Miracle on 34th St

I woke just ahead of 430am once again feeling well rested and ready to begin another long work day. I brushed my teeth then whipped out sit-ups and push-ups. Afterwards I rewarded myself with some orange juice.

Meditation and stretching were next but again quite brief. Spent now more than ten minutes between the two, but that was plenty of time to focus my mind towards the positive and prepare my body for another run.

I was in the fitness center and on the treadmill a few minutes later. The treadmill I selected had no audio. I watched a NatGeo program about mummification of saints. Who knew? Lucky for me, there was text available thus allowing me to follow most of it with ease.

I ran 3.2 miles in a little more than 30 minutes. Felt good and finished strong. Time for a shower. I was back in the room, shaved, showered and dressed before 605am Wore the same pair of jeans, now for the 5^th day in a row. Maybe I’ll turn them inside out next week. J

Met Dave and Natalee in the lobby after grabbing a macchiato and a bowl of oatmeal from the café’.  We were on the subway a couple minutes later. Chatted through the entire ride downtown. Went super fast. Lighter crowd than every other day. A lot of folks must’ve have had Friday off.

Another sunny day with an expected high in the low 80s. Been sunny all week save for one wet afternoon. But even then it cleared up before we left for the hotel. Sadly, our only day off, Sunday, is forecasted to be a washout. I am hoping to do my run in Central Park that morning.

Arrived at the office by 650am. Joked around with others for the first 20-30 minutes. Finally got settled into some work. Breakfast was served just after 8am. Same as the day before. I’ve been eating way too many carbs on this trip. Ugh! Gonna have to curb that or I’ll get big as a house.

Just before lunch, I made arrangements to have my laundry done by a guy recommended by one of the managers in our center. Said he’d do it for $1.25 per pound. That sounded almost too good to be true contrasted to the hotel that charges on a per item basis– pair of underwear $4, pair of socks $4, etc.

Walked over to one of his shops just down the road from the Whole Foods. He said he left blue bags at the hotel for us earlier. Would be there Monday morning early to pick ‘em up and then have ‘em back by the end of the day.  Sweet!

Rowdy crowd outside. What’s new? Nothing! Lunch consisted of wraps, salad, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Good stuff.  During the afternoon, I worked as hard as I have all week, though ran into a few  problems with systems and tools.

As the day wound down the realization that I’d be repeating this over again on Saturday casted somewhat of a dark cloud over the fact that it was Friday. There certainly wouldn’t be any Barley’s, that’s for sure. Instead, I thought I might walk to Macy’s on 34th St to do a little shopping after work.

My peeps, Dave & Natalee, planned to remain in the financial district for dinner and drinks. I did the subway back to the hotel by my lonesome. No worries.  The subway train was slow due to reported back-ups ahead of us. Didn’t get back to the hotel until 735pm.

I was a bit more tired than I’ve been prior evenings, and also drained of my energy reserves. Once back in my room I remembered I was supposed to stop at the desk to pick-up the laundry bags. Shoot! Oh well, maybe later on my way out or way back. Mindy called around 750pm. I was veggin’ on the bed when she called. We talked for about 10 minutes. She and the kids spent the day with Tara water skiing at the lake.

I gave half a thought to simply remaining in the room and getting some extra rest, but once again, how many times am I gonna get the opportunity to visit/play in Manhattan? I got up and headed out destined for Macy’s. I walked down 42 St to Madison Ave then south to 34th. Very busy. Lots of shopping and restaurants. I found the brew pub Darwin texted me about, Homestead Brewpub. Think it was near the corenr of 34th and Madison Ave. I thought I might stop in on my way back to the room.

Entered Macy’s off 34th St. I thought I might pick-up a couple pairs of Dockers, new black t-shirts and a new polo shirt or two.After wandering around aimlessly for a few minutes, I asked an associate where I might find the Men’s dept. Said floor 3, 2, 1.5 & 1. Oh, OK! Floor 1.5? As expected, the higher the floor the fancier the designer name and also the prices. Where I wanted to go was floor #1.

Tried on a couple pair of Dockers and bought both – one coffee and the other black. Picked up a 4-pack of black t-shirts and a tan polo shirt. Spent about $100. I headed back towards home heading north on 6th Ave until I got to Bryant Park, a quaint park smack dab in the middle of everything. Hard to believe it’s in the middle of midtown Manhattan. Very nice – lots of mature trees shielding visitors from the noisy streets and then a sunken grassy area.

The park’s only a few blocks from my hotel. I stopped for the third time at Bravo pizza where I got two slices of sausage and pepperoni. I figured I’d pick-up a bottled soda back at the Hotel café just after picking up my laundry bag at the desk.

Back at the hotel I stopped at the Concierges desk to ask about the laundry bag. He definitely wasn’t as pleasant as Tina. He basically blew me off and told me I’d have to take that up with the front desk, which had a line about 30 deep with people checking in. I wasn’t too happy, but moved on.

There was a long line in the café’ too. I decided to wash my pizza down with the orange crush already back in the room. As usual, before enjoying my food I changed out of my work clothes and into my PJs. I walked to the ice machine down the hall in PJs. Two young teenaged boys passed me snickering at my attire.

The sausage and pepperoni pizza was really good. Enjoyed it much. Called Mindy around 940pm, or after 1 slice of my pizza. We talked for a while. Talked with both kids, too. Bella is still in a funk. She asked me to tell my bosses that I have a family at home that loves me very much and wants me to come home. Very cute! Promised her that I would tell them Saturday. Jacob sounded fine. Mindy asked if we could again talk just before I fall asleep. I shared that I expected to be in bed in ten minutes. We agreed to talk Saturday morning, instead.