Isn’t it amazing one can travel between two major cities like 300 miles apart for under 30 bucks? Plus, it’s only a four hour ride? What the heck?! I remember one time I was forced to take a Greyhound Bus from Penn State home to Erie and I think the bus ticket cost as much as a transcontinental flight! And time-wise — shit — you’d think that damn Greyhound circumnavigated the globe it took so long to wind our way home after stopping in every Podunk PA town in between the two cities. Not to mention that an Amish woman with two babies sat in front of me and stared at me the entire ride like those “RedRum” twins from The Shining.
However, the Chinatown bus couldn’t be more different! It’s quick and easy and honestly, seems to good to be true. Like in taking this mode of transportation you promise away your first born child or exchange your soul for the inexpensive fares.
Thanks to this service, my best friend Julie came down from New York to spend the day here before she heads back to LA. I picked her up and we spent the day doing what we always do: ordering massive amounts of food, talking about ways to incorporate flax seed into our diets, and gossiping about what everyone in the city of Erie, PA is doing. Yay for the bus!
The nice thing about working for 21 hours straight, and there really is only one nice thing, is that I get to take a comp day to make up for it. To fully take advantage of my three day weekend, I came up to New York to catch up with friends and spend money like I have it.
One of my best friends from my days in Tokyo, Sylvie, lives here with her husband and one year old baby. When we new each other in Tokyo, Sylvie worked a fabulous high-powered job at Chanel and I was busy seeing how many shots it took to do permanent damage to my small intestine. Sometimes, when she was done making sure Coco Chanel’s mantras lived on, she would join me and we would take over Tokyo’s fine nightlife establishments one toss of hair at a time.
Tokyo’s expat community is a funny place, and at that time, filled with American/Brit/Aussie bankers making a killing in the land of the rising sun. When they got away from their buy/sell/trade jobs, they would go to one of four places which sure enough, were where every expat girl was too. It was a wonderful world of living in a bubble and with Sylvie at my side, it was a blast for a couple years.
And now she’s just about the most glamorous mom in NYC. We had lunch at the Mercer hotel together, played with her baby this afternoon, and now I am recovering from my run across the Queensboro bridge before we head off to dinner. We may not be making eyes at I-bankers while taking vodka shots with the Australian rugby team anymore, but it’s just as fun. Because frankly, Sylvie could make a dinner of dirt and an afternoon in a trailer park elegant. Off I go!
Oh those fabulous days in Tokyo. Here we are at my 25th birthday party sweltering and happy.
And here with two other friends in Tokyo, Rie and Daphanie. This is taken at the Oak Door in Tokyo, where we basically lived. We once chatted with the Black Eyed Peas in the lobby and one of them told Sylvie she was really hot and she brushed him off and said we had somewhere to go. It was kind of awesome.
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