[OceanFlower]

whew haven't seen so much snow since i was a kid! huge white mounds of snow everywhere and yesterday it rained all day now we have huge puddles that are now frozen! yahoo! however Monday was a sunny mild day went to the ocean and a few local beaches as well... when you don't see Mother Ocean for awhile you just can't get enough! yeah! needless to say nobody was surfing! have i been eating cannollis yes! eggplant rollatini? yes! real NY pizza? yes! italian cookies? yes! and for the first time ever had "hot" antipasto which was mostly seafood covered in red sauce yummy! it sounds like all i'm doing is eating but not really... drove past the house where i grew up and the little live xmas trees me and my dad planted in the early 60s are 50 feet tall now! the first blast of NY is getting off the Amtrak in Penn Station buying a ticket and running to Gate 16 for my train to Long Island... brought back great memories LOL! Love You All!! Shaka!

[OceanFlower]

okay I go into an old gin mill hangout of mine Gunther's in Northport where Kerouac used to drink beer and play pool and where i once got to drink beer with the great wordman himself-- i was all of 18 maybe and totally blown away that i was drinking beer with one my heroes! so i walk in after who knows how many years and Pete the owner is there on the customer side of the bar he's in good shape hair is white now I go up and introduce myself and i'm sure thousands of guys do this -- but when i say Hey Pete remember me? you 86'd me a few times here and he looks questioningly at me but when i say my name oh yeah that registers...  so i call a buddy of mine on the public phone (yes there is actually a public phone in this establishment!) and had to leave a msg went to the boys room and when i come out Pete is on the phone just hanging up the receiver and says, Oh Mike I thought you left! that guy called back but i told him you were gone! so i says, see I don't go into a bar for forty years i'm here ten minutes and I'm already getting phone calls! that got the bar flies and the bar maid to laughing! anyway my buddy comes down bellies up to the bar and asks me if i want a drink and i decline and tell him i've been sober now for 20 some odd years and typical Irishman, he says Yeah I quit drinking too! I say Really? He says, Yep only beer and wine now and a occasional joint! Only in New York right? Gotta love it! Peace and Stay Free!

[Sven2]

C'mon, Flower, what's next? Tell it as you can!
And thanks, - for the good read.

[cassie]

get a kick from this
University of Hawaii Marching Band forms giant stick football player; kicker

[cassie]

 :D

[OceanFlower]

All I can say is, it ain't "super" unles New York is in it (yawn) so who won some pig farming corn eating cheese heads? big whiff! but i do know this--pitchers and catchers report to spring training this month--thank the great goddess for baseball the only sport that makes any sense! David Wright 3d baseman for the Mets works harder in nine innings of play than all these prima donna football players do all season... Batter UP!   :P

plus the drama of Madoff and the Mets! only in New York baby!

[cassie]

 :D Exactly Osh, pig-headed, pig-eating, corn fed ---PACKERS

[Sven2]

Flower, you can profess your passion for ikebana arrangements or cow tipping, whatever pleases you! What is good - you're  back to the BB, where you've been missed. Now - tell us a story about Hell's Kitchen, baseball and surfing. Or something entirely different.

[OceanFlower]

