Kathy Fucking Jacobs

New-York-a-go-go! Day One

March 26, 2011 at 8:07 pm (blather, eat, hang out, laugh, squee, travel)

Short version: we drove up, stopped in Richmond for lunch with a friend, Delaware for dinner with Greg’s dad and stepmom, and then rolled up in New York, and went to sleep. Also, it rained solidly from the moment we left Durham until we pulled up at Danny and Michel’s. Which for the most part, I enjoyed. (The hairier, more torrential downpours while we were on the highway, I could have done with a bit less, but, you know.) Longer version: below the cut.

We did most of our packing Wednesday night – just left stuff like toothbrushes and deodorant til Thursday. (You know, because we might need to use them before we left.) We rolled out around 9:45am, filled up the tank, check the air in the tires, and headed north.

It was a long-ish drive – long, but broken up somewhat. Apparently, I didn’t start taking pictures until New York. Partly because I drove up to Virginia, and so couldn’t take pictures. After that, I don’t know what I was thinking. Although it probably had something to do with the fact that I am pretty anxious in cars, especially on long drives, so I was doped up from Virginia to New York, which made for a more enjoyable ride for both myself and Greg. Propanolol is a beta-blocker, but in smaller doses, it’s used off-label to suppress the physical symptoms of anxiety, particularly the heart-pounding. If I’m just mentally anxious, I’m getting better at calming myself down. But once the physical symptoms kick in and I’m aware of them, it’s much, much more likely that I’ll have a full-blown panic attack. So I was on propanolol, which helped, but my mental anxiety was still a bit overwhelming, so I was also on clonazepam.

I drove up to Virginia, because I didn’t want Greg to have to make the drive all by himself, even though he was more than happy to. I also wanted a chance to drive, and see if I could handle it. I don’t want to get so skittish about driving/being in cars that I develop a real phobia about it, so it was more to prove to myself that I could do it. And I did, and it was fine.

We stopped in Richmond to have lunch with our friend, Kate, who is a ROCKSTAR BADASS!! She went to social work school – which I briefly considered, but then decided against as 1-I would *never* be able to “turn off” at the end of my work day and would fret/ruminate about work shit 24/7, and 2-the burnout rate is pretty high. Kate, who is brilliant, has a job where she’s actually supported, the nonprofit is funded, and they’re doing really, really great work to help people that need it. I’m so happy for her and proud of her (but not really surprised, because she’s always been awesome). She gave me her business card and everything, but I don’t know if she wants to be put on blast on the interwebs (I mean, more than I already have), so we’ll leave it at that.

We met her at Gibson’s Grill, which was SCRUMPTIOUS! While we were on vacation, I decided I’d try to stick to the whole low-glycemic thing as much as possible, but not get too bent out of shape if it was difficult to keep up away from home. (Although we packed a motherfucking TON of snacks for the drive up and back, and they came in very handy. In fact, we packed so much snacks, I had plenty to carry around with me while we went out and about in NYC, so whenever I needed to eat, I could without even having to search out a bodega or anything.) At Gibson’s, I went with decaf coffee and water, and the portabella burger made as a wrap instead of a burger. It was…the food of the gods, let me tell you. We also got an order of their home friend potato chips dusted with shaved parmesan and with some sort of dipping sauce (ranch?) – I had some, but tried to be reasonable about it. It was so fantastic to get to catch up with Kate, but we had to press on or risk rolling into New York *super* late (which would have freaked me out more), so we hugged our goodbyes and high-tailed it back on the road.

I’d had enough of driving – Richmond traffic messed with my head a bit – so it was propanolol-and-klonopin time for me, and Greg graciously took over driving. The next leg of the journey was up to Delaware – Harrisville, if I’m not mistaken – to visit his father, Karl, and stepmother, Wendi, whose marriage we attended last year in Pennsylvania. I was pretty out of it for most of that part of the drive: I pulled a pillow, blanket, and my teddy bear (and what, bitches, yes, a teddy bear) up in the front seat with me, and zonked the fuck out. The rain had slowed down quite a bit by the time we got to Delaware – but Karl told us New Jersey had declared a state of emergency *that morning* based on the heavy rains and flooding they were expecting. That was a bit scary, to be honest, but if it came to it, Greg’s plan was to pull over somewhere safe (and hopefully higher-grounded), and wait it out, and that was dandy with me. As it turned out, it did rain between Delaware and New York, but nowhere near as badly as expected. I think the worst part of the storm hit about an hour after we got to Danny and Michel’s. Anyway! I digress. Wendi went all out, and made us some of the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever had. (Note to self – still need to get that recipe.) I was kind of “bad” about the low-GI thing, and had the chili with white rice and two pieces of sourdough – but we hadn’t mentioned the new dietary regime chez nous to Karl and Wendi, and I felt like it’d be rude not to eat the dinner they’d gone to the trouble of making for us. Okay, alright, ALSO – it was fucking delicious and my willpower was whistling innocently in a corner. Wendi also made the most incredible cake I’ve ever had: four layers of chocolate cake, each topped with melted peanut butter, iced with cream cheese icing, and then with mini Reese’s cups stuck in the icing. TO. DIE. FOR. I had one slice, and so did Greg. We took two more slices with us – but then made New York peeps help us eat it, so it wasn’t that bad, low-GI-digression-wise for me. Or at least, that’s my rationalization and I’m sticking to it.

We also got to hang out with Karl and Wendi for a bit, and catch up, and that was great, too. AND we got to play with their adorable dogs, Precious and Pogo. Pogo is a fucking pistol – got her name because she really does jump high in the air over and over. Too adorable! And I was already missing the cats (I know, right, after only like eight hours), so I really enjoyed a bit of puppy time.

Then it was time to get a move on to New York, finish the last leg of the trip. We went over the Verrazano bridge, which has been a HUGELY terrifying problem for me the last couple times we’ve been to New York – but this time, not so much. On the way up, Greg drove, and I took pictures of the bridge, which I think may have distracted me. On the way home, I actually drove over the bridge, and the top level, too, by accident (I meant to get on the lower level to play it safe) – and wasn’t really all that distressed. And since I was driving, of course I was 100% sober (no propanolol, no klonopin), so it was genuinely 100% me not being anxious. Go me. Anyway, we made it to Danny and Michel’s apartment around…I want to say 11:30? Maybe closer to midnight? Found a parking space, and ran our gear in in a good rain. Michel was already asleep, but Danny had kindly waited up for us. We got in our jimjams, and hit the hay, and it was wonderful. Here endeth Day One.

Pictures I took, Day One, while being a passenger in the car (and also while trying to figure out more of our camera’s settings, so maybe some crap pics, but shuddup). There was also an AMAZING sunset, that I couldn’t quite capture – but that didn’t stop me from trying. So…think of the blurry ones at more…atmospheric. Yeah, that’s it.

Here is the flickr slideshow for Day One/Drive Up, if you’re so included.

Here are the mini, mini thumbnails (or should that be “many mini”, bwhahah). A TON of photos, since there wasn’t much more to do on the ride up besides takes pictures. (I didn’t take any knitting or crocheting because I figured the klonopin would make me fuck up what I was doing, and when I read in cars I get super carsick, so…):