PIWTPITT & The Hubs Take Manhattan

Well, it's been close to 7 years since the last time I visited NYC.  It's been 10 years since we lived here and we were pleased to see that the city still smells the same - a combo of B.O., car exhaust, subway steam, ethnic food carts and garbage.  Mmmmmm.  Delish.

The Hubs and I arrived at LaGuardia (after flying over my old apartment building - I really don't miss living in the LGA flight path AND a block away from an extremely active firehouse) and caught the Super Shuttle into the city.

There are a couple of different bus/shuttle services you can grab at the airport, but we opted for the SS since they're the only ones who drop you directly at your hotel and silly us thought that might be faster.

Our SS driver took FOREVER to get us out of the airport.  He picked us up, no problem and went to the next terminal to pick up more people. He hopped out and told us he'd be right back.  Fifteen minutes later he still hadn't appeared again.  That's when I got out my phone and tweeted Super Shuttle:

@supershuttle i am on the bus waiting. Let's roll. I am ready to hop on the nyc airporter.

Yeah, the NYC Airporter is the competition.  What do you know?  The driver was back in 3 minutes telling us that he was looking for the people who called in a reservation and to please be patient. 

I don't necessarily mean to use Twitter for evil, but come on, Super Shuttle.  We waited 15 minutes for the driver with no word and then we still didn't move for another 12 minutes after I tweeted you.  UN-acceptable.  I understand that people had a reservation (as did we), but if they can't have their asses on the curb waiting, they miss the bus.  It should not be the driver's responsibility to scour the airport looking for these losers.

On top of all our waiting, we were literally the last ones to get dropped off, which made no sense when you look at a map, but whatever.  I just took a scenic ride of Manhattan with the Hubs giving commentary to anyone who would listen.  "I worked in that building!" and  "Ooh, terrible food at that place." and "Cheap pizza!  99 cents a slice!  Do you think it's any good?"

I had a feeling we'd still have some snafus before we got to our hotel.  Sure enough, the people who held us up wanted to pay by credit card (as did we).  I told the Hubs, "Just watch, his credit card machine won't work and they'll have scramble for cash."  As I told him this, I dug in my wallet for cash.  "We are not waiting for him to get his shit together, when he drops us, we're paying in cash."

Sure enough, the driver swiped that couple's credit card easily 5 times.  Finally, they had to go into their hotel and change whatever foreign money they brought with them so that they could pay him.

I know what you're thinking, "Jen, why did you take this crappy Super Shuttle?  You should have taken the NYC Airporter with free on-board wifi."  I know, but the Airporter drops you at Grand Central Station and I'm glad we didn't catch that one, because I'm pretty sure I would have been hit in the head by falling facade debris when this shit for brains decided to try and take his semi truck on a road closed to semis and sent concrete chunks raining down on the sidewalk below.  I have that kind of luck.  Super Shuttle might have actually saved me from a massive brain injury.  Thank you, Super Shuttle??

Anyhoo, we missed the accident at Grand Central, but we did get to see this one outside of Rockefeller Center:

A bus will always win.

What do you think happens when a TLC car goes head to head with a bus?  Yeah, it loses.  Crunch.

This crash made me take a second look around and see where I was.  Outside 30 Rock, of course!  

I hung around for a while hoping Tina might happen by.  I'm guessing she saw me lurking around the door and went out the back.  Don't worry, Tina, tomorrow I'll be at Stage Deli all day.  Come have a sammie with me!

Tina, are you up there?

Waiting for Tina made me and the Hubs hungry so we decided to find some dinner.  We were really in the mood for our favorite pizza joint.

Sometimes the Hubs and I dream about this pizza.  Truly.

 And then we saw it.  

TGI Friday's - the place to woo your lady.

The site of our infamous first date.  TGI Friday's.  The Hubs was totally willing to split the bill with me again, but I forgot my overalls at home so it wouldn't be as classy this time.  

Instead we opted for pizza.  YUM! 

It's great to be back in NYC, but it's even nicer to be a visitor.

The Visitor Center had all kinds of business cards, I thought they might like some PIWTPITT ones too.  I put them in the NBC spot hoping that when Tina comes to replace them, she'll see my cards.