Sunday - morning sex. laundry. firehouse. hallmark. target. publix. xmas movies. teryaki chix. alot more sex. suckered into watching Twilight.

Monday - L had off as usual. Had an interview at Minuteman Press which really well. Hopefully I get word back on the job ASAP. Fought with the poster machine the rest of the day. Packed our shit to be ready to travel tomorrow. Watched the new TRON movie. It was super badass, especially the Daft Punk soundtrack. Updated the journal for the last couple weeks.

Tuesday - Went in for a half day. Which really means i crammed a weeks worth of work into 4 hours which REALLY sucked. L cleaned up the house a bit and finished packing her stuff. I dumped everything on Mike and went to the bank. Got home and mom arrived. Little one went and got snacks while I finished up getting things ready. Started to rain while we picked up Garv. He actually tried to bring two cases of soda…wtf? Got to the train station and got our tickets. Tried on the suspenders that aaron bought me and we waited for the train which was running about an hour late. Finally left Jax about 530ish. LONGEST TRAIN RIDE EVAR! Played with our iDevices and listened to my mom sign horribly and loud. Ate our fried chicken and snacky snacks while driving through Savannah and the Carolinas. Kind of dozed off when we hit NC.

Wednesday - didn’t sleep worth a shit on the train. Hopped off the train when we hit DC to have a stretch and take some pictures. Watched Baltimore and Philly roll by, along with shitty Jersey. Got into Penn Station around noon and it was cold and raining. Took a cab to 52nd and 7th for check-in at The Manhattan. Dropped our shit and headed to the New Museum. Walked a bit through SoHo to get there and saw China Town & Little Italy. Arrived at the Carston Höller exhibit “EXPERIENCE” which was really busy. But we got in for free which was great. Saw animal sculptures and an immersive fish tank viewing experience, did some science experiment type interactive shiz, walked through hallways that moved, and saw crazy miniatures. Didn’t go in the deprivation tank since it would have taken a few hours, but we did come across a massive pile of pills. They didn’t have a description and we were instructed to take one. (nothing happened, but little one DID take one which was pretty rad). Rode on a swing set carousel made of mirrors and stared at the 2 hour long line for the slide. In other words, we didn’t ride. Got done walking through and went next door to see a performance piece by a drag queen which was a little rag-tag but seemed like there was more to it. Walked to the Meatball Shop on Allen off E Houston. Food was an amazing opener to the rest of the nomnoms we were gunna eat all weekend. Went back to the room and then hit up Time Square, Radio City Music Hall, and went to check out ice skating at Rockefeller. Unfortunately there was a Justin Beiber concert going on which was annoying. Also walked to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which looks alot better on the outside than it does on the inside. Dodged the crowds and went to Victoria’s place for a chat. Kinda meh, but whatever, got free whiskey out of the deal. Left there to eat at Cafe Tasia for dinner. Once again, the food was awesome and the place looked like a chic, asian version of the Great Hall. Left for failed attempts at getting into some great bars (Death & Co as well as The Hotdog Stand?) so we went back to the hotel and retired.

Thursday - I was strangely the first one awake, but mom woke the room up with horrible pop music. Got prepped for the parade and staked out our spot. Grabbed some quick breakfast and bought little one a street pretzel. WATCHED THE WHOLE MACYS THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE LIVE! It was really awesome. Saw Cee-Lo Green and Mary J Blige. Capped it off with seeing Santa and then we watched some of the replay on TV upstairs. Got on the Metro towards GOOD Restaurant for our Thanksgiving feast. We had fancy chips, squash soup, salads, grape sorbet, they all ate turkey and i ordered pork. The meal was fucking dank, but desert was a whole other thing. Three of us ordered the Salted Caramel Apple Sundae, which consisted of gingerbread cake with butterscotch pudding…the meal was about $100 for each of us but the experience was worth it. Hopped back on the subway and went to Central Park. We really just walked around and talked about how all the joggers were prime murder victims. Got some excellent photos of us and the fam. There are giant squirrels in that park. After that we saw the Bergdorf windows and went to explore FAO Schwartz. Kinda underwhelming so we sat and people watched while mom went into the Apple store. It looks completely fucking crazy, plus it was packed. Went back to the hotel room to drink a bit an warm up. Mom took a nap and Garv went to meet up with Vic again, so we went on a walking tour of the City. Took the subway to Macy’s and saw the windows there. I liked the Bergdorf windows better. Walked around the Empire State building and I almost wet myself. Seriously though, its called a public bathroom. Set off towards the Chrysler building, stumbled upon Bryant park and its ice rink, walked through Grand Central and headed uptown again. Went to meet Garv at Vic’s and watched Elf which was a total bummer. Left and went to Greenwich Village to look for a bar but ended up just getting pizza instead. Pretty much the end to that looooong but glorious day.

