer had no idea of this. So, four measures into our first song, the pre-recorded voices of other singers came blaring through the sound system. It was pretty funny. We instantly all looked like Ashlee Simpson on SNL. Classic. Second, at the Intrepid almost every armed forces branch had a large table where they provided information and recruitment applications. The best of these was the Coast Guard table because it was there that you could find Lt. Cmdr. Michael Torres. Mr. Torres approached our group, introduced himself, and then (I swear to you) let everyone know that he would sign autographs, but only for a short while. I immediately thought of the scene in Anchorman where Ron Burgundy hits on the woman by telling her that he is “kind of a big deal.” Anyways, you had to be there, I guess, but it was great. Third, I found half of a book on Shakespeare lying on the ground and decided that, for fun, I would rip the pages out and give one to each kid with us and let them pick out there favorite line from each page. It was really cool how much fun some of the group had with this random task.
Well, it is now almost 5:00pm and we are in the train heading home. Like, I said before, it was a great trip, but I am ready to be home. Home where my heart and the rest of my stuff wait patiently for me. I will leave you all with the award for NYC quote of the week. The winner is the woman at the Oscar Meyer Weiner truck on Fox and Friends this morning. She said, in reference to our performance, “That was Weinerful.”
Much love and affection to you all,
(soon to be) Uncle Rob
posted by Rob @ 4:52 PM
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