Thanks ladies! well let's go back a few steps and let me tell you about the Amtrak train ride from North Carolina to NYC.. I really enjoyed it granted its like a 9 hour ride & you get to see the backside of America esp in winter it ain't pretty i assure you but the seats are comfortable you can get up & walk around go to the cafe where there are tables to sit at if you want to
play cards. I took a walk back there and what a contrast! there was a complete contingent of Amish people all dressed in their traditional uniforms and right at the next table there was a tough looking dude with face tattoos; but that was the only weirdness i encountered if it can be called even that... so basically i drifted off a few times had my ipod set to a playlist of Rolling Stones tunes i had downloaded in honor of reading Keith Richards auto bio "LIFE".  i borrowed it from a buddy at work & listening to him describe it i thought it was gonna be just one sex/drug orgy after the other--not so! altho there are scenes like that what most impressed me is Keef's love of the music! and how very hard he worked at being an accomplished musician--he makes it look easy up there with a cigarette dangling lazily from his lips but as he pointed out: its one thing to play a Muddy Waters song but its quite another to play a Muddy song with Muddy Waters! Lucky bastard! what's funny is Keef Mick and Brian thought maybe they could make the scene for maybe two three years as a rock and roll band--the joke was on them i guess in a good way! but back to the train: at Raleigh a single mom got on with her young daughter and they were pretty cool for the most part and had the seats in front of me but somewhere after DC mom started getting restless & i heard her talking on her cell that the little airplane bottles of booze were $6.50 a pop (true) and the food was also quite expensive and i heard her say, So I'm gonna get to New York half drunk and half hungry! when she hung up I offered my humble advice, Why don't you get full drunk and all hungry? that got her going! anyway about an hour out of Penn Station single mom had found another single mom and they were getting righteously ripped while the kids ran amok; the 2d mom cursed about something and looked at over at me and apologized, I laughed and said It's okay I speak French too! Oh that got them going alright! and the 1st mom looks over at me and says, Especially after midnight right? Oh boy! if i had been 20 no a 100 years younger this could've turned out to be a very interesting evening to say the least right?  anyway pulled into Penn Station at approx 715PM & ran to the Long Island RR ticket booth for my ticket out to Huntington-- Gate 16 so i start hustling & i see the NYers running well if they're running I'm running too & sure enough just made my train! and i was surprised how crowded the train was on a Saturday night. I found a vacant double seat plopped my suitcase on the window
seat and was trying to position myself with my shouder bag which weighed about a 1000 pounds & in so doing i touched the young black man's knee sitting across from me with my own knee as i sat down and he jumped about a foot off his seat! Oops! back in New York baby No touching! LOL! next insallment: hot antipasto; sleeping on an air bed!

[cassie]

 :D love your story.  I have a story about riding the Amtrak back home in the 80's.  yes, there was a young man........hahahaa  Oh and parents trying to get me back home, tooo.

[OceanFlower]

well cassie we'd love to hear it
i once took an outbound dog from Santa Barbara to the
NYC Port Authority in 1972 i think it was but that's another
story for another time yeah!

[cassie]

Your adventures sound better than mine...  :-*

[OceanFlower]

well we'll see about that!

when I got off the train at Huntington LI i realized i was actually early the terminal building was closed and lemme tell ya it was cold out there at almost nine o'clock at nite. finall I hear my name being called, its my buddy's wife calling me from the open window of their SUV. I was never so glad to get into a warm vehicle in my life. I had done a very stupid thing i rode the entire 9 hours on the amtrak and one hour on the LIRR w/o eating one thing. I'd forgotten the energy bars and bottled water i had lined up & i'll be damned if i'm spending $4 for a candy bar on the train! well maybe a Reese's peanut butter cups but they didn't even have those to offer. So my buddy says, Are you hungry? Oh yeah, I says. What do you want? he asks. Now in New York there is all kinds of food right? you name it, they got it, but my first choice is, PIZZA! so they take me to a place called the Intermezzo, nice family type restaurant and the place is bopping on a Saturday night but it must be getting near closing time cause the hostesses and the waitresses are kinda standing around without much to do. I'm looking at the menu & one of the hostesses asks if she can be of help, my buddy laughs and says pointing to me, He hasn't had good pizza in 3 years! and she looks at me like i just got out of jail, Why is that? she queries cautiously, Cause I've been living in North Carolina that's why and she laughs in recognition and says, Oh yeah they can't make pizza down there at all! So what do you want? I think for a moment, Plain cheese with garlic. You want fresh garlic on your pizza? Yep! Okay you got it! And, she says, I guarantee you this is the best pizza you're ever gonna eat! Promise? I say. Promise! she says. And you know she was right, I practically ate the whole pie myself before I realized I hadn't even offered any to my hosts back at the house.
Have you ever slept on an air bed? well i have!

[cassie]

 :D  Well yes I have, and a trampoline, rather hear your experience...

[Sven2]

Great scenes of NYC in your story, Flower, please, what's next?