Friday - Mom woke up early and went and got herself Birthday breakfast while we slept. When we got up and ready the in-laws called and sang mom happy birthday. Got on the subway and headed towards the Guggenheim. While walking we came across a Sprinkles so we got cupcakes! They were the best damn cupcakes I’ve ever eaten and mom got to blow a candle out. Got to the museum and oodled the Maurizio Cattelan exhibition for a couple hours. It’s really an amazing show and it was hung in such an engaging way. Saw some Kandinski, Monet, and Manet along with great pop art and minimalism. Got back on the subway and shot down to Chelsea. Walked and went sight-seeing which led us to one of the coolest antique stores I’ve ever seen. Walked all down 23rd street and scoped the architecture before hitting the galleries. Had spme beers at a little boutique pizza joint that had awesome garlic aioli. Stopped at the Gagosian Gallery first to see the Serra show. Mind=blown. Jumped in and out of 3 more smaller galleries which were good and bad. Stopped at a diner to eat a quick lunch and sat at a really shitty bar to watch the end of the first half of the Arkansas vs LSU game. Boogied back to the hotel to finish watching the game and we all took a disco nap. L and I woke up and headed to MoMA. It was, once again, free; but because it was a sponsored night and there were a few thousand people there. Saw the DeKooning retrospective, “Starry Night”, and every other famous artist I ever care to discuss. Did not like the deconstructionism/minimalism pieces but the rest of the collection was interstellar. Stopped back at the room to pick up Garv and see mom off to her latin dinner. We proceeded to drink and meander down 6th st and through Time Square. Made it to Bryant Park and got to ice skating. It was hilarious trying to get little one to skate but we had tons of fun. I even fell and got my wrist sliced open but some fat guy and I still had a blast. Got on the move to Brooklyn to meet Bobby, an ex-Jax artist, for drinks and discussion. Having drinks at the quiet bars off 2nd really make me want to pack up and leave and start calling myself a New Yorker. Needless to say, the goons got pissed and started to harm each other whilst looking for the subway. Ended up taking a cab back and passed out.

Saturday - Got up and readied ourselves for the long travels ahead. After checkout we rolled down 6th until we decided to walk. Stopped at another Starfucks. Mom made it down to 153 out of 171 in Manhattan. We didn’t stop at all of them, but made not whenever we passed one by. Hopped a cab to Macy’s so L could get a Christmas ornament and a bag for mom. Searched around for food and ended up at a REALLY shitty Ted’s since the place we wanted across the street was slammed. Horrible service and shitty fucking food; total shame since NYC has so much to offer on the gastro front. Subway’d our way back to the hotel and called a car to drive us to Penn Station where Aaron suffered through his hang over and we waited for the train to arrive. Boarded and got settled. Tried to get food in the dining car but they were charging $18 for frozen lasagna (and that was the cheap stuff) so we said fuck it and got snacks and shit from the snack car. Ended up having the most epic discussion with Mom about her life, and Larry, and Dad, and my brother, and everything else a parent worries about. Read through GQ and about Ai Weiwei. Ended up trying to sleep in the most uncomfortable fashion ever. Little one passed right out though. Final night of the vacation spent in a cramped Amtrak seat and my busted family on my mind.