I guess all the waiting is over.

© Joselito Briones

I had to book a hotel in Garden City last night, as I had to be there at 7am, and the earliest LIRR train that goes there before that time leaves Jamaica at 5am. It meant I'd have had to take the subway at 4am, which meant I'd have had to wake up 3am the latest. So no go.

It's a crappy hotel, "Wingate Inn" and the receptionist was rude. She was talking to me, telling me what I should know about staying in the hotel, but all the time looking at and working on her computer. I called her to it and she apologized, but she obviously didn't mean it. I checked in at about 3pm. I didn't feel like going out so I just ordered in and just waited until it was late enough to go to bed. Watched the finale of "Project Runway".

Today, I woke up before 6am, showered, had breakfast downstairs, went up again to get my things, then checked out after arranging for shuttle service to the train station. There was already a line formed outside the USNIS building when I got there. I waited for a bit, but the exam itself was very easy and went quite fast. There was a bit of chit chat which I'm not sure if part of the exam, but after that the examiner told me that I passed and that I'll have to attend the oath taking ceremony on Saturday. But first I had to wait for the appointment. I waited 3 hours.

I went back to the hotel to get the shuttle service. When I got to the train station I missed the train, so I had to wait for about an hour.

Tonight Eric and I went to Union Square, then the east village. While walking around we saw a film crew shooting a scene for the TV show "Rescue Me" with Denis Leary. He looked a lot shorter in real life. The scene had one guy being kicked out of a restaurant, then a lot of running, the same guy followed by a group, a lot of shouting, and all. There was a long pause between takes, and we didn't want to wait too much, so we left after two tries.

We had dinner at "Sapporo East" restaurant. Didn't have to wait long. Food was good. Enjoyed "uni" (sea urchin sushi) the most.

The photo on the left is a billboard in Times Square advertising Bill Paxton´s new show "Big Love", capitalizing on his allegedly enormous thingy (fingers).


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Chicas! Chicas?

© Joselito Briones

What drives a person to become a pimp?

Last time I was in this neighborhood, while walking along Roosevelt Avenue in the shadows of the overhead MTA rails, someone, invariably Latino, who seemed to just stand around doing nothing, suddenly shifts in his stand and says, partly to himself, partly to the air, and partly enough to a passer-by to know that he's being addressed, "Social! Social?"

It has since been explained to me by Eric that they're offering fake social security cards, presumably to illegal immigrants. Last time I was here, a big fake social security card gang was busted, their headquarter turned out to be a chinese restaurant along Roosevelt Avenue, 80's Street crossing.

This time around, for a split second, when the usual street stander-by flinched when I passed by, I thought, the bust was completely useless. They're back. Then a surprise. instead of offering social security cards, they now offer, "Chicas!, Chicas?"

In Manhattan, it's big business I guess. If you're desirable, there's plenty of people who has plenty enough money to give you want you want. I highly doubt if for the big city prostitue, it's a matter of survival. But here... I suspect it's a completely different dynamic. This is on the same street where, just a few blocks away, on a bridge, immigrants stand by offering themselves to day-to-day manual labor. A vehicle parks, the driver, say, needs someone to shovel the snow from his front yard, and engages one of the immigrants on the bridge. The chicas-offering pimps don't even cater to this drive-by customers, but to pedestrian passers-by. How much could the chicas possibly earn from this? How much could these pimps get from this?

Or maybe it is the same... It's all a matter of survival. Maybe it's just a different kind. For a moment I tried to picture a woman in a small dark room waiting for her pimp bringing in a customer. The image I had in my mind was just too ugly that I just walked along as fast as I could.


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Hello, gorgeous!

© Joselito Briones

I woke up late today. I decided I'll take it easy and not try to do a lot of things today. Raided Eric's fridge for some breakfast. Checked email. Walked to Rene's, a Filipino restaurant, for lunch. I had rice porridge with chicken and fried tofu side.

I thought it only natural that I should visit Times Square first, so I did. I took the 7 train and got off at Bryant park (pictured, above), where I often had my lunch when I worked nearby. Walked around there a bit. Gap still selling white shirts and blue jeans. Went to Duane Reade in Broadway to get toiletries that I didn't bring with me. I also went to Virgin Megastore. Right at the entrance, they were selling the very same t-shirts that I found at Liberty's of London for £40 and I bought from Barney's last year for $25 a pop - they're on sale for $11!!! I bought a few.

Later on Eric joined me in Virgin's. As I've bought everything I wanted to buy there, we decided to walk around. First stop was Sak's. There were a couple of jackets from D&G which were really really good. They're new items tho, so, full retail price. Big no-no. After scanning all the new arrivals at Sak's and checking if they have a sale on Incotex pants (they didn't), we went to Barney's. The only thing that appeared to me as a must-have was a white silk embroidered scarf by Dries Van Noten. Gorgeous.


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