Vacation's Over - Quick Stories!

Wassup. I'm back home.

For about eight weeks.

A week ago, I got on a plane headed to Washington state. This evening, I got off a bus ride that started in New York City. In the span of a week, I've touched each coast of the continental United States, and let me tell you...that I wanted to be at home the entire time.

It was actually pretty good. I'm still salty that I've had to drop over $1200 into this trip, but it gave me experiences that I've never had before. Like driving through a hillside interstate with patches of snow lining the road. Like seeing Times Square at one in the morning. Eating chocolate cherries, drinking different wines, having awful burgers, and even finding awesome bums on city streets. In a short while, I'll be remembering this trip for everything I got to see and experience, and not for the gaping hole I have in my finances now.

Even though I was forced to pay a late fee because of all this. Eh, anyway... I come bearing a few short stories from my time reaching each side of the country!

During my trip to Washington state:
•I found a Russian phrasebook that I've since been using in my studies of the language.
•My brother had to endure a very chatty man sitting next to him on a five-hour flight. The man wouldn't take a hint, and my brother would later admit that he would have preferred to sit next to me instead.
•Following the graduation ceremony for my sister's class, we went to a local steakhouse for our meal. Between a party of fifteen guests, six bottles of wine, high-class steak, and a sizeable tip, the meal ran for close to a thousand dollars. Thank goodness my father budgeted for it.
•Then, following the dinner, my brother and I were led to a local marijuana shop, since it's legal in the state. Before you ask, yes, I tried my first hit of recreational weed. Honestly, though? I think I was too tired to feel anything more than a minor flushing of the skin. Either that or we got screwed on a thirty-dollar bag of weed hard candies.
•My friend posted about that same bag on her instagram. Her mother, who is a cop, called her ten minutes later.
•My brother and I got an extremely nice rental car: the 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee. What's better? It drove incredibly smooth the entire way, and a single tank of gas took us over four-hundred miles. What's best? The Jeep was brand-spakin' new. We were the first ones to take it off the rental lot. We returned it covered in bugs.
•The flight to Washington was pretty nice, thanks to attentive staff and a really funny steward on the plane. The flight back was considerably less nice, thanks to a somewhat more ignorant staff who chose to have us stand in line for half an hour without any announcement as to why.
•I got to catch both Canadian episodes from the hotel room, which was good because Jesus Horse that princess one was awesome. Stalker Twi' is my new favorite thing.

During my trip to New York City:
•You'd think that an introvert like me would shun the kind of city environment that Manhatten provides. And sometimes that was true, but the majority of my time in the pedestrian traffic was rather insightful. Especially sitting in Times Square after midnight. It was a humbling experience, being just another face in a crowd like that.
•Broadway was another great experience, and seeing Chicago on stage was phenomenal. I think I've always known such talent existed, but I never really knew it until yesterday. Wow!
•I finally got to visit the 9/11 Memorial. It's a place I've wanted to personally see since the attacks happened (I was eleven when it did). It was possibly the only spot during my whole trip that didn't have food and shop trucks clogging the curb space.
•New York pizza has two modes: great or just okay. It also has two prices: jeeze or okay, sure. I got to try both, and honestly the cheaper of the two was better. It had a better crowd too.
•The metro was fun in its own way. I felt my paranoia kick into high gear for every moment I was underground, but the only thing that happened was a turnstile not turning because our passes were one-time-use each.
•Between midtown, Central Park, and all the shops we browsed, my brother and I easily cleared 16,000 steps by the time we caught our bus back to Maryland.

Oh, by the way: all of these Sunnybuns are unrelated. I'm just on another Sunset Shimmy kick and you have to deal with it.

~Leo
Now all that's left is to get ready to go back to Texas. Ugh